Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Bicycle Safety: The Child Metric

I've been thinking about bicycle safety and making bicycle facilities here in Cleveland OH.  A great primer on bicycle safety can be found here.  One way to view bicycle safety is to use this image:
A little girl or boy on a bicycle.

Now take a picture of a small child and superimpose it over a google street view of the Detroit superior bridge.


Nice lane control Pete!  I wanted to find a picture of a smaller kid.  How does the idea of a small child traveling over the Detroit Superior bridge feel to you?  Are you concerned for their safety?  Does it seem out of place?  Well here's a little nugget for you to think about: if you are worried about a small child getting ran over on our streets, and the image evokes strong feelings of concern for the childs safety, consider that I am also just as vulnerable to being killed on this bridge.  More money needs to be put into bicycle awareness and appropriate bicycle facilities until we can use an image of a seven year old traveling on any given road in Cleveland, without evoking feelings of fear for the child's safety.  If you still have fear for that child, then Cleveland is not doing it's job of protecting cyclists.