At the halfway mark through 2015, it's time to look at the bike/ped injury and fatality data and see how we're doing towards our goal of making Lee County a safer place to walk and bike. While the data to date (Jan. - June 30, 2015) indicates that Lee County is not likely to repeat last year's shockingly high bicyclist fatality number (9), our pedestrian fatalities numbers are rising. Most troubling, injury levels for both cyclists and pedestrians are heading in the direction of record highs by the end of 2015.
During this same
period, there has been a great deal of media attention and local government
activity aimed at making our communities safer for biking and walking--from the
News-Press "Share the Road" campaign and in-depth feature stories on
cycling dangers and ways to make our community safer; the Bicycle Friendly
Communities national expert visits to four local communities; three Lee County
cities signing on to USDOT Secretary Foxx's Mayor Challenge to address bike/ped
safety; to targeted education and enforcement efforts by local law enforcement
agencies.
The bottomline is that while there are lots of efforts underway to make it safer for people walking and biking in Lee County, we need to step up our game, if we expect to lower our stubbornly high bike/ped fatality and injury numbers.
Background
Lee County has consistently ranked in the top quarter of the
most dangerous areas in Florida for pedestrians and cyclists...in a state that
is the most dangerous state in the country for these vulnerable road
users. In September 2013, the Lee MPO
Board adopted a Countywide Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety Action Plan aimed at
reducing bicycle and pedestrian injury and fatality crashes through a wide
range of recommended activities--from education, engineering, to
enforcement. The Action Plan focuses on
18 specific recommendations (both short-term and long-term), with specific
milestones and assignments for action.
Click here to review the plan.
The Lee MPO staff reports to the MPO Board at least every
quarter on the status of bike/ped crashes and implementation of the Action
Plan, and updates a series of graphs that track the bike/ped injury and
fatality numbers from 2000 to 2015, with the latest monthly data.
Bike/Ped Injury and Fatality Data
Below are the graphs prepared by MPO staff (thanks, Brian Raimondo)
that tell the story about how we're doing so far in 2015 at the halfway point,
as compared to previous years. Here's
what we know:
So far this year (through the end of June), Lee County has
experienced 3 bicycle fatalities and 11 pedestrian fatalities. While the bicycle fatality number indicates
that we hopefully won't repeat last year's record high of 9 fatalities, we are
already above the level in our best years.
In terms of pedestrian fatalities, the 11 fatalities to date is likely
to mean we'll have a higher than average number of pedestrian fatalities this
year, although not likely to repeat the 2013 high of 24. Again, the 11 to date is already higher than
our annual numbers in our best years.
Even more troubling is the upward trend in both bicycle and
pedestrian injuries. To date, we've
already had 106 pedestrian injuries and 128 bicycle injuries. Historically, about 54% of our bike/ped
crashes occur in the first 6 months of the year, with about 46% in the last 6
months of the year. if those trends
hold, we could see historic highs in injuries, esp. for bicycle injuries, which
have been trending up each year since 2006.
Although we don't have the breakdown yet for how many of these are
"hit-and-run" cases, this is something of grave concern, as Lee
County saw a 50% increase in these cases over the past two years.
Although it's too early to know whether these trends will
hold for the remainder of the year, any way you look at it, having 14
fatalities and 234 injuries in the first half of this year is not welcome news.
Below are links to the four safety-related efforts underway
over the past six months:
1.
Media Campaign
For more than a year, News-Press has focused on bicycle
safety issues and what can be done to make SWFL roads safer for cyclists
through their "Share the Road" campaign and in-depth feature
reporting. So far this year, they have
done two major in-depth features-- one in March and one in June. (see links
below)
The media coverage
has helped raise awareness about the problems and the responsibilities of
everyone for taking action to address them--from individual citizens' roadway
behavior and attitudes, to elected officials and law enforcement officers. In June they focused on both national and
local solutions to create a bicycle-friendly environment, and left us with a bottom-line
message: we need to step up our game!
