Global bike share: What the data tells us about road safety

Abstract

Introduction Bike share has emerged as a rapidly growing mode of transport in over 800 cities globally, up from just a handful in the 1990s. Some analysts had forecast a rise in the number of bicycle crashes after the introduction of bike share, but empirical research on bike share safety is rare. The goal of this study is to examine the impact of bike share programs on cycling safety. Methods The paper has two substudies. Study 1 was a secondary analysis of longitudinal hospital injury data from the Graves et al. (2014) study. It compared cycling safety in cities that introduced bike share programs with cities that did not. Study 2 combined ridership data with crash data of selected North American and European cities to compare bike share users to other cyclists. Results Study 1 indicated that the introduction of a bike share system was associated with a reduction in cycling injury risk. Study 2 found that bike share users were less likely than other cyclists to sustain fatal or severe injuries. Conclusions On a per kilometer basis, bike share is associated with decreased risk of both fatal and non-fatal bicycle crashes when compared to private bike riding. Practical Applications The results of this study suggest that concerns of decreased levels of cycling safety are unjustified and should not prevent decision makers from introducing public bike share schemes, especially if combined with other safety measures like traffic calming.