Bike Safety is the topic of a 2017 scholarship organized by the Friends ORR Scholarship because bike crashes are on the rise. Come learn about it and other bike path related issues at the Friends of Bike Path meeting on August 8 at 6:30 pm at Mattapoisett Free Public Library.
Last year, a serious bike crash occurred in Freetown. This year, a man on a bike who failed to stop at a stop sign was hit by a car on July 1 in Wareham and seriously injured. A few days later, a young motorcyclist was killed in Marion. Summer is here, spirits are high, and good judgment on our roads could never be needed more.
Greater awareness about the consequences of unsafe riding and driving is needed to lower crash rates for vulnerable road users. What’s unsafe? Not having your full attention on the road, not following the rules, and not being prepared to avoid a crash when someone else makes a mistake. As towns come together for safety, please know individuals can lower crash rates by learning and following the rules of the road, and driving or riding defensively.
Old Rochester Regional High School AP Statistics students are ahead of the curve in understanding why bike crashes occur and how to prevent them. In May and June, they participated in a pilot program about bike safety. In a first-of-its-kind scholarship, six student teams studied five years of car-bicycle crash data as the culminating project for the course. The data (6,800 crashes state-wide) is publicly available in the Registry of Motor Vehicle’s “crash portal.” Students learned that crashes can happen at any time and any place, but they occur at intersections and driveways with more frequency. They learned that Wareham, New Bedford, and Fall River crash rates are typical for urban areas in the state. They learned that Tri-Town, even with our pleasant low-traffic roads, has a higher crash rate than most small towns. They learned that many vacation locations have high crash rates for their populations. The question is “Why?” Who is not paying attention and for what reasons? Are better road networks and better driver education needed? When students finished their submissions, they understood that even though bike crashes seem rare, injuries can be severe. There is no substitute for good judgment, for knowing and following the rules of the road, and for motorists to always be looking for motorcyclists, bicyclists and pedestrians.
The winner of the scholarship, Evan Tilley of Rochester, will be recognized at an upcoming School Committee Meeting on September 13. Panelists from Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) have asked for the project to be discussed at MassDOT’s upcoming Bicycle and Pedestrian Conference “Moving Together” in late September.