Bicycle safety

The 2026 CSSA Peer Exchange Series launches this month!

April 6, 2026
UC Berkeley SafeTREC is excited to announce our 2026 virtual two-part Peer Exchange series: “Advancing safety through the CSSA.” The series, part of the Complete Streets Safety Assessment (CSSA) program, will feature two former participant communities as they reflect on their experiences with the program – from their initial application to the real-world safety impacts of their comprehensive safety reports.

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Community Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Training Program Evaluation Report

Doggett, Sarah
Beck, Kate M.
Ana Lopez
Cooper, Jill F.
2019

The UC Berkeley Safe Transportation Research and Education Center (SafeTREC) and California Walks (Cal Walks) developed the Community Pedestrian Bicycle Safety Training (CPBST) program to train and mobilize communities to address pedestrian and bicycle safety and to strengthen collaboration with local officials and agency staff. SafeTREC and Cal Walks work hand-in-hand with communities to plan and facilitate workshops that are reflective of each community’s needs and priorities.

This report provides a summary of the qualitative and quantitative methods used to evaluate the CPBST...

Why Don't Women Cycle? A Case Study of Women's Perceptions of Cycling in San Francisco

Funaki, Dorry
2019

Safety and women’s perceptions of safety is a prevalent factor affecting the gender gap of cycling within the US. In this study, the use of bike lanes in the South of Market Area of San Francisco found that only 29% of the cyclists were female despite accounting for 50% of the population in the area. This research brief summarizes key issues found in this study of women’s perceptions of safety when cycling.

Community Trainings at Work: An Evaluation of Community Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Trainings

Beck, Kate M.
2019

The Community Pedestrian Bicycle Safety Training (CPBST) program trains and mobilizes communities to address pedestrian and bicycle safety and strengthens collaboration with local officials and agency staff. This research brief summarizes an evaluation of the CPBST program completed in 2018.

2019 SafeTREC Traffic Safety Facts: Bicycle Safety

Chen, Katherine L.
Tsai, Bor-Wen
Fortin, Garrett
Cooper, Jill F.
2019

Bicycling is becoming more popular across the country, for commuting, exercise, and leisure. In 2017, there were 783 bicyclists killed in a traffic collision in the US. In citing concern about the level of bicycle fatalities, the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) identified key recommendations for improving safety, including collection of better crash data, increased training for law enforcement to understand laws designed to protect bicyclists, partnerships with bicycling and community organizations regarding safety messaging and public education campaigns about infrastructure...

Community Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Training (CPBST) Program Workshop Follow-Up Survey Highlights

Chen, Katherine L.
Kuroda, Kaori
2020

The Community Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Training Program (CPBST) is a joint effort of the University of California Berkeley’s Safe Transportation Research and Education Center (UCB SafeTREC) and California Walks (Cal Walks). Founded in 2009, the Community Pedestrian Safety Training program was expanded in 2016 to include bicycle safety improvements. The purpose of the CPBST is to:

Educate local residents and safety advocates on how to improve pedestrian and bicycle safety; Empower community partners to advocate for safety improvements in their neighborhoods; and Strengthen...

Media Narratives of Pedestrian & Bicyclist-Involved Crashes

Polovin, Marta
2020
Pedestrian & bicyclist-involved crashes have been increasing throughout the United States. Previous research has shown that media and popular discourse disproportionately blames pedestrians and cyclists for their own injuries and/or deaths, while obscuring the role of motorists in these crashes and ignoring the broader road safety context (like infrastructure and speed limits). Recent research highlights how media framing of these crashes can affect perceptions of cause, influencing public opinion about responsibility and consequences, and demonstrates the need for comprehensive and...

2020 SafeTREC Traffic Safety Facts: Bicycle Safety

Chen, Katherine L.
Tsai, Bor-Wen
Fortin, Garrett
Cooper, Jill F.
2020

Bicycling is becoming more popular across the country for commuting, exercise, and leisure. However, in the event of a traffic crash between a motor vehicle and a bicyclist, the bicyclist is the more vulnerable party and more likely to be injured or killed than a motor vehicle occupant. In 2018, there were 857 bicyclists killed in a traffic crash in the United States. In citing concern about the level of bicycle fatalities, the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) identified key recommendations for improving safety, including collection of better crash data, increased training for...

Commercial vehicles, fatigue, parking and safety

Gosselin, Katherine
2020
For commercial drivers, operator fatigue and parking in undesignated areas can result in dangerous collisions. Exacerbating this issue is a lack of freight truck parking, making it difficult for truck operators to find a safe spot when in need of rest. For bicyclists and pedestrians, loading and unloading commercial vehicles in downtowns also present hazards. Increasing the availability of legal truck parking could improve safety for all road users.

Selected Research on Road Diets

Elijah Wade
Tsai, Bor-Wen
2021
Pedestrian and bicyclist injury and mortality is a common occurrence in California. Data from the Transportation Injury Mapping System found that serious injuries among bicyclists and pedestrians increased between 2017-2019, with 3,174 recorded in 2017 and a peak of 3,495 serious injuries in 2019. Along with serious injuries, there has also been an increase in mortality among these active transportation options reported by the National Highway Traffic Safety Association, which recorded 940 fatalities in 2017, and an increase to 972 by the end of 2019.

One of the strategies that has...