• Freedom from injury caused by
  
  • Falls
    
    • bicyclist errors
      
    • defective road surfaces
      
    • foreign objects
      
  • Collisions with
    
    • stationary objects
      
      • parked vehicles
        
    • moving objects
      
      • animals
        
      • pedestrians
        
      • vehicles
        
• Approaches to improving Safety
  
  • Mitigation
    
    • Helmet, Gloves, clothing
      
  • Prevention / Avoidance
    
    • High quality facilities
      
    • Better user behavior
      
      • Experienced cyclists have much better accident rate
        

What is a Bicycle?

• Definitions
  
  • Dictionary
    
    • “A vehicle consisting of ...”
      
  • N.C. Statues, Motor Vehicles chapter
    
    • ... bicycles shall be deemed vehicles and ... shall be subject to the provisions of this Chapter
      
• What is a Bicycle not?
  
  • A Pedestrian Enhancement Device
    
  • Just a toy
    
• What is a Bicyclist?
  
  • A Human Powered Vehicle driver
    
• What is a Bicyclist not?
  
  • A Pedestrian-on-wheels
    

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Accidents

• Cyclists cause most reported accidents
  
• The majority of bike accidents are falls
  
  • Surface defects are a large factor
    
    • The highest injury rate per mile is on unpaved surfaces
      
• Car-bike & bike-bike collisions each account for about ~1/6 of accidents
  
  • Vast majority of car-bike collisions occur at intersections
    
    • where a car or bike driver violates the right-of-way of crossing traffic
      
  • Bicycle hit from behind by car
    
    • can be very serious
      
    • are rare (8.6%), particularly in urban areas during daylight (7%)
      
• Cyclists can learn to avoid ~80% of the accidents that affect most adult cyclists
  
  • For example, wrong-way cycling on sidewalks increases accident risk by 430%

    ---

Traffic Engineering (TE)

• Three fundamental TE principles
  
  • Uniformity
    
    • Help users to act in a similar manner in similar situations
      
  • Simplicity
    
    • Simpler traffic flows are safer
      
  • Cooperation
    
    • The safest way to share the road
      
• Segregation by vehicle type
  
  • creates exceptions
    
  • increases complexity
    
  • prejudges drivers of certain types of vehicles as uncooperative
    
• Type discrimination is often present in
  
  • Traffic rules
    
    • Violations of TE principles
      
  • Segregated Facilities
    
    • Have higher accident rates
      
  • Devices
    
    • Traffic signals that ignore bikes

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Overview: The Rules of the Road

• Provide for reasonably safe and efficient travel for two classes of highway users
  
  • Pedestrians
    
  • Drivers of vehicles
    
• The rules take into account
  
  • user limitations
    
    • people can’t look back easily
      
  • fundamental operational difference
    
    • pedestrians can almost instantly
      
      • stop
        
      • reverse
        
      • move sideways
        
• Each class has a unique set of rules
  
  • fundamental operational differences
    
• The vehicle rules do not discriminate by
  
  • type of power
    
  • size
    
  • weight
    
  • speed
    

    ---

Overview: Rules, cont.

• Transportation system safety is based on mutual cooperation among users
  
  • Cooperation is easier when all drivers use the Vehicle Rules (VRs)
    
• Use the VRs to share the road while
  
  • minimizing the right-angle collision hazards experienced by pedestrians
    
  • maximizing the efficiency of vehicular travel
    
• While open vehicles (such as bicycles) offer less collision mitigation than enclosed vehicles,
  
  • the odds of avoiding a collision are not improved by operating by rules designed for a different class of user
    
• Once a driver has decided to operate where other vehicles can also travel, the safest technique is to
  
  • "merge with the herd" and
    
  • operate according to the Rules

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The Rules of the Road for Drivers

• First come, first served
  
  • Each driver has a "safety zone"
    
    • Longer in front than sides & rear
      
  • Yield to others’ safety zones
    
    
• Drive on the right-half of the roadway
  
  • except for passes or left turns
    
    
• Yield to traffic that has right of way
  
  • When moving sideways
    
  • When crossing higher capacity road
    
  • When turning left, to opposite way traffic turning right or straight
    
    
• Turn positioning
  
  • Before turning right, merge right
    
  • Before turning left, merge to the left side of your half of the roadway
    

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Rules of the Road, cont.

• Intersection positioning
  
  • In a multiple-destination lane
    
    • Position according to destination
      
      • Near right to go right
        
      • Near left to go left
        
      • Near center to go straight
        
  • Multiple lanes to your destination
    
    • Select the one furthest to the right that serves your destination
      
      
• Speed positioning
  
  • While proceeding at less than the legal maximum speed limit
    
    • When there are two or more clearly marked traffic lanes
      
      • Drive in the right-hand lane then available for thru-traffic
        
    • Otherwise
      
      • as close as practicable to the right side of the roadway