A Focus on Safety for Cyclists and Pedestrians

We all have our daily journeys that we go on. We all take various forms of transportation, some drive, take the bus, ride a bike, or just walk. We all have our preferred way of travel. In the amazing city of Boulder there is all sorts of transportation. With our busy lives some people move through the day faster than others. This can lead to accidents, when someone is in a rush they can be more reckless and this can lead to accidents. It may just be a normal day to work and you happened to be running late so that makes you try to get to work faster. This could lead to not looking when trying to turn or not fully stopping and you do not see the pedestrian cross or a biker. Bam you have hit a person just trying to get to school or work, maybe you just got hit by a car. This could happen to anyone, in this op-ed we will be seeing at what time and which road is the most dangerous to cross. Here is a map of all the pedestrians and bicyclist that have been hit by a car in an accident.

Over all 13288 rows and 37 columns I compiled multiple different data frames to Total of Bicycle Crashes of 709 and a total of pedestrian crashes is 371. There is a way bigger amount of bike accidents than there are pedestrians getting hit. Now the question is why are there so many people being hit on bikes. Once going through and counting the street name column we will be able to see which street has had the most bicycle accidents. This will tell us where the most dangerous spot to bike in Boulder is.

There are many street crossings in this great city. People do it all day in all sorts of ways. The street with the most fatal accidents is Baseline Road and 30th Street, a road commonly traveled. The roads for the bikes do not fully match up to the roads that pedestrians get hit on. The worst ones for the bikes are Broadway, Folsom Street and Taft Drive, and Arapahoe Avenue. The reason for just these three is because there were 6 fatal or injuring accidents. The next two were Valmont Road and 30th, and 30th Street and Arapahoe Avenue. Both of these had 5 fatal or injuring accidents. With pedestrians there have been 4 fatal accidents on Baseline Road and 30th Street, Baseline Road and Mohawk Drive, Valmont Road and 28th Street, Canyon Boulevard and 15th Street and Broadway. These Streets are all over Boulder not really all in one area of the city.

The times at which these accidents occurred were in the afternoon to late night. There was not a lot in the morning. A trend in the data is that it was in the night. A time of lower visibility so it will be harder to see a biker. Which is interesting because many bikes have devices to reflect light off of. A device that was designed to make it easier to see a bicyclist. Here is a chart of the bicyclist deaths.

Broadway is the worst road with a combined 10 either fatal or injuring accidents. Valmont is the other one that slightly lines up with both bikes and pedestrians.

Filtered down to the top 15 killed or injured people. All 15 cases had two people either injured or killed in the incident. Most were a collision with another vehicle, this means either hit a car and a bicyclist or just the bicyclist. The 3 odd ones out are collision with the front of the vehicle as in the car ran right into the bicyclist. Two of these accidents happened during the day. One at 8:00 am and another at 11:27 am. Both at times when the sun was up. The last was at 1:38 in the morning. A busy intersection during the day, but at that time should be pretty mellow. Fatal bike accidents 8 out of 15 are non intersection related. Four of them are either at the intersection or are related to being at the intersection. One of them was on a share and use road, a bike lane.

I also did the same with pedestrians to get an easier understanding of the data. I put it to the top 15 that had either died or been injured from an accident. Most of these accidents of pedestrians being involved in a fatal car accident are mostly at an intersection. With one in a parking lot and the last two are at non intersection accidents. The first 9 had 2 pedestrians either killed or injured. The last 6, only 1 killed or injured. Six of these injuries or deaths were at hours where the sun was not out. Out of that 6, 5 of them were late at night. This took me to look at the location, thinking that this is most likely people coming home or going to a party. Out of these 6 late night hits only one of the pedestrians was hit by a drunk driver. It was on regent dr, at 12:36 pm. It was described as a collision with an object. This could have been a kid leaving campus to go to a party and getting hit by a drunk driver that had lost control and spun out or swerved into something that had redirected them into the pedestrian as they were jaywalking or standing on the side of the street. Another is the driver just did not stop at the red light. All but three of these accidents were from a collision with a pedestrian. The odd three out are a collision with an object.

This chart shows that most of the accidents that lead to injury or death were from a dui. Showing what most would assume is the leading reason in accidents. This does show that it is only a small bit more of DUI accidents over sober accidents.

From the data that I gathered I was able to come to the conclusion that these accidents are happening at the times that most people would assume an accident would happen at. Most fatal accidents are at times where there is either no sun or very little sun. Most of the fatal pedestrian accidents are at intersections. Either when the car is turning or going straight through. To answer the question at hand Which Street is the most dangerous street for pedestrians and cyclists? This came down to Broadway, this street has the most accidents.

Here is a map with all the accidents on Broadway. There are a total of 129 different accidents along this road. Broadway is a very long road. As this is one of the main roads that students and people who have to work are going to travel on it makes sense that there is going to be a large amount of accidents on this road. This path through the city contains multiple businesses and also leads from the Hill where a large number of students reside. Also there are restaurants and bars and local shops. Then just a few minutes down Broadway it takes you right to Pearl Street, an outdoor mall filled with all sorts of different shops, restaurants, and bars. There is a lot of activity along this road and now with the new construction there is even more traffic. The roads to avoid were found by which streets had the most injuries or fatalities. The worst streets for biking on or to cross are Broadway, Folsom, Arapahoe, Valmont, 30th, and Canyon. These are all the major ways of travel throughout the city of Boulder. For those who commute on foot Baseline, 30th, Valmont, Broadway, and Canyon have the most injuries or fatalities on them. As seen up above the roads have similar

This could be because of a few things. It could be drunk kids going to the bars or leaving the bars. It is also possible that they are leaving the bars and going home by driving home. Which would be a good reason for the DUIs being higher. It could just be early in the morning and maybe one of the people on either side of this situation are not fully awake and make a little mistake of not checking the road before they cross. One of the big things is not in the data is if the pedestrian biker or driver were on their phone. As distracted driving is a big issue in our society since we even have ipads built into our cars. This is the one key point that is not shown in this data. Some people could be on their phones and it is not logged in the data because it was not put in the police report. If you are trying to travel safely through Boulder, either take the bus or walk. The walkers were hit 50% less than the people riding bikes. If traveling at night is necessary, walking and riding a bike is statistically much more dangerous. In the pursuit of a sustainable and accessible urban landscape, Boulder must address the safety concerns associated with its major streets. Through comprehensive planning, infrastructure improvements, and a focus on pedestrian and cyclist safety, the city can continue to grow and thrive as a model for safe transportation.