BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

Surprising that bike deaths declined when I think that bike ridership increased. (Maybe I'm wrong. Did the bike boom level off?)

There is an overll decrease in traffic deaths that is hard to figure out - it isn't from a decline in drunk driving deaths -even though DUI deaths declined, they didn't decline as much as other deaths.

It is partially drivn by "use of restraints - people dying without seatbelts declined more than the average, but not by a lot. (10.8% decline for folks dying without seatbelts vs 9.7% overall)

Maybe air bag technology?

didn't the increase in gas prices and the economic situation decrease the number of drivers? I think I heard some numbers about that a while ago about traffic deaths in general declining because people were driving less and combining trips. I remember because one of the people I was talking to seemed to find this to be a bad thing due to her industry...working at a funeral home.

didn't the increase in gas prices and the economic situation decrease the number of drivers?

I guessing (and it's just a guess) that gaws prices had little effect on overall car use.

Sure, if you poll people you find that X% say they have started "driving less," but the actual decrease in car use? I'd be surprised if it were measurable.

I'm sure the car use decline (if it exists at all, which I doubt) is nowhere near the 5%, 10% 12% reductions that would account for the reduced fatalities. If U.S. car use did decline that much, I believe it would be front page news all over the world, cover of Time and Newsweek, and "Trend of the Year" in all the year-end summaries. Bicycle advocates would be contemplating presidential campaigns.

I'm impressed at a 16% decline in motorcycle deaths.

I just looked at the data and it does show that vehicle miles did not decrease. The decrease in driving may just be one of those things that you hear media buzz about as they poll people on the street who say they're driving less. I also know there have been some holidays recently when there were reports that less people traveled, but that wouldn't make much of an impact overall for the year.

Certainly not definitive information, but it would agree with bike advocacy theory that more people biking equals more visibility and more safety overall.

Gas prices peaked in the summer of 2008, and you can see a corresponding slump in vehicle miles traveled around that time.

Analysis here.

That figure was up in 2009 versus 2008, so that doesn't account for the decrease in cycling deaths year to year.

other possibilities:

increased congestion == slower speeds

improvements in post-crash trauma care == better survival rate