San Francisco is certainly a bike-friendly city, but with more bicyclists on the road comes more accidents with motor vehicles.
The Bay Citizen has just released its comprehensive bicycle accident study which used information from police reports to determine location and fault of bicycle-related accidents in San Francisco since 2009.
In our cases that concern bicycle incidents, there are two issues that we often face with police reports. First, a significant number of bicycle accidents are never reported to the police, even if they cause injuries. This results in a well known overall under-reporting of bicycle accidents. Second, even if there is a police report, often the police officer assigns fault based upon incomplete or one-sided information.
Even though the police reports may not be perfectly accurate, the Bay Citizen has digested a mountain of information and created a very useful Bike Accident Tracker.
There are a number of other resources available to learn more about safe bicycling in San Francisco.
The 2010 San Francisco Bicycle Count report that discusses the most common routes used by San Francisco bicyclists. This can be helpful to plan bicycle routes within San Francisco.
The San Francisco 2008 Traffic Collision Report discusses the prevalence and severity of automobile, bicycle, and pedestrian accidents in the City. The 2008 injury collision total was the highest in the previous ten years.
This report includes the 10 most dangerous San Francisco intersections and on page 31 there is a table of the Highest Motor Vehicle / Bicycle Injury Collision Intersections. This is the type of information that San Francisco bicyclists should use in an effort to avoid conflict with motor vehicles.
If you or a loved one has been involved in a bicycle accident, click here to learn more about the Brandi Law Firm Bicycle Attorneys.