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In 2020, we tracked every cyclist killed by a driver on an American street, with a final tally of 697 cyclist deaths. We counted deaths reported by local media, so the actual total is likely significantly higher. https://www.outsideonline.com/2409749/outside-cycling-deaths-2020
We embarked on this project after seeing record numbers of cyclist deaths on our nation’s roads, often without any media attention beyond a brief local news story. One of those cyclists was longtime Outside writer Andrew Tilin. https://www.outsideonline.com/2411347/why-outside-tracking-every-cycling-death-2020
While fewer cyclists appear to have died in 2020 than in previous years, likely due to COVID-19 and city lockdowns, there's no sign our streets are getting safer.
We partnered with @BikeMapsTeam to analyze the data. This is what we found: https://www.outsideonline.com/2420196/what-we-learned-tracking-cycling-deaths-year
We partnered with @BikeMapsTeam to analyze the data. This is what we found: https://www.outsideonline.com/2420196/what-we-learned-tracking-cycling-deaths-year
We recorded deaths in 47 states and in nearly every major metropolitan area.
Louisiana, New York, California, Florida, and Texas were the five deadliest states for cyclists in terms of total deaths. Louisiana recorded the most deaths per million population in the country, at 7.3.
In more than a quarter of the crashes we recorded, the driver fled the scene.
We found that the most dangerous place to be a cyclist was on an arterial road—a multi-lane thoroughfare with traffic signals at intersections and speed limits exceeding 30 mph. Arterials accounted for 65 percent of the fatal crashes in our database.
Our data also showed a surge of deaths over the summer, with 84 in July—a 25 percent increase from June. Though it’s too early to be certain, the cycling boom that took place after the COVID-19 lockdown orders may have contributed to the spike.
We hope this project will push readers to think differently about the dangers of driving—and the potential consequences of being distracted for even a second—and compel governments to devote resources to infrastructure that will make streets safer for people outside of a car.
Analyzing this data would not have been possible without the help of @BikeMapsTeam, which collects crowdsourced information about cyclist crashes, near misses, and other road hazards that impact cyclists. For more information on their work, go to https://bikemaps.org/
