Segregated Cycle Facilities - Segregated Facilities and Safety

Segregated Facilities and Safety

Segregated cycling facilities are controversial, in particular concerning safety. Proponents tout segregation of cyclists as necessary to the provision of a safe cycling environment, as some recent research has suggested. A 2010 Montreal study found that cycle tracks resulted in fewer injuries when compared to what the study claimed were comparable parallel roads with no cycling facilities.

Safety data on segregated cycling facilities is still incomplete and difficult to draw definite conclusions. Recent research, such as the 2010 Montreal study, suggests a lower risk for cyclists using cycling-specific infrastructure in certain traffic dynamics, though there is also research suggesting that cycling-specific infrastructure raises the risk for cyclists. A 2006 report by the National Cooperative Highway Research Program in the UK concludes that "bicycle safety data are difficult to analyse, mostly because bicycle trip data (and thus accident probability per trip) are hard to uncover" (see NCHRP Report 552, 2006, "Guidelines for Analysis of Investment in Bicycle Facilities", National Cooperative Highway Research Program, Transportation research Board of the National Academies, page F-1). One major reason for the inability to draw definite conclusion may be that facilities with different risks are often categorized together so that off-road paths - paved or unpaved, bicycle-only or multi-use - were lumped together, as found by research at the Cycling in Cities program at the University of British Columbia.