Vancouver areas with high bikeability, walkability scores pose higher crash risks: study
Posted August 27, 2020 9:59 pm.
Last Updated August 27, 2020 10:01 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — Vancouver areas with high bikeability and walkability scores present higher crash risks to cyclists and pedestrians, according to new research from UBC.
Researchers used five years of crash data from ICBC to identify high crash-risk zones in the city.
“Areas of the city found to pose the highest collision risk to cyclists included zones in the downtown core and in Strathcona and Mount Pleasant, which are rated highly on the Bike Score index,” according to a release from UBC.
“Hot spots for pedestrian-involved collisions were found in zones within the downtown core, Fairview, Mount Pleasant, Strathcona and Grandview-Woodland, which have high walk scores.”
Principal researcher Tarek Sayed says areas scored as friendly to walkers and bikers have higher density, and a higher concentration of popular destinations.
“We were worried that there’s an implicit assumption by the public that if you have a high bike and walk score it means it’s safer for walking and biking, which is not that case. We were surprised to see it’s an inverse relationship,” he says.
“Downtown in general is less safe for walking and biking with all the intersections, vehicles, Fairview is problematic. These are areas we need to work more on.”
In an email to CityNews, Vancouver Hub Cycling said the results make sense.
“A concentration of destinations can increase an area’s bikeability score, but can also be associated with more turning movements by vehicle drivers for example. The best routes for cycling safety have low vehicle volumes, or if there are high vehicle volumes, they have physical separation and protected intersections for people cycling.”
Researchers are proposing a new bike safety index, to reflect both biking appeal and safety.
Sayed said he hopes to see this index widely adopted by cities around the globe.
“By providing the public with an objective measure of safety, my hope is that cyclists and pedestrians will be better equipped to navigate their cities safely, and with an accurate understanding of where they are at greater risk of injuries from car collisions.”
