Urban Bicyclists
As issues related to oil dependency, rising gas prices, and global warming come to the forefront of topics of concern for Americans, the need for alternative modes of transportation has become critical. Urban settings are seemingly ideal for bicycling to become a significant mode, given the greater compactness of destinations. However, in the United States, bicycling is both scarcely used and very dangerous, as bicyclists are 12 times more likely to be killed than automobile drivers. The purpose of this research is to gain greater insights into the geographic dimensions of traffic crash intensity that bicyclists may experience in American cities. Bicycle crashes are studied in Buffalo, New York, for the years 2003 and 2004. The geographic distribution of crashes is determined and compared for both youth and adult bicyclists and factors of crash hazard intensity are statistically identified. Density of development and physical road characteristics such as roadway and intersection functional class are examined, as well as socioeconomic and demographic variables and potential trip attractors. Given the spatial nature of these variables, a spatially weighted regression model is incorporated to account for spatial dependencies of the dependent variables and of their model residuals. The results of the analysis indicate clear distinctions between youth and adult bicycle crashes, both in terms of the neighborhoods where victims reside and in terms of the neighborhoods where these two demographic groups are found to be more frequently involved in a crash with a motorized vehicle.