New York Cyclist Deaths Spike, Worrying Bike Advocates

2023 is shaping up to be a fatal year for people on bikes in New York City, warns Alissa Walker in Curbed, writing that 10 cyclists were killed in the city in the first three months of the year. Walker notes that the number of deaths had already risen by one more by the time her article was published. 

“Early figures like this have bike-safety advocates bracing for the worst — the city hasn’t even hit peak riding season yet.” For contrast, 10 New York City cyclists were killed over the entire year in 2018.

Walker criticizes the city’s campaign to bring awareness to dooring, noting that “The vast majority of New York City’s cyclists are killed because they have to share space with large moving vehicles traveling at high speeds.”

For Walker, “What needs to happen is the fulfillment of Eric Adams’s promise to harden existing bike lanes with concrete barriers, a cheap and effective way to save lives while bigger, more permanent changes can be made to the streetscape.”