Last month’s bike accident reports confirm what everyone already knows . . .
Lauren got last month’s police reports of every bike accident reported by the Tucson Police Department. We haven’t tallied everything up yet, but a quick review shows lots of accidents from people riding the wrong way down the street and riding on sidewalks.
There is one report of an accident that might have occurred because the rider went through a stop sign–but the cyclist says he didn’t do it and the geometry of the collision suggests he’s right.
There were three hit-from-behind accidents, which in my view are the most dangerous of all. Luckily none of those people were killed (one lost a tooth, though).
Given the makeup of these accidents, it’s hard to understand why the Tucson Police Department continues to focus 100 percent of its enforcement of bicycle laws on nailing cyclists who roll through four-way stop signs near the University. Why not target the people who are most likely to be hit? And why not ticket (or at least warn) people when they pass too close to a cyclist?
The answer: it’s awfully easy to sit on your motorcycle at 4th and University and pull over the college kids for a few hours, and then report back to the Tucson Bike Advisory Committee that you spent x hours on enforcement.
We hope to start putting these reports on line soon.
–Erik Ryberg
July 9th, 2008 at 11:41 pm
The police department hardly even reports back to the TBAC about those hours of enforcement.
I sat in at three consecutive TBAC meetings:
April: Law enforcement was solely represented by a Pima County sheriff’s deputy who brought a lot of information and experience to the meeting.
May: We had a woefully unprepared TPD liason officer who brought a statistic to the meeting and little else.
His statistic was that bicycle accidents were up 10% over last year (along with a specific number), and last year was up 10% over the previous year. He had no information about the extent ridership was up as well, or even how those percentages correlated with Tucson’s population growth.
Also, this was the meeting the week after the police were issuing citations to riders at the Tuesday Night Bike ride, and the officer knew nothing about the incident or any of the citations.
June: Neither the sheriff deputy nor the unprepared police officer showed. And there was a discussion in the committee asking why the police don’t enforce the 3ft passing law where the experience and opinions of any sort of law enforcement officer would have been extremely valuable.
July 10th, 2008 at 8:48 am
While being hit from behind is clearly one of the most dangerous types of accidents, I routinely see people riding on the sidewalk or riding down the wrong direction of the street, both of which I believe to be extremely dangerous. While, I don’t think it’s fair to blame a cyclist for being hit by an inattentive driver, I am curious how much risk can be reduced by riding on the proper side of the road off of the sidewalkon the proper side of the road off of the sidewalk.
If there’s only one report of an accident resulting from a cyclist running a stop sign, maybe they should focus their attention to other infractions that can actually make a difference. I’d much rather they hassle people about having a rear light than for running a stop sign at an empty intersection. Ok, I’d rather they not hassle us at all, but the point is that I’d rather it be for a legitimate reason than a false one.
July 10th, 2008 at 9:45 am
Erik – you’re right on in pushing for enforcement of high risk actions. The big three are riding the wrong way on the street, riding on the sidewalk, and riding at night without lights. Good luck in your efforts. Let us know if there’s something productive we can do to help.
Steve
July 10th, 2008 at 10:08 am
Almost 30 years ago, I took the League of American Wheelmen’s Effective Cycling course.
I can remember the instructor saying that most bike accidents were caused by people falling off of bicycles. And you don’t need to be anywhere near a car for that to happen.
As for car-bike accidents, the vast majority of them resulted from the cyclist operating in a non-standard manner. Such as riding the wrong way or on a sidewalk.
Seems like the more things change, the more they remain the same.
July 13th, 2008 at 4:31 am
Collin:
Might be awhile before you see an official TPD presence at BAC meetings. Overtime is no longer allowed in the department, according to Sgt. Tim Beam. That’s what he said less than three months ago, anyway.