New Risk Management Findings Has Been Reported by Investigators at Columbia University (On-road Bicycle Lane Types, Roadway Characteristics, and Risks for Bicycle Crashes)

2019 MAR 06 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Research findings on Risk Management are discussed in a new report. According to news reporting out of New York City, New York, by NewsRx editors, research stated, “Bicycle lanes reduce real and perceived risks for bicycle vs. motor vehicle crashes, reducing the burden of traffic injuries and contributing to greater cycling participation. Previous research indicates that the effectiveness of bicycle lanes differs according to roadway characteristics, and that bicycle lane types are differentially associated with reduced crash risks.”

Funders for this research include National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism of the National Institutes of Health, Australian Research Council.

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from Columbia University, “The aim of this study is to combine these perspectives and identify the types of on-road bicycle lanes that are associated with the greatest reductions in bicycle crashes given the presence of specific roadway characteristics. We compiled a cross sectional spatial dataset consisting of 32,444 intersection polygons and 57,285 street segment polygons representing the roadway network for inner Melbourne, Australia. The dependent measure was a dichotomous indicator for any bicycle crash (2014-2017). Independent measures were bicycle lanes (exclusive bicycle lanes, shared bicycle and parking lanes, marked wide kerbside lanes, and kerbside bicycle lanes) and other roadway characteristics (speed limit, bus routes, tram routes, bridges, one-way flow, traffic lane width). In Bayesian conditional autoregressive logit models, bicycle lanes of all types were associated with decreased crash odds where speeds were greater, bus routes and tram stops were present, and traffic lanes were narrower. Only exclusive bicycle lanes were associated with reduced crash odds (compared to the expected odds given the presence of the bicycle lane and the roadway conditions) in all these setting. The extent to which on-road bicycle lanes reduce crash risks depends on the bicycle lane type, the roadway conditions, and the combination of these two factors.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Bicycle lanes that provide greater separation between cyclists and vehicular traffic are most consistently protective.”

For more information on this research see: On-road Bicycle Lane Types, Roadway Characteristics, and Risks for Bicycle Crashes. Accident Analysis & Prevention, 2019;123():123-131. Accident Analysis & Prevention can be contacted at: Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd, The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford OX5 1GB, England. (Elsevier - www.elsevier.com; Accident Analysis & Prevention - http://www.journals.elsevier.com/accident-analysis-and-prevention/)

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting C.N. Morrison, Columbia University, Mailman Sch Public Hlth, Dept. of Epidemiol, 722 W 168TH St, New York, NY 10032, United States. Additional authors for this research include B. Beck, J. Thompson and M.C. Kondo.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2018.11.017. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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