7 cyclists died in auto-bike collisions in Chicago last year, up from three in two thousand thirteen – Chicago Tribune

7 cyclists died in auto-bike collisions in Chicago last year, up from three in 2013

Seven cyclists died in bike-automobile collisions on Chicago roads last year, up from three in 2013, according to data provided by the city’s Department of Transportation.

An eighth cyclist died in Chicago after a collision with a CTA Brown Line train, according to CDOT spokesman Pete Scales.

City transportation officials wouldn’t comment on the statistics Thursday. But at the September meeting of the Mayor’s Bicycle Advisory Council, Department of Transportation Commissioner Rebekah Scheinfeld called the two thousand fourteen uptick in fatalities “significant.”

The city recorded eight bicyclist fatalities in 2012, seven in two thousand eleven and five in 2010.

The U.S. census tracks those who commute to work by bike, and in Chicago that number has grown steadily over the past fifteen years, according to a two thousand twelve analysis of city data published by the Department of Transportation. In 2000, the city recorded about 6,000 people who regularly commuted by bike to work in Chicago, and by two thousand ten that number had grown to more than 14,000, according to census data.

The city didn’t have the final two thousand fourteen statistics showcasing the total number of cyclists injured in crashes with vehicles. But the numbers have enlargened in the past three years, from little more than 1,300 in two thousand eleven to more than 1,500 in 2013, according to data provided by the city.

Jim Merrell, an advocacy campaign director for the Active Transportation Alliance, said the latest fatality numbers and the crash data showcase the need for more protected bike lanes in the city.

“We believe the only acceptable number of fatalities is zero,” he said. “Whether it’s three or it’s seven, each and every one of those is a tragedy and unacceptable, and one hundred percent preventable.”

Merrell pointed to the Dearborn Street bike lane and the Milwaukee Avenue bike lane, where in some places bike commuters and motorists are separated by white plastic poles called “bollards,” as examples of streets in Chicago where the installation of protected bike lanes has been shown by some studies to make commuters feel safer and reduce collisions.

“There’s an ever-expanding assets of evidence that improving the safety of the streets this way for all users reduces crashes,” he said.

Number of cyclists killed in bike-vehicle crashes in Chicago for the past five years

Number of cyclists injured in bike-vehicle crashes in Chicago in for the past five years

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