Whether caused by intoxicated drivers, excessive speed or distracted driving, bicycle deaths on Southern California roadways appear to be twice what is normal by this time of year, according to local activists.
From Jan. 1 to May 26, the region has experienced 40 bicycle fatalities, way ahead of 21 fatalities during the same time period in 2015, according to bike groups that keep morbidity statistics in real time, pulling together stats from members, police accident reports, federal and state data streams, the media and family members of victims.
Southern California bicycle deaths
Figures kept by Ted Rogers, 59, founder of BikinginLA.com, for the seven counties of Southern California (San Diego, Imperial, Riverside, San Bernardino, Orange, Los Angeles and Ventura) show 73 fatalities in 2015; 86 in 2014; 89 in 2013; in 2012, 74 people died; and 72 in 2011.
“The numbers are way too high; let’s make that clear,” said Rogers, an author, Hollywood resident and avid bicycle rider who began keeping statistics on bicycle fatalities in 2008. “One is way too many. Eighty-something is just obscene.”
Nationally, the number of bicyclist deaths make up about 2 percent of the motor vehicle crashes, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety using 2014 data. The number of bicyclist deaths in the nation has dropped from 833 in 1995 to 726 in 2014, according to the Fatality Analysis Reporting System from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The total number of people who died as a result of fatal traffic accidents was 32,675 in 2014, according to the reporting system, a drop from 41,945 in 2000.
In 2009, Americans took 4 billion bicycle trips, with about 52,000 injuries to bicyclists, said Rogers, pointing out that the hobby is still safe. “Your chances of returning safely are 77,000 to 1 and of surviving is 6.3 million to 1. Those are good odds,” he said.
Safety in numbers?
Will more bicyclists be killed if more take to the road as a result of bicycle master plans being laid out by Southern California cities and counties and CicLAvia type events put on by nonprofits this summer that encourage commuters to take bikes to work and leave their cars in the driveway?
“As the number of cyclists increase, bicycling actually becomes safer,” explained Colin Bogart, education director of the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition. “A number of studies repeated in countless cities across the country show bicycling becomes safer as more people are doing it.”
The theory, sometimes called “safety in numbers,” says when motorists see more bike riders they will slow down and look for bicyclists riding on the shoulder or in the traffic lanes.
In Los Angeles, bicycle ridership increased by 7.5 percent from 2011 to 2013, according to a count taken by the bicycle coalition. The increase is attributed to adding bike lanes, which as a single act increased bicycle ridership by 103 percent on some major streets.
People biking to work daily increased from 10,600 in 2006, 22,000 in 2013 and 24,000 in 2014 or about 1.3 percent of all commuters in Los Angeles in 2014, according to the American Communities Survey. The survey only measured commuter trips.
Not all believe in theory.
The bicycle coalition’s Bogart says bicycle-vehicle collisions will increase as more cyclists — particularly those new to the mode — take to the streets. But fewer will be fatal, as both bicyclists and drivers learn to share the roadway.
“You might see overall raw collision numbers increase, but the rate of collisions goes down,” he said. Collisions are still going to happen. Collisions happen between motor vehicles, too.”
Bicycle accidents explored
About 40 percent of fatal bicycle crashes are “hit from behind” collisions, according to a report by the League of American Bicyclists published in May 2014 after a rash of fatalities shook the Tampa, Florida, area in 2011 and 2012. Second was side collisions at 11 percent.
Helmet use reduces the odds of a head injury by 50 percent and of a head, face or neck injury by 33 percent but helmets are not required for adults in California, according to the Insurance Institute report.
When the driver was a factor, 42 percent were driving in a careless or inattentive manner and 36 percent were hit and runs, according to the League of American Bicyclists.
On Wednesday, Arroyo Seco Junior High math teacher Roderick T. Bennett, 53, of Valencia died while riding his bicycle on Placerita Canyon Road in Santa Clarita when a car hit him from behind. The driver left the scene but later turned himself in to authorities.
Fellow rider Vito Altieri knew of Bennett, who taught his daughters math at the school. He blames a lot of fatal car vs. bicycle crashes on inattentive drivers. “This has more to do with the cellphones and people not paying attention,” he said Thursday.
Danny Gamboa, 42, started Empact Communities, which teaches bike safety as part of the Long Beach Health Department and also formed and runs Ghost Bikes, a volunteer group that places white bikes at the scenes of fatalities as a memorial.
He said the conversation must change about bicycles in Southern California as the number of riders increase.
“We don’t see a decline in fatalities, and I definitely don’t see a decline in collisions,” Gamboa predicted. That is, unless the community turns against impaired or distracted drivers who run over bicyclists, like Mothers Against Drunk Drivers did in a fierce campaign against driving under the influence in the 1980s and 1990s, he said.
“We need to have a conversation about changing our behavior, about people. We are all people. The form of transportation shouldn’t matter,” he said.
