While Red Deer’s population grew — from 79,000 persons in 2005 to almost 92,000 citizens last year, reportable bicyclist injuries resulting from city traffic collisions decreased — from 27 in 2005 to perhaps as few as 14 in 2011.
Thanks are due in part to better safety gear and training and traffic law enforcement — but thanks go mostly to the efforts of all road users to reduce the frequency and severity of their collisions.
Here are some further results from the collision reports of last year:
l About 90 per cent of those bicyclist injuries occurred in intersection collisions
l About half of those bicyclist intersection collisions resulted when the bicyclist rode into the intersection crosswalk from a sidewalk
l About half of those bicyclist intersection collisions resulted when a bicyclist, having the right-of-way, rode through the intersection in a traffic lane.
Characteristics of these intersection collisions included a vehicle turning left or right and the bicyclist travelling straight ahead.
Red Deer recently installed commuter bike lanes that, in many cases, run parallel to sidewalks that bicyclists have used for several years. Some bicyclists will no doubt use the new lanes. For both familiarity and safety reasons, some may prefer to continue using the nearby sidewalks.
New and more complex combinations of road and sidewalk user actions have arisen.
One example occurs during a weekday morning and involves people travelling the same direction in adjacent vehicle and bike lanes while youngsters walking or biking on the nearby sidewalk are proceeding in the same or opposite direction to school. If the vehicle operator intends to turn right at an upcoming intersection, he or she must signal the intention to turn while checking for bike lane users coming up from the rear as well as sidewalk bicyclists and pedestrians approaching from either direction.
The newness of bike lanes may result in a driver paying so much attention to possible conflicts with bike lane occupants prior to turning right that he or she overlooks the need to ensure that sidewalk users will not be in the intersection crosswalk at the same time as his or her vehicle.
Vehicle drivers should expect that bicyclists and pedestrians will continue entering crosswalks from sidewalks at the current rate but that the number of bicyclists entering intersections from traffic or bike lanes will increase. Avoiding collisions with bicyclists — and with pedestrians, vehicles and all the other road users — will require that vehicle drivers pay more attention to what is happening around and ahead. Drive and ride safer — always.
Doug Taylor
Red Deer