Accident Statistics

Official City statistics on traffic accidents provide telling information about risks to cyclists and risks from cyclists. For the full year 1992, there were 298 recorded collisions in New York City between cyclists and pedestrians. Two of these resulted in fatal injuries to the pedestrian. The frequency of collisions between motor vehicles and bicycles was an order of magnitude higher — 3,520 accidents and 17 fatalities (see Table 17).

In the same year, 1992, there were 13,599 collisions between pedestrians and motor vehicles in New York City. 294 pedestrians were killed in these accidents, including approximately 15 fatalities on sidewalks and other “off-road” areas. In other words, pedestrians were almost 50 times more likely to be struck by a motor vehicle than by a bicycle, and more than a hundred times more likely to be killed.

Indeed, pedestrian deaths from cars running amok off-road in just one year roughly equal pedestrian deaths from all bicyclists in the entire 1980s. Granted, cars far outnumber bikes. But pedestrians (and the press) would be wise to examine more closely the real danger on the city streets: the huge volume, high speeds and crushing weight of automobile traffic.