Bike's be ray sis!!
More Black Cyclists Die Because of Racial Divide
Why don’t more people of color ride bikes? There is no singular reason; however, safety is often cited as a primary concern. In communities of color with a high concentration of low to middle-income residents, the lack of cycling infrastructure elements, such as bike trails, bike lanes, or even shoulders, make cycling unsafe and impractical.
“The lower a metro area’s median household income, the more dangerous it’s streets are likely to be for people walking,” according to a Smart Growth America Dangerous by Design 2021 report. “This is unsurprising, given low-income communities are less likely to have sidewalks, marked crosswalks, and street design to support safer, slower speeds.”
Without such infrastructure, Black and Hispanic residents face the greatest risks. According to a Harvard and Boston University study assessing racial disparities and traffic fatalities, for every mile walked, Black people are twice as likely to be killed by cars compared to white pedestrians.
For every mile ridden, Black cyclists are 4.5 times more likely to be killed than white cyclists. At the same time, Hispanic cyclists and pedestrians experience a 1.7 and 1.5-fold risk of being killed compared to white Americans.
Higher death rates among Black and Hispanic cyclists and pedestrians in low-income communities can be partially attributed to historical neighborhood designs. In areas where the government-sponsored Home Owners’ Loan Corporation rated neighborhoods a grade of D, pedestrian fatality was twice as high as in neighborhoods with an A grade. Communities with lower ratings have wider roads designed for higher speeds, more traffic volume, and are close to highways and freeways.
In Los Angeles, the Harbor Freeway goes through the heart of a residential community of South L.A. which has a 60 to 80 percent Black and Hispanic occupancy rate.
In the Big Apple, New York City’s most dangerous streets for pedestrians and cyclists are concentrated in the historically Black and Hispanic areas of the South Bronx, East Harlem, and East New York.
Down the east coast in the nation’s capital, historically white areas—Northeast and Northwest D.C.—resisted freeway construction efforts. In time, the construction of I-395 and I-295 freeways shifted to the predominantly Black- Southeast and Southwest- regions of the city.
Pedestrian fatalities in D.C. are highest in Ward 7 and 8, both historically Black communities with straight, wide feeder roads to I-295.
As more people of color concentrate in historic neighborhoods due to cost-of-living increases, gentrification, and other factors, the number of cyclists killed each year continues to increase. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that almost 1,000 cyclists die every year. Many cities have adopted “Vision Zero” campaigns to combat this issue.
Vision Zero’s premise that one death is too many has produced mixed results. Overseas, in countries like Finland and Norway, Vision Zero cut pedestrian death rates to zero. To reach this goal, these countries prioritized cycling and pedestrian safety by “closing off streets in the inner city to cars entirely, removing on-street parking inside the city's inner ring road, and installing cycling lanes,” according to StreetBlogUSA.
Reducing cyclist and pedestrian deaths to Oslo and Helsinki levels may never fully materialize in the U.S., partly due to political strife. Though countless studies show that bike lanes improve rider safety, Utah Senator Mitt Romney dismissed their significance.
“Removing automobile lanes to put in bike lanes is, in my opinion, the height of stupidity; it means more cars backing up, creating more emissions,” said Romney.
A cold statement considering 15 cyclists died after being hit by a vehicle in Utah in 2022—a 30-plus-year high.
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