Why Detroit is dangerous for bike riders; how they're being protected

SaMya Overall | Detroit Free Press

Detroit is becoming a dangerous place to ride, especially on two wheels.

The Michigan Traffic Crash Facts website offers a data query tool that tracks traffic crashes and a variety of contributing factors. According to the website, Detroit had 174 accidents between a cyclist and a motorist, which accounts for 40 percent of those kind of accidents in Wayne County in 2017. This is a 17 percent increase over the last five years.

According to the website, Detroit had more cyclist/motorist accidents all of Oakland County, which topped out at 162 accidents in 2017, and Macomb County, which had 169 accidents. The city also had more accidents than Southfield, Royal Oak, Hazel Park and Dearborn combined, with a total of 57 accidents.

As a city, Detroit was rated 1.6 out of 5 stars last fall by PlacesForBikes, powered by the biking advocacy group PeopleForBikes. According to the report, Detroit isn’t improving its biking infrastructure fast enough.

“Rates of riding are overall very low,” PeopleForBike director of local innovation Kyle Wagenschutz said about the city. “But bicycle commuting rates were far below the rate of people riding recreationally. Fatality rates, for all modes of transportation, relative to the city’s population and bicycle ridership are very high.”

Detroit isn’t alone. The state of Michigan faces a biking safety problem.

Michigan Traffic Crash Facts reports that in 2017, about 79 percent bike-car accidents resulted in injuries, many of them minor scrapes and bruises. Nine percent of those injuries required hospitalization and 21 total crashes (0.3 percent) resulted in a cyclist’s death, though that number dropped from 33 in 2016.

The state passed a law in June requiring 3 feet of space between motorists and cyclists when passing.

“Three feet seems to be an OK guideline,” said Ken McLeod, policy director for the League of American Bicyclists — a national bicycle advocacy group. “It’s what the vast majority of state laws are. We have a model safe-passing law which says that cars should change lanes to pass in a multi-lane road, which tends to be a higher speed road. That would give at least three feet, probably more than 3 feet, when a car actually changes lanes to pass.”

Previously, cyclists were required to use hand and arm turn signals, ride as close to the right hand curb as possible and obey all traffic laws, including stop signs and speed limits.

Motorists were expected to treat cyclists like other cars.

According to a study prepared for the Office of Highway Safety Planning in 2016, failing to yield or disregarding traffic control from both motorists and cyclists causes 58 percent of accidents from 2010 to 2014.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Association advises riders to ride with little motorized traffic, and to wear protective, bright clothing, such as helmets and reflective colors.