Black Cyclists Dying at Alarmingly High Rates

Streetsblog’s Kea Wilson highlights the alarming disparities in cyclist deaths, writing that “Black cyclists are more than four times more likely to die while riding a bike than White ones on a per mile basis, a new study finds — and the stats aren’t much better for other modes or other racially marginalized groups.”

The same study found similar disparities for Black pedestrians, who are 2.2 times more likely to die walking during the day than White pedestrians. This figure swells to 3.4 times more likely after dark. “That’s despite the fact that Black residents logged proportionally fewer miles on foot, bike, or car than most other groups, relative to their share of the population, according to the National Household Travel Survey data from which the stats were sourced.”

Prior to this study, other research suggested that “Black residents are significantly more likely to live on or near dangerous roads with fast vehicle traffic and little lighting, as well as in communities with less investment in transit, protected bike lanes, and well-maintained sidewalks.”

Taken together with his study, [study co-author Matthew Raifman] says these data points signal a clear need for cities to more closely analyze the disparate aspects of traffic violence, not just for the nation as a whole, but in the specific places where Black and Hispanic residents are most likely to travel — especially when it comes time to make life-saving infrastructure investments.

As Wilson writes, “Raifman acknowledges that more research needs to be done to understand the root causes of America’s traffic violence disparities — but that shouldn’t be an excuse for policymakers not to act.”