This is a big deal: No Riders Killed in First 5 Months of New York City Bike-Share Program.
Start with notoriously unforgiving traffic. Add thousands of bicycles along the city’s most congested corridors. And see how perhaps the world’s least understanding drivers would cope with the new additions.
And one more thing: Many of the cyclists would be helmetless novices — or worse, tourists — careening into and out of lanes with the whimsy of a youngster pedaling through a suburb.
As of Monday, though, after more than five months and five million trips, none of the program’s riders have been killed on the bikes. About two dozen injuries, most of them minor, have been reported. …
Charles Komanoff, a transportation economist and avid biker, suggested that the “safety in numbers” phenomenon had spawned a helpful cycle: The increase in biking in recent years has made the practice safer, which has encouraged bike-share ridership, which should in turn improve safety for “incumbent cyclists.”
Story here in New York Times.
