Bicycle Safety in Numbers

There is a new perscribtion for commumity that one make a street safer for bike riders, just that more bikes.

A team of international researchers look at the cities from Austuria to Denmark to Calfornia, in found that more riders meet fewer running with cars.

The researchers presentantive finding to a cycling safety semior on september fith in Syndey Austuria. What surprising the researcher said is that biker

safety dosen't seem to correspond to a city's effor to cut down an accident. Running betweent bikes and cars have little to do with miles of bikying in
 
lower speed limited, but if the number of bike riders in the city doubled, the rate of bike car accident drops by a third. Apparently, motors have to share

the road better when they have to deal with the bike on the daily communite. Also more cyclers means more drivers who also by, which make them

better aware of fellow bickers. The researchers called it a vitural cycle, run into with car drop with more bike on the road, and safer cycling means

more people stread on the helmet and join the revolution.

There's a new prescription for communities that want to make their streets safer for bike riders: just add more bikes. A team of international researchers looked at cities from Australia to Denmark to California, and found that more riders meant fewer run-ins with cars. The researchers presented their findings to a cycling safety seminar on September 5 in Sydney, Australia.

What's surprising, the researchers say, is that biker safety doesn't seem to correspond to a city's efforts to cut down on accidents. Run-ins between bikes and cars had little to do with miles of bike lanes or lower speed limits. But if the number of bike riders in a city doubled, the rate of bike-car accidents dropped by a third.

Apparently, motorists learn to share the road better when they have to deal with more bikes on their daily commute. Also, more cyclists means more drivers who also bike, which makes them better aware of fellow bikers. The researchers call it a virtuous cycle—run-ins with cars drop with more bikes on the road. And safer cycling means more people strap on a helmet and join the revolution.

—Adam Hinterthuer