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Bicycling crashes on streetcar (tram) or train tracks: mixed methods to identify prevention measures

BACKGROUND: Streetcar or train tracks in urban areas are difficult for bicyclists to negotiate and are a cause of crashes and injuries. This study used mixed methods to identify measures to prevent such crashes, by examining track-related crashes that resulted in injuries to cyclists, and obtaining...

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Autores principales: Teschke, Kay, Dennis, Jessica, Reynolds, Conor C. O., Winters, Meghan, Harris, M. Anne
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4957308/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27448603
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-016-3242-3
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author Teschke, Kay
Dennis, Jessica
Reynolds, Conor C. O.
Winters, Meghan
Harris, M. Anne
author_facet Teschke, Kay
Dennis, Jessica
Reynolds, Conor C. O.
Winters, Meghan
Harris, M. Anne
author_sort Teschke, Kay
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Streetcar or train tracks in urban areas are difficult for bicyclists to negotiate and are a cause of crashes and injuries. This study used mixed methods to identify measures to prevent such crashes, by examining track-related crashes that resulted in injuries to cyclists, and obtaining information from the local transit agency and bike shops. METHODS: We compared personal, trip, and route infrastructure characteristics of 87 crashes directly involving streetcar or train tracks to 189 crashes in other circumstances in Toronto, Canada. We complemented this with engineering information about the rail systems, interviews of personnel at seven bike shops about advice they provide to customers, and width measurements of tires on commonly sold bikes. RESULTS: In our study, 32 % of injured cyclists had crashes that directly involved tracks. The vast majority resulted from the bike tire being caught in the rail flangeway (gap in the road surface alongside rails), often when cyclists made unplanned maneuvers to avoid a collision. Track crashes were more common on major city streets with parked cars and no bike infrastructure, with left turns at intersections, with hybrid, racing and city bikes, among less experienced and less frequent bicyclists, and among women. Commonly sold bikes typically had tire widths narrower than the smallest track flangeways. There were no track crashes in route sections where streetcars and trains had dedicated rights of way. CONCLUSIONS: Given our results, prevention efforts might be directed at individual knowledge, bicycle tires, or route design, but their potential for success is likely to differ. Although it may be possible to reach a broader audience with continued advice about how to avoid track crashes, the persistence and frequency of these crashes and their unpredictable circumstances indicates that other solutions are needed. Using tires wider than streetcar or train flangeways could prevent some crashes, though there are other considerations that lead many cyclists to have narrower tires. To prevent the majority of track-involved injuries, route design measures including dedicated rail rights of way, cycle tracks (physically separated bike lanes), and protected intersections would be the best strategy.
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spelling pubmed-49573082016-07-23 Bicycling crashes on streetcar (tram) or train tracks: mixed methods to identify prevention measures Teschke, Kay Dennis, Jessica Reynolds, Conor C. O. Winters, Meghan Harris, M. Anne BMC Public Health Research Article BACKGROUND: Streetcar or train tracks in urban areas are difficult for bicyclists to negotiate and are a cause of crashes and injuries. This study used mixed methods to identify measures to prevent such crashes, by examining track-related crashes that resulted in injuries to cyclists, and obtaining information from the local transit agency and bike shops. METHODS: We compared personal, trip, and route infrastructure characteristics of 87 crashes directly involving streetcar or train tracks to 189 crashes in other circumstances in Toronto, Canada. We complemented this with engineering information about the rail systems, interviews of personnel at seven bike shops about advice they provide to customers, and width measurements of tires on commonly sold bikes. RESULTS: In our study, 32 % of injured cyclists had crashes that directly involved tracks. The vast majority resulted from the bike tire being caught in the rail flangeway (gap in the road surface alongside rails), often when cyclists made unplanned maneuvers to avoid a collision. Track crashes were more common on major city streets with parked cars and no bike infrastructure, with left turns at intersections, with hybrid, racing and city bikes, among less experienced and less frequent bicyclists, and among women. Commonly sold bikes typically had tire widths narrower than the smallest track flangeways. There were no track crashes in route sections where streetcars and trains had dedicated rights of way. CONCLUSIONS: Given our results, prevention efforts might be directed at individual knowledge, bicycle tires, or route design, but their potential for success is likely to differ. Although it may be possible to reach a broader audience with continued advice about how to avoid track crashes, the persistence and frequency of these crashes and their unpredictable circumstances indicates that other solutions are needed. Using tires wider than streetcar or train flangeways could prevent some crashes, though there are other considerations that lead many cyclists to have narrower tires. To prevent the majority of track-involved injuries, route design measures including dedicated rail rights of way, cycle tracks (physically separated bike lanes), and protected intersections would be the best strategy. BioMed Central 2016-07-22 /pmc/articles/PMC4957308/ /pubmed/27448603 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-016-3242-3 Text en © The Author(s). 2016 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research Article
Teschke, Kay
Dennis, Jessica
Reynolds, Conor C. O.
Winters, Meghan
Harris, M. Anne
Bicycling crashes on streetcar (tram) or train tracks: mixed methods to identify prevention measures
title Bicycling crashes on streetcar (tram) or train tracks: mixed methods to identify prevention measures
title_full Bicycling crashes on streetcar (tram) or train tracks: mixed methods to identify prevention measures
title_fullStr Bicycling crashes on streetcar (tram) or train tracks: mixed methods to identify prevention measures
title_full_unstemmed Bicycling crashes on streetcar (tram) or train tracks: mixed methods to identify prevention measures
title_short Bicycling crashes on streetcar (tram) or train tracks: mixed methods to identify prevention measures
title_sort bicycling crashes on streetcar (tram) or train tracks: mixed methods to identify prevention measures
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4957308/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27448603
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-016-3242-3
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