Dangerous cycle lanes report

Road safety and perceived risk of cycle facilities in Copenhagen

is a report that makes unpleasant reading. I'd recommended it but the bottom line is that if you build more cycle lanes along roads then the danger along the road goes down but the danger at junctions goes up. 


"The increase in injuries due to the construction of cycle tracks arises because there are more injuries to pedestrians, cyclists and moped riders at junctions. There has been an increase of 28%, 22% and 37% respectively for these three road user groups." 


With an increase of +1951% in accidents when 'entering and exiting bus passengers' .  I think this means that if you build a cycle lane you get a big increase in cars hitting pedestrians. 


Apparently the problem is that cars turning is the most dangerous place - so introducing a cycle lane pushes cars of the main road meaning more turning and more turning means more accidents. Yuck. 


Comment 


Naturally we would say that the solution is to separate cyclists from cars at all junctions. This is good for the cyclists - they don't like slowing down for junctions and its good for cars - they don't have to look out for cyclists.  We believe the best  way you could do this is to have a gradient separation that is you need an elevated section at junctions. Having a raised section at each junction is inefficient  ( you keep going up and down ) so the natural conclusion is to have a continuously raised section with down spots away from junctions.