City says there are 3 bike-vehicle accidents a week in Hamilton
Each year of the last 5, an average of 157 cyclists had a collision with a motor vehicle
A five-year average of cyclists and vehicle accidents in Hamilton shows that three collisions happen every week — a rate that has not showed any sings of slowing.
Numbers from the City of Hamilton's traffic engineering division showed an average of 157 cyclists had a collision with a vehicle every year in the past five years. Eighty-three per cent of accidents result in some form of injury, and 16 per cent result in only property damage. The average has stayed stable over the past five years, peaking at 168 in 2013, but dropping to 153 collisions in the past 12 months.
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Over that same five-year period, four people have died as a result of bike and motor vehicle collisions, making up half a percent of the 787 collisions since October of 2009.
The most surprising revelation of the data is that there is no one intersection to lay blame on.
City traffic engineer: Cyclist-vehicle accidents 'spread out' over lower city
"There's nothing really that stands out," says Dave Ferguson, superintendent of traffic engineering at the city. "It's spread out."
Accidents were defined as any reported collision between a cyclist and a vehicle. If an accident was categorized as one that caused personal injury, it was not counted towards the 127 collisions that resulted in only property damage.
Streets in the downtown core have the most accidents, an "expected" figure according to Ferguson, but no one intersection had more than two accidents per year.
Barton, Cannon, King and Main Sts. made up the most common roadways where accidents occurred.
Five years before trend data can weigh in on Cannon Street success or failure
Cannon St. will be a particular focus for Ferguson's team, since the two-way bike path was installed this past summer, but he cautioned against weighing next year's data as a success or failure, pointing out both cyclists and drivers will have to get accustomed to the new systems.
Ferguson said they would hold off and analyze five-year "trend" data to measure the success of the bike lane project "to see what changes occur," meaning it could be years before the city can report any reduction in cyclist and motors collision with complete confidence.
On the Mountain, accidents were scarce, but there were a few accident-streets to report including Upper James, Stone Church or Rymal Road. The accident data collected by the city was "primarily" in the downtown core, Ferguson said.
Cannon's bike lanes were a $1.6 million project, implemented ahead of SoBi, Hamilton's bike share program, which has said it will officially launch in March 2015 with 750 bikes found at 105 stations across the lower city.