Sarasota County and City have very high bicycle/pedestrian accident rates
Submitted by Anonymous on December 17, 2008 - 3:39pm.
Bicycle/Pedestrian Advocates
4114 Bay Shore Road Sarasota, FL 34234 941-359-1097
Contact: Mike Lasché, Executive Director, BPA, 941-544-7788, mikel.modem@verizon.net
SARASOTA COUNTY AND CITY HAVE VERY HIGH BICYCLE/PEDESTRIAN ACCIDENT RATES: ACCIDENT ANALYSIS IS NEEDED BUT NOT LIKELY
The Highway Safety Matrix, published by FDOT, shows that Sarasota County and City have particularly high rates of bicycle and/or pedestrian fatalities and injuries (F&I), relative to other types of crashes and to other communities. The latest Matrix uses data from Florida counties and cities, collected over the 5 years from 2002-2006, to provide reliable rankings in ten different types of traffic crashes. The county Matrix (attached) shows that Sarasota County, among 23 Florida counties with population of 200,000+, ranks 20th in total F&I, from 10th to 23rd in other crash types, but 4th in bicycle F&I and 18th in pedestrian F&I. The City of Sarasota, in the Matrix of 95 Florida cities with population from 15,000-75,000 (attached), ranks 27th in total F&I, from 20th to 48th in other crash types, but 5th in bicycle F&I and 15th in pedestrian F&I. In raw numbers, 2006 statistics for Sarasota County show five cyclists were killed and 124 injured while five pedestrians were killed and 121 injured (statistics attached).
High bicycle/pedestrian crash rankings in Florida are particularly troubling because Florida is the nation’s acknowledged leader in bicycle and pedestrian crashes. In 2006 and 2007, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Florida led the nation in bicycle fatalities with a rate of 7.3 and 6.52 fatalities per million population, over double the national rates. In pedestrian statistics, NHTSA reports that Florida was 3rd in 2006, behind New Mexico and Delaware, and 2nd in 2007, behind the District of Columbia, in the nation with rates of 3.02 and 2.91 fatalities per 100,000 population. From 2001 to 2007, Florida was either number one or in the top three in bicycle and pedestrian fatalities while no other states showed the same consistency in the top three. Safety experts from FDOT say that this has been the situation since the 1970’s.
The solution to local bicycle/pedestrian accidents requires understanding the causes. Causes are found by a thorough accident analysis, usually performed by a bicycle/pedestrian coordinator, which examines and cross-references factors such as age of victims, behaviors, locations, types of accident (midblock, driveway, overtaking, intersection, etc), time of day, helmet use, use of lights, and numerous other factors. Once the major causes are known, countermeasures of education, enforcement, and engineering can be developed. Indeed, the Federal Highway Safety Administration document, Case Study No. 23, The Role of Local Bicycle/Pedestrian Coordinators, p.29 (attached), calls for accident analysis as a basic part of a bicycle/pedestrian program.
An up-to-date detailed bicycle/pedestrian accident analysis has not been done for Sarasota County. As it is usually done by a bicycle/pedestrian coordinator, Bicycle/Pedestrian Advocates (BPA) and the County’s Bicycle/Pedestrian/Trails Advisory Council have called for a full-time coordinator since 2006. A DVD of June 15, 2006, available from BPA or Sarasota County, shows the County Commission, by consensus, directing staff to hire a full-time coordinator. Somehow, this direction was not implemented. In early 2008, the subject arose at a County Commission meeting and County Administrator Jim Ley spoke against it. In a memo dated March 23, 2008, (attached), despite the fact that Sarasota County has had three full-time bicycle/pedestrian coordinators over a period from 1992 to 2005 and that hundreds of other communities have them, Ley wrote of the position creating “an element of chaos”and leading to “anrachy (sic) in an organization.” Since July of 2008, Sarasota County has had no bicycle/pedestrian coordinator, full or part-time, and announced no plans for conducting a bicycle/pedestrian accident analysis.
