After posting Matt Yglesias’s observations on mass transit safety yesterday, I had a vague recollection he wrote something along similar lines about bicycles a couple weeks ago. It turns out, I was remembering him linking to an interesting post on Streetsblog, highlighting data from NYC that as the number of bicycle riders goes up in the city, the average number of bicycle accidents goes down.
NYC Bicycle Ridership & Casualties
It turns out that the feeling of greater safety you probably experience when you see another cyclist on the road isn’t an illusion. It’s part of the Safety in Numbers Effect, identified by public health consultant Peter Jacobsen. The reasons for the effect are a bit unclear, but many safety experts speculate that the explanation is pretty simple: The more bikes on the road, the more aware motorists become of the cyclists around them.
So when you pick your bike, you’re not just helping yourself, you’re helping the other cyclists you encounter on the streets too.
