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The awful cycling injuries I’ve seen are preventable – governments must build bike lanes
(www.theglobeandmail.com)
this post was submitted on 22 Aug 2023
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I would be very careful with that sentiment.
In Toronto, there have been quite a few cases in the last year of bad drivers literally driving on isolated, protected bike lanes, or have smashed into and up concrete dividers designed to separate cars from cyclists.
Good infrastructure won't prevent accidents caused by bad drivers, and there are a LOT of bad drivers.
Just because a solution isn’t perfect, doesn’t mean it’s not very very effective. The empirical evidence is clear and overwhelming. Well designed bike infrastructure absolutely works to increase safety.
I agree completely, however, too many people make the wrong assumption that all you need is good cycling infrastructure and there won't be any issues.
We can see from the Dutch that even having the best cycling infrastructure in the world doesn't prevent tens of thousands of injuries from happening per year, because not all accidents are between cyclist and motor vehicle.
In fact, many don't even involve another vehicle or person at all. And with e-bikes becoming more popular, the death and injury rates, even with the Dutch, have been increasing at a very rapid pace.
Plus, I don't believe much of the safety stats that come out of the Netherlands in relation to cycling. It seems they are just lying about the numbers..