Bike Noob

Because I'm Always Learning Something New

Bikewise – A Potentially Valuable Resource

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Recently, I blogged about the difficulty of finding information about non-serious bicycle crashes — the most common kind.

This morning, thanks to a link from An Old Guy on Two Wheels, I came across a web site called Bikewise. This isn’t your usual biking advocacy, biking avocation site. It’s all about cataloging bike crashes, hazards, and thefts to make biking safer. According to the site, “It’s estimated that 75% or more of all crashes go unreported. We believe that by gathering detailed information on how and why crashes happen, we’ll be able to ride smarter.”

Bikewise is based in the Seattle area, but accepts crash reports from all over the country. The biker submitting the report is asked to include information about the circumstances of the crash, road and weather conditions, and perhaps most importantly, lessons learned from the crash.

Here’s an example:

Bikewise lists local crashes, statewide crashes, and crashes from throughout the United States. It’s the start of an interesting and helpful database. It’s still pretty new, and the number of crashes it lists is small, even nationally. But as word gets out, I expect this will grow rapidly.

Minor crash statistics (Are there any?)

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After recent posts about my crash in the rain and its resultant slow-healing road rash, one Bike Noob reader sent me this email:

There are few good statistics on simple-minor crashes. Crashes that involve a simple fall or losing control of your bicycle. The majority of bicycle crashes are in this catagory. I am a commuter.  I have had 11 simple minor crashes in the last 12,000 miles. One year I had only 1 crash in 3,000 miles but this year I have had 3 crashes. All of my crashes have been my fault. Usually going to fast for conditions. But, I am a commuter. I ride in the dark. I ride in the rain. I ride is some crazy traffic. Now, 11 crashes is more than I would like to have, but I have no idea if this is average. I would love to know how many simple-minor crashes other bicycle riders are experiencing.

Obviously, one of the problems in finding data like he suggests is that the kinds of injuries he’s talking about usually go unreported. We fall, we get road rash, we get back on the bike, and we don’t contact a doctor or hospital. So there’s no one around to compile data on simple minor crashes.

However, I poked around a bit, and did come up with some info:

The so-called “Moritz Study” of 1998 tallied all kinds of injuries, and concluded that 29% of cyclists reported having had some type of ‘accident’ in the study year (1996). Just over 9% reported having had a serious crash (resulting in at least $50 of property damage or medical expense) in 1996. Of these, 54% happened during on-road recreational cycling.

Only 28% of serious crashes were reported to the police.  Women have more serious crashes than men: 11% vs. 9%, and at a slightly higher rate: 29 vs. 22 per million kilometers biked.

As you might guess, the most common type of bike crash is a fall (59%). That’s followed by running into a fixed object (14%), a moving motor vehicle (11%), or another bicycle (9%).

A Consumer Products Safety Commission study in 1994 found 588,000 bike accidents requiring a trip to the emergency room.  Fewer than 3% required a hospital stay.

Streets with bike lanes, or signed as bike routes, have fewer bike crashes than major streets without bike lanes.

So, to answer our anonymous reader’s question, is 11 crashes per 12,000 miles high, low or average? The Moritz study says people reporting a “serious” crash have 1.2 of them per year. But there’s no similar stat for minor crashes.

I think I’ve been crashing at the same rate as our reader. I’ve gone down four times in the last year, over roughly 3,000 miles. All minor, all unreported.

How about the rest of you? Can you help us get a handle on whether our reader is better than average, average, or “needs to crash more”?

Lesson #11: Turn slowly in the wet

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Just adding here to the Top Ten Lessons enumerated in the previous post.

Our B ride took a 38-mile route today in nice autumn weather, but the weather deteriorated as the ride progressed. We started in fog and temps in the low 60s (17°C). A little more than halfway through the ride, the rain started falling. We were about 16 miles from home, and wanted to waste no time getting back.

The four of us on the ride headed out in the downpour, and actually caught a much larger ride at an intersection two miles down the road. But those folks dropped us, and one of our own riders peeled off to head home by a different route.

One of the riders with me started cramping, and dropping back. We were on a two-lane blacktop with no shoulder, and I wanted to turn into a residential subdivision where he could take it easy while we made our last several miles home.

I braked before the turn into the subdivision, then turned. My front tire gleamed from the amount of water on the asphalt, even though the rain had subsided by now. I watched the wheel as it slid out from under me, and I went down hard. Unlike previous crashes, I didn’t have the out-of-body experience where I watch myself fall and tell myself what must be done. I just hit hard on my right hip, and slid along the pavement. My helmet clacked against the hard surface. Two water bottles shot out in different directions. The rider immediately behind me maneuvered between me, a rolling bottle, and my bike — and managed to stay upright while doing it.

Several drivers stopped to ask if I needed help, but once I got to my feet, I felt all right. Road rash on the knee, my hip really hurt, but the most bothersome thing was the soreness in my right shoulder. Although I could move it, and raise my arm over my head, I knew that would be the problem area. A cursory examination of my helmet revealed no cracks, so we mounted up and soldiered on.

Back home, I found that although my leg and hip stung from the road rash, the injuries were really quite minor.

Ow
Shin, left, and upper thigh, right.

The shoulder, which has no visible marks, is still sore, and I expect that it will be for several days to come. Neither my shorts nor jersey has any tears or scuffs.

Maybe it was the wet, maybe it was because I was going slowly when I fell — but the bike is OK. It’s all wiped down and ready for the next (upright) adventure.

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