{"id":25225,"date":"2021-07-31T00:45:47","date_gmt":"2021-07-31T04:45:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/infovis\/?p=25225"},"modified":"2021-10-05T14:40:05","modified_gmt":"2021-10-05T18:40:05","slug":"improving-cycling-safety-in-nyc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/infovis\/projects\/improving-cycling-safety-in-nyc\/","title":{"rendered":"improving cycling safety in nyc"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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Introduction<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Cycling is great as exercise, leisure, or a mode of transportation. It\u2019s one of the most efficient ways to get around (and friendly to the environment), while offering great health benefits. More and more people in New York City have taken up cycling in the past two decades, according to the city\u2019s report in 2019<\/a>. 24% of adult New Yorkers reported to have ridden a bike at least<\/em> once in the year of 2017, and of those New Yorkers, 53% of them (793,000) reported that they ride a bike regularly, or several times a month. The city estimates about 490,000 cycling trips are made per day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With these rising numbers, the city has also rapidly increased the number of bike lanes<\/a>: in the past seven years, NYC DOT has expanded the on-street bike network by more than 330 miles, including more than 82 protected lane miles. So how safe is it to bike around in New York today?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cycling appears to be generally safe in the city<\/a>, though incidents (including fatalities) are more frequent than they should be. Where are these incidents occurring and what are the causes? Are there any patterns that can be established to better inform the city\u2019s planning to make cycling safer? This project provides a snapshot of cycling incidents (collisions with pedestrians, vehicles, or other cyclists) in New York from 2012-2021. It aims to uncover insights into how the city could potentially improve bike infrastructure, visualizing different factors that may impact safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Data has shown<\/a> that motorists are significantly more likely to be at fault in crashes with cyclists. This comes as no surprise; we all share the same road, and those of us on bikes are far more vulnerable than those in cars. One obvious approach to improving safety is to build more bike lanes; the city reports that, between 2006 and 2016, only 11% of cyclist fatalities occurred on streets with a bicycle facility<\/a> (the vast majority of fatalities on streets with no bike lanes). Many would also agree<\/a> that a more robust bike infrastructure makes streets safer for everyone: cyclists, drivers, and pedestrians alike. This report is intended for anyone interested in making New York streets safer for all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Methods<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Process<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To first get a sense of overall trends of cycling incidents in the city, I used data from the NYC OpenData on Motor Vehicle Collisions<\/a>, which tracks all collisions involving vehicles and bicycles from 2012-2021. I added a column that summed up the number of injuries or fatalities involving a cyclist, and plotted the data by type, time, and location (borough and zip code) into Tableau<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n