References
FY 09 County Matrix.pdf (attached) Florida County Matrix (attached)
FY 09 City Group 2 Matrix.pdf (attached) Florida City Matrix (attached)
06pdbk.xls Spreadsheet with raw numbers of 2006 Florida County ped/bike F&I (attached)
http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/
Google “Traffic Safety Facts 2006 Data Bicyclists” Bicycle statistics, 2006, first selection
http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/
http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/
Bicycle/Pedestrian Advocates
4114 Bay Shore Road Sarasota, FL 34234 941-359-1097Contact: Mike Lasché, Executive Director, BPA, 941-544-7788, mikel.modem@verizon.net
SARASOTA COUNTY AND CITY HAVE VERY HIGH BICYCLE/PEDESTRIAN ACCIDENT RATES: ACCIDENT ANALYSIS IS NEEDED BUT NOT LIKELY
The Highway Safety Matrix, published by FDOT, shows that Sarasota County and City have particularly high rates of bicycle and/or pedestrian fatalities and injuries (F&I), relative to other types of crashes and to other communities. The latest Matrix uses data from Florida counties and cities, collected over the 5 years from 2002-2006, to provide reliable rankings in ten different types of traffic crashes. The county Matrix (attached) shows that Sarasota County, among 23 Florida counties with population of 200,000+, ranks 20th in total F&I, from 10th to 23rd in other crash types, but 4th in bicycle F&I and 18th in pedestrian F&I. The City of Sarasota, in the Matrix of 95 Florida cities with population from 15,000-75,000 (attached), ranks 27th in total F&I, from 20th to 48th in other crash types, but 5th in bicycle F&I and 15th in pedestrian F&I. In raw numbers, 2006 statistics for Sarasota County show five cyclists were killed and 124 injured while five pedestrians were killed and 121 injured (statistics attached).
High bicycle/pedestrian crash rankings in Florida are particularly troubling because Florida is the nation’s acknowledged leader in bicycle and pedestrian crashes. In 2006 and 2007, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Florida led the nation in bicycle fatalities with a rate of 7.3 and 6.52 fatalities per million population, over double the national rates. In pedestrian statistics, NHTSA reports that Florida was 3rd in 2006, behind New Mexico and Delaware, and 2nd in 2007, behind the District of Columbia, in the nation with rates of 3.02 and 2.91 fatalities per 100,000 population. From 2001 to 2007, Florida was either number one or in the top three in bicycle and pedestrian fatalities while no other states showed the same consistency in the top three. Safety experts from FDOT say that this has been the situation since the 1970’s.
The solution to local bicycle/pedestrian accidents requires understanding the causes. Causes are found by a thorough accident analysis, usually performed by a bicycle/pedestrian coordinator, which examines and cross-references factors such as age of victims, behaviors, locations, types of accident (midblock, driveway, overtaking, intersection, etc), time of day, helmet use, use of lights, and numerous other factors. Once the major causes are known, countermeasures of education, enforcement, and engineering can be developed. Indeed, the Federal Highway Safety Administration document, Case Study No. 23, The Role of Local Bicycle/Pedestrian Coordinators, p.29 (attached), calls for accident analysis as a basic part of a bicycle/pedestrian program.
An up-to-date detailed bicycle/pedestrian accident analysis has not been done for Sarasota County. As it is usually done by a bicycle/pedestrian coordinator, Bicycle/Pedestrian Advocates (BPA) and the County’s Bicycle/Pedestrian/Trails Advisory Council have called for a full-time coordinator since 2006. A DVD of June 15, 2006, available from BPA or Sarasota County, shows the County Commission, by consensus, directing staff to hire a full-time coordinator. Somehow, this direction was not implemented. In early 2008, the subject arose at a County Commission meeting and County Administrator Jim Ley spoke against it. In a memo dated March 23, 2008, (attached), despite the fact that Sarasota County has had three full-time bicycle/pedestrian coordinators over a period from 1992 to 2005 and that hundreds of other communities have them, Ley wrote of the position creating “an element of chaos”and leading to “anrachy (sic) in an organization.” Since July of 2008, Sarasota County has had no bicycle/pedestrian coordinator, full or part-time, and announced no plans for conducting a bicycle/pedestrian accident analysis.
References
FY 09 County Matrix.pdf (attached) Florida County Matrix (attached)
FY 09 City Group 2 Matrix.pdf (attached) Florida City Matrix (attached)
06pdbk.xls Spreadsheet with raw numbers of 2006 Florida County ped/bike F&I (attached)
http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/
Google “Traffic Safety Facts 2006 Data Bicyclists” Bicycle statistics, 2006, first selection
http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/
http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/