Riding a bike in San Antonio can be deadly.
Twenty-nine people were killed or seriously injured while riding a bike in 2018 in the San Antonio area.
That’s according to the Alamo Area Metropolitan Planning Organization’s (MPO) bicycle advisory committee on the website of Texas Public Radio KSTX - San Antonio.
The Bicycle Mobility Advisory Committee said that they are committed to reducing this number of deaths and injuries through the 5 E's: engineering, education, encouragement, enforcement and evaluation.
The Alamo Area MPO covers the counties of Bexar, Comal, Guadalupe and a portion of Kendall County. San Antonio is in Bexar County.
Bicyclists are considered vehicle operators and are held to the same standards as motorists but are significantly more vulnerable on the road. Two bicycle deaths have occurred already in 2019 and both involved a drunk driver.
Vision Zero San Antonio, a project of the City of San Antonio Transportation and Capital Improvements Department, released a report in January that found deaths from vehicle and motorcycle crashes were down in the city in 2018 compared to 2017. Bicyclists and pedestrians weren’t so lucky.
San Antonio reported four deaths from bicycle crashes in 2018 compared to two the year before. There were 49 pedestrian fatalities in 2018 and 44 in 2017, according to a post by KENS5.
Officials working toward bicyclist safety
Bicycle safety efforts that Alamo Area MPO officials are working on:
- Strategies to reduce crashes
- Updates of trail designs
- Soliciting bike safety tips
- Scheduling of events like The Walk & Roll Rally, to encourage people to walk, ride a bike, take transit or carpool instead of driving alone, and Bike To Work Day
- Offering street skills and defensive driving courses to promote better driving and riding behavior
- Analyzing crash data to identify factors contributing to serious injury crashes
San Antonio’s Bike Share is a program with broad community support that has increased access to bicycling since 2011, according to the Alamo Area Bike Share Master Plan. Bike shares are like libraries but instead of books, patrons take out bikes for limited periods.
San Antonio’s bike share program has grown from 14 stations and 140 bikes in 2011 to 61 stations and 535 bikes as of the master plan report dated November 2018.
The bike share program operates in the center of San Antonio between Interstates 10 and 37 and extends from the Witte Museum along the Mission Reach to Mission Espada. The attractions along the San Antonio River are some of the most popular stations in the system.
Among the challenges is that San Antonio, as with other urban areas in the U.S., has prioritized development of a vehicle transportation system emphasizing passenger cars. Bicycling is an integral part of how residents of San Antonio get around. They often must share the road with cars and trucks, which can be dangerous. Bicyclists are often not seen by motorists. Even worse, some motorists are downright hostile towards bicyclists.
Contact The Herrera Law Firm in San Antonio, Texas right now for help if you’ve been injured in a bicycle crash or car, truck, motorcycle or pedestrian accident. Our personal injury lawyers will fight for you.
