Not All Roundabouts are Created Equal When it Comes to Bicycle Safety
From Streetsblog.usa
As roundabouts decrease traffic deaths for drivers, some designs of the controversial traffic treatment may actually increase collisions for people on bikes while scaring others off riding entirely, a series of studies suggests — and its raising thorny questions about who might get hurt along the road to Vision Zero.
As part of an ongoing study of the safety impacts of roundabouts, Utah State University-based researchers Patrick Singleton and Nirajan Poudel surveyed 49 studies from roughly a dozen countries and concluded that, on the aggregate, roundabouts may actually increase crashes between bicyclists and drivers — and in some cases, they increase serious injuries and deaths of people on two wheels, too.
The operative word in that sentence, of course, is “may” — and Singleton is careful to point out that not all roundabouts are created equal. Researchers in Belgium, for instance, recorded a staggering 93 percent increase in injury crashes at the intersections that weren’t outfitted with accompanying protected bike lanes; meanwhile, Danish researchers studied roundabouts that did have separated lanes, and logged an almost-as-staggering 84 percent reduction in crashes. United States academics, by contrast, often struggled to draw any definitive conclusions, because there were so few roundabouts, crashes, or even simply bicyclists in U.S. communities.
Photo by Shane Rounce on Unsplash