BikeWalkLee Blog: June 25, 2015: BWL Column: Southwest Florida has plenty of bike/walk successes (our response to the News-Press June 14th feature story, "Political will is needed to make cycling safer")
BikeWalkLee Blog: June 15, 2015: News-Press: Political will is needed to make cycling safer
BikeWalkLeeBlog: March 8, 2015: Overview of News-Press March 8th feature coverage on biking safety and a call to action
Also listen to the related 3/18
WGCU/Gulf Coast Live: Improving Safety for Florida Bicyclists, and read
BWL's 3/19 guest opinion in response: BWL
Guest Opinion: Responsibility for safety falls on road users.
(BWL's response to some comments in letter to editor
to dispel myths and explain what it means to share the road.)
2. Three Local Jurisdictions
Participate in USDOT Secretary Foxx's "Mayor's Challenge" for safety
 |
| USDOT Secretary Foxx launching Mayor's Challenge |
In January, USDOT Secretary Foxx challenged mayors and local
elected officials to take significant action to improve safety for bicycle
riders and pedestrians of all ages and abilities over the next year, launching his " Safer People, Safer
Streets" initiative. This local-based
major bike/ped safety initiative takes a complete streets-approach, which
provides further support for the FDOT bike/ped safety and complete streets
initiative, and the related Lee County efforts, and re-enforces the Bicycle-Friendly
Communities expert visits.
(BikeWalkLee's Darla Letourneau was interviewed by the League of
American Bicyclists (LAB) for their feature story on the Mayors Challenge and
how it can help local communities.)
BikeWalkLee Blog: March 19, 2015: City of Cape Coral joins USDOT Secretary's "Mayors Challenge for Safer People, Safer Streets"
BikeWalkLee Blog: March 19, 2015: City of Bonita Springs first in SWFL to join USDOT Secretary's"Mayors Challenge for Safer People, Safer Streets"
BikeWalkLee Blog: January 22, 2015: USDOT Secretary Foxx Launches Mayors' Challenge for Safer People,Safer Streets
3. LAB's Bicycle Friendly Communities' visits to
Lee County
 |
| Steve Clark's field trip with Sanibel officials and advocates |
Lee County was selected as one of the
100 communities that the League of American Bicyclists (LAB) visited in 2015,
as part of its new initiative to bring bicycle-friendly expertise directly to
the local level. These visits are an
opportunity for local communities to get some hands-on technical assessment of
its bicycling infrastructure and to learn about best practices from other
communities, with the goal of making communities such as Lee County more
bicycle friendly. In January and February 2015, BFC's Steve Clark visited Sanibel,
Bonita Springs, Cape Coral, and Fort Myers.
Making SWFL communities more bicycle-friendly also means they're safer.
BikeWalkLee Blog: January 29, 2015: LESSONS FROM THE ROAD: BFC Steve shares five key insights from a year of Bicycle Friendly Community visits
BikeWalkLee Blog: January 18, 2015: Reflections on national Bicycle Friendly Communities expert,Steve Clark's week in Lee County
4. Law Enforcement Initiatives
 |
| FHP bike/ped safety detail operation |
FDOT grants to the Lee County Sheriff's Office, Florida Highway Patrol, and the Cape Coral Police Department are supporting special high visibility education enforcement operations in selected "hot spot" areas, as part of a comprehensive safety campaign that promotes safe pedestrian, bicyclist and driver behaviors. In addition to these operations, other initiatives have been undertaken by the Cape Coral Police Department and FHP, as noted in the blog posts linked below:
(FHP launched an awareness campaign to address the increasing
number of hit-and-run crashes in Florida. Between 2012 and 2014, cases of
hit-and-run collisions in Lee County increased by 50 percent, and we know that
a disproportionate number of the victims are pedestrians and cyclists. As
a society, there should be zero tolerance for drivers who hit and run.)
Previous BikeWalkLee Safety Update Blog Posts
April 2014
