Originally Posted by
PeteHski
The best local town/city I can think of for relatively safe cycling is Milton Keynes (UK). They have 200 miles of purpose built bike paths (Redways) criss-crossing the city and wider area. I haven't ridden there for a few years, so can't comment on e-bike use, but I would imagine there are loads of them.
As it happens, there is a
very in-depth article extant on those Redways -- and why "separate but equal" infrastructure never is, and why it doesn't work.
Another analysis of Milton Keynes contains the following interesting section:
Originally Posted by http://www.cyclecraft.co.uk/digest/2decades.html
It is known that many accidents involving cyclists are not reported to the Police, but this is especially the case for accidents that occur on cycle paths where fewer than 3 per cent of accidents are believed to be reported
(Ref 5). In particular, accidents that do not involve a motor vehicle are rarely recorded even when serious.
In Milton Keynes this situation has been aggravated by a frequent unwillingness on the part of the Police to accept accident reports from cyclists, especially when off-road. One fatality to a cyclist was not recorded as a cycling accident.
Notwithstanding these shortcomings, the Stats 19 statistics have recorded a considerable number of Redway injuries over the years. Table 1 lists the comparative accident performance of Redways, local roads and grid roads in the new town area.
Year Grid road Local road Redway 1988 13 (2) 22 (5) 13 (3) 1989 19 (2) 18 (3) 13 (3) 1990 26 (7) 13 (1) 18 (1) 1991 15 (2) 12 (0) 9 (1) 1992 12 (1) 19 (0) 17 (1) 1993 13 (1) 24 (1) 13 (1) 1994 25 (1) 16 (1) 24 (4) 1995 13 (1) 20 (0) 26 (6) 1996 16 (2) 21 (1) 10 (0) 1997 20 (3) 23 (1) 28 (4)
Table 1
Cyclist accidents 1988 - 1997
(Serious and fatal in brackets)
Stats 19
There have been as many, or more, serious accidents on Redways as on grid roads in five of the past 10 years, and more than on local roads in four years.
So we find, hopefully to no one's surprise at this point, that dedicated cycling infrastructure did not work to improve safety in Milton Keynes either -- and we can add it to the list of literally every single municipality that has attempted such a strategy.