Bicycle safety

Crashes on and Near College Campuses: A Comparative Analysis of Pedestrian and Bicyclist Safety

Loukaitou-Sideris, Anastasia
Medury, Aditya
Fink, Camille
Grembek, Offer
Shafizadeh, Kevan
Wong, Norman
Orrick, Phyllis
2014

Problem, research strategy, and findings: College campuses are multimodal settings with very high levels of walking and biking in conjunction with high levels of vehicular traffic, which increases risks for bicyclists and pedestrians. In this study, we examine crash data (both police reported and self-reported) and urban form data from three U.S. campuses to understand the spatial and temporal distribution of crashes on the campuses and their immediate periphery. To account for underreporting of pedestrian and bicycle crashes, we developed and circulated an online survey, which helped...

Safety Assessment of Uncontrolled Intersections Using Both Conflict Probability and Severity

Ma, Yingying
Qin, Xiaoran
Grembek, Offer
Chen, Zhiwei
2016

This paper presents a method to assess the safety of uncontrolled intersections considering both conflict probability and severity, which are two major properties of traffic conflicts. This method provides not only the safety level of the entire intersection but also the distribution of safety within intersections. Intersections are modelled by a two-dimensional Cartesian coordinate system and the internal space of intersections is divided into cells. Firstly, vehicle movement characteristics of at uncontrolled intersections are modelled. Secondly, conflict probability of each cell within...

Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Research Brief

Barajas, Jesus M.
2016

As cities around the country adopt initiatives like Vision Zero to eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries, they are faced with the question of how effective different types of interventions are. For example, do protected bike lanes or painted sharrows reduce the risk of severe injury to cyclists? A group of researchers from the New York University School of Medicine examined this question by studying where cyclists admitted to the hospital crashed and how severe their injuries were. This research brief explores their findings.

SafeTREC Traffic Safety Facts: Bicycle Safety

Chen, Katherine L.
Tsai, Bor-Wen
Fortin, Garrett
Cooper, Jill F.
2018

Bicycling is becoming more popular across the country, for commuting, exercise, and leisure. However, in the event of a traffic collision between a motor vehicle and a bicyclist, the bicyclist is the more vulnerable party and is more likely to be injured or killed than motor vehicle passengers. Bicycling fatalities increased 14.4 percent from 734 in 2012 to 840 in 2016 nationwide. Bicyclist fatalities represented 2.2 percent of the total number of traffic fatalities in 2016. Bicycle collisions are defined as crashes where one or more victims is a bicyclist, other cyclist, or bicycling...

April is Distracted Driving Awareness Month

April 17, 2026
Submitted by Kris Leckie
In 2024 alone, 3,208 people were killed and 315,167 people were injured in traffic crashes involving distracted drivers. Every April, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) holds Distracted Driving Awareness Month to remind road users to focus on the road and not drive distracted.

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The 2026 CSSA Peer Exchange Series launches this month!

April 6, 2026
Submitted by Kris Leckie
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...