#NationalPedestrianSafetyMonth
We're celebrating National Pedestrian Safety Month by highlighting Complete Streets!???? ???
Complete Streets feature wide sidewalks, fully protected bike lanes, and shorter crossing distances to create the best way to improve safety and comfort for pedestrians, as well as cyclists and e-scooter riders.?
Most streets are designed for cars to dominate, traveling at speeds up to 50 MPH/80 KPH with narrow sidewalks - if there are sidewalks at all - and no protected bike lanes. ?This exposes pedestrians, cyclists, and e-scooter riders to a high risk of injury or death with?roughly 7500 pedestrians and 1000 cyclists killed by cars each year.?
This results in “a street that spans a spectrum from uncomfortable to downright deadly for those not using a car.” (Smart Growth America).?
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Cyclists and e-scooter riders overwhelmingly use the sidewalk only when they feel unsafe riding in the street, seeking to avoid becoming another statistic. Although the safety risk to pedestrians from bikes or scooters on the sidewalk is much lower than the risk to cyclists/e-scooter riders being on unsafe streets - fewer than 2% of all Lime-reported safety incidents involved pedestrians and only 14 (0.43%) of 3,300 bike injuries studied by Sonoma State University involved pedestrians - sidewalk riding can create an uncomfortable pedestrian experience, especially for vulnerable road users.?
Implementing complete streets is achievable. Smart Growth America provides over 30 examples of Complete Streets projects that improved safety,? increased walking, cycling, and transit use, and avoided a total of $18.1 million in collision and injury costs in one year alone.
Lime will continue with our efforts to keep pedestrians and riders safe through education, training, and new innovations to deter sidewalk riding. But we can’t do it alone. Providing safe spaces for all road users using tools like Complete Street design remains the best way to protect pedestrians, cyclists, and e-scooter riders.?