Friday, October 08, 2010

Teenage Bicyclist Killed in Southwest Philadelphia

According to 6ABC a "16 or 17 year old" bicyclist was killed today in a crash with a trash truck. The crash occurred at 3:40 p.m. at the intersection of 58th and Elmwood streets.


View Bicyclists Crashes 2008-2010 NJ and SE PA in a larger map

For urban bicyclists heavy trucks represent the greatest fatal threat. Even in Copenhagen 4 of the 5 bicyclist deaths in 2008 were the result of "right turning lorries". Reducing the number of urban truck and bicycle crashes is a priority for European traffic safety officials.

The 58th Street connector path is currently under design with construction likely in either 2011 or 2012. This route has many challenges for engineers to tackle but the goal is to create an off-road multi-use path adjacent to 58th Street from Bartram's Garden to the Cobbs Creek Bikeway.

The Bicycle Coalition aspires to achieve zero bicycle deaths in the Greater Philadelphia region. As a father I cannot think of a more devastating loss than a death of a child, we offer our deepest sympathies to the victim's family and friends.

1 comments:

Peter said...

Copenhagen puts their bike lanes and sidepaths to the right of right turning vehicles. Hence the statistics.

Properly designed bicycle facilities avoid this by discontinuing near intersections. Bicyclists then need to join the traffic flow at intersections, choosing lanes based on their destination, and not pass moving vehicles that might turn right on their right.

Simple.