Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition

The LACBC has been out front on the safety effort over the past year, launching the City Lights campaign that recognized not all cyclists are spandexed Westsiders or fixie hipsters. This past April, the county-wide bike advocacy organization called out the City of Los Angeles and the LAPD over their failure to follow up on hits-and-run collisions, the most dangerous and cowardly threats that cyclists face on high-traffic boulevards. According to the LACBC’s analysis of police data:

In 2011 alone, there were over 18,800 hit-and-run collisions in the city. Five hundred and fourteen involved a person riding a bicycle, and another 759 involved pedestrians; over 12,880 involved another motor vehicle. Hit-and-run collisions resulted in the deaths of 36 Angelenos in 2011; 72% of those were people who were walking or riding their bicycles on the streets of Los Angeles at the moment they were hit. Hit-and-runs destroy peoples’ lives and property. Currently the LAPD does not know how many of those 18,800+ hit-and-run collisions were solved or how many were prosecuted.

The LACBC goes on to suggest that investigations haven’t always proceeded with a regard for all of the facts, or perhaps weren’t undertaken with the gusto that should attend on-road slaughter of cyclists. But less-serious injury collisions often go without investigation, too, which is a problem, the LACBC said, that could be addressed through a special division that focuses on bike-involved collisions. Today the police have protocols and standardized paperwork but the wide variation evidenced in how officers (and departments) approach bike-involved collisions suggests the need for greater attention to the standardization of investigation procedures.

(And that’s not just in City of LA. In early February, for example, Better Bike reported a motorist for battery and a report was duly taken by the Beverly Hills Police Department. But the investigation went nowhere almost immediately, and now, four months later, we’re still waiting to hear something, anything, about the disposition of that case. Even the detective supervisor hasn’t returned a call.)

Again, it’s all about the data. The LACBC has launched a new effort to collect hits-and-run accounts for coordination and analysis. “Share Your Hit & Run Story” offers a webform for reporting with pointed questions about police response to hit-and-run incidents in City of LA. The collection tool suggests that the organization is less interested here in an overall tally than the investigative process. Again it’s not only a large department like LAPD that needs watching: last Summer we listened to an account of a coma-hospitalized rider who had to do his own sleuthing when the Beverly Hills department declined to follow up.

What We Can Do It Here At Home

For a year Beverly Hills Traffic & Parking Commission representatives have met with cyclists. Though five meetings and two hearings convened under the ad-hoc Bike Plan Update Committee and a follow-up public hearing in full Commission, bike collision data came up for discussion for a total of five minutes. Why didn’t it play a greater role in the Commission’s work? Shouldn’t bike planning be data-driven like all of the other plans that we prepare?

We proposed to the Traffic & Parking Commission that Transportation collect and report regularly on bike-involved collisions. We need that data in near-real time, we’ve told them. Why wait until Sacramento makes it available in 12-18 months? After all, today we can get good local data for petty crimes like pilferage from the police blotter, but we can’t learn about a traffic fatality simply because it’s not released?

Safety data seems to be our Transportation division’s blind spot. We’ve done no city bike count. To officials there, we’re practically invisible. So we at Better Bike asked for collision data several times and the Transportation division officials have said they’re working on it (but don’t hold your breath). The problem is that BHPD does not aggregate that data which means we have to figure out how to get it from paper police report into a form that we can use.

We suggested that the department create an application programming interface (API) to make that data available in near-real time for community-side analysis. That’s how many cities make data available to the public because it eliminates the request-and-response loop and instead makes release a part of the routine. And we’re working on it and hope to know more soon. In the meantime, we will be joining other regional advocates to force governments’ hand to make our streets safe for those who choose to ride. Have an idea for how we can make our streets safe? (Let us know in the comments.)

In California we can do better. Recall the California Bicycle Coalition‘s year-long campaign to get Sacramento to bless legislation to mandate a 3-foot safe passing distance. After a few times getting strafed by a motorist at speed (the front bumper coming within 6-12 inches of your calf, say) the need for the law becomes clear. Yet it was a heavy political lift because it was opposed by the Auto Club and CHP. Ultimately it was vetoed by Governor Brown. Now that the famously constipated state legislature has passed it a second time, who knows if he will sign? Whether he does or not, cyclist safety will ultimately be in our own hands.