- Certain locations are more dangerous than others for cyclists who share road space with cars and trucks.
- Tucson, Arizona. Detroit, Michigan. Jacksonville, Florida, was the deadliest metropolitan city for cyclists in 2020.
- Florida, Louisiana, and Arizona had the highest fatality rates for cyclist collisions with motor vehicles.
Roads in the United States are becoming increasingly dangerous for those who use bicycles or pedal-assisted mobility.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the United States, many turned to bicycles for safer transportation and recreation. powering the bike boom in the United States. In the spring of 2020, bike shops across the country faced a surge in demand and a nationwide bike shortage.
But while motor vehicle traffic plummeted in 2020 as the pandemic froze much travel, road deaths of all kinds from crashes increased by 6.8% from 2019 to 2020. according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
In 2020, 938 people who rode pedal bicycles and other non-motorized two-wheeled vehicles, or rode tricycles and unicycles (NHTSA calls them pedal cyclists) died in car crashes. Reported by NHTSAHundreds of other cyclists died in non-traffic accidents, National Security Council.
However, certain cities and states tend to be particularly unfriendly to cyclists. Tucson, Arizona was the metropolitan city with the highest mortality rate for cyclists, with her 1.26 deaths per 100,000 population. According to NHTSA data In US cities with over 500,000 people. Detroit, Michigan was second with 1.2 per 100,000 population and Jacksonville, Florida was third with 1.09 per 100,000 population.
The safest big city for bikers and other types of cyclists was Nashville, Tennessee. Atlanta, GA; and El Paso, TX. No cyclists died in car accidents in 2020 in Denver, Colorado.
At the state level, Florida and Louisiana had the highest cyclist mortality rates in the nation in 2020, according to NHTSA, with cyclist mortality rates of 0.78 and 0.73 per 100,000 residents, respectively. Arizona, Michigan, and New Mexico were the states with the next highest cyclist mortality rates.
Montana and South Dakota had no cyclist deaths in car accidents in 2020, and Nebraska and Virginia had the second-lowest fatality rates among U.S. states.
Cyclists ride along Montrose Harbor on Lake Michigan with the Chicago skyline in the background on October 14, 2022.
Beata Zawrzel/Getty Images
The overwhelming majority (79%) of cyclist fatalities occur in urban areas. According to the NHTSA fact sheetAnd according to NHTSA, cyclist mortality is higher in the summer months. Over the past decade, cyclists’ mortality rate among all road deaths caused by motor vehicles has risen slightly from 2.1% in 2011 to 2.4% in 2020.
There are several ways to measure how comfortable a region is for cyclists. The American Cycling Federation, a national advocacy group, U.S. states rated biker friendliness Based on a variety of factors including infrastructure, funding, education, traffic laws and practices, policies and planning. The league ranks Massachusetts, Oregon, and Washington as the best states for cyclists, and Wyoming, Nebraska, and Mississippi as the worst.