BBC
Mailing Lists

We provide two e-mail lists as well as a quarterly hard-copy newsletter, for our members and for the cycling community. Everyone is encouraged to sign up for the e-mail lists, whether or not you are a member of BBC.

BBC Announcement List. Meeting announcements and BBC alerts. Moderated list.

BBC Discussion List. Open discussion on all bike-related topics.

BBC Newsletter  See Membership page to request sample copies.

 

[an error occurred while processing this directive]



 

The Dangers of Sidepath Cycling

by Krista Holland

Sometimes I think as I ride towards a busy street, "I don't want to take the risk of cycling on the street today.  I'll just play it safe and take the sidewalk and get away from these cars."  But as you know, looks can be deceiving.

There are many studies showing that riding on sidewalks and multi-use paths paralleling streets is more dangerous than riding in the street, even on busy streets without bike lanes.  This is  attributed to dangers in crossing roads and driveways.  Car's can't see or often don't expect fast-moving traffic on sidepaths.  (I'm using the term "sidepath" to mean a sidewalk or multi-use path paralleling a road).

The studies I found differ, not on weather sidepath riding is more dangerous than on street riding, but only how much more dangerous it is:the measured ratios ranged from 1.2 to 24 (yes really!).  The results are summarized in the table below.  So far I haven't found a study that says sidepaths are safer.

If you choose to ride on a multi-use sidepath paralleling  a road, remember that the law in the City of Boulder says that you must slow to walking speed (about 3 miles per hour) before entering the crosswalk in order to have the right of way.  This applies even if you have the green light at the intersection.

I conclude that, believe it or not, it's probably safer (and faster) to bicycle on Broadway than to ride on the Broadway multi-use path.

How much more dangerous is side path riding than on-street riding?
Study Location
Author
Date
Title
24
US
William Moritz
1998
Adult bicyclists in the US
5.3
North America
William Moritz
1997
A survey of North American bicycle commuters
1.2 to 1.8
Helsinki, Finland
Eero Passanen
 
The Risk of Cycling
1.8
Palo Alto, California
Alan Wachtel and Diana Lewiston
1994
Risk factors for bicycle-motor vehicle collisions at intersections
6 to 8
Toronto, Canada
Lisa Aultman-Hail and Michael Adams
 
Sidewalk bicycle safety issues

 

Table information from
http://bikexprt.com/bikepol/facil/sidepath/sidecrash.htm

 

Text Size

 

 

BBC
Monthly Meeting

The next meeting of Boulder Bicycle Commuters will be on Monday, October 2nd from 7 to 9pm at the Boulder Food Co-op located at 19th and Pearl.

 

About BBC

BBC is a non-profit community group based in Boulder, Colorado. We advocate for safe and convenient bicycle facilities and fair laws for bicyclists. We work on both on-street and off-street bike facilities. We also advocate for pedestrian interests and control of the over-use and abuse of motor vehicles. Read our bylaws.

We have about 89 members as of April 2003. We are most active at the local city level. We occasionally work on county and state-wide issues. We started in 1991 under the name Bolder Bicycle Commuters. In 2002 we changed to the current name.