Are car/bike colissions down or staying the course?
According to Toronto Police collisions between cars and bikes are down slightly this year:
In a 12-month period ended Aug. 30, 2008, there were 1,155 collisions between bikes and vehicles, police said. That works out to around 3.1 crashes per day.
During the same time from 2008 to '09, there were only 985 crashes or 2.69 per day.
Big woop. That's not much of a statistical difference. The media always likes to take two data points and call it a trend. This is hardly a trend.
They go on to suggest these collisions are due mostly to infractions by cyclists by connecting it in our minds to ticketing cyclists:
According to numbers from traffic services, of the 417,879 traffic tickets issued this year, only 1,894 were issued to cyclists. That's less than the 2,718 issued to pedestrians.
"Is there room for improvement on enforcement? Oh yeah," Burrows said. "Is that the route we want to take? I don't think so, I think we'd prefer to go after education and change the behaviour."
The death of Darcy Allan Sheppard who was fatally injured in an incident involving the car driven by former attorney general Michael Bryant Monday is considered a pedestrian fatality even though he had earlier been riding a bike.
Before Sheppard's death, 15 pedestrians, two drivers, four passengers and one motorcyclist had died on Toronto roadways this year.
British police were called out for massaging their cyclist accident numbers earlier this year. Opinions on why they did this related to the UK's embarrassing cyclist fatality rate(when compared to the other European nations - not Canada.).
Also, lets face it... as a cyclist filing an accident or collision report is treated as a laborious and onerous act by police. As a result many cyclists are quite reluctant to report being hit, unless they're filling out the report from the emergency room.
So, in the face of these numbers and the reality on the streets, I'm suspecting Toronto Police just got better at discouraging cyclists to file reports.
P.s. your title is misspelled.
.. investigation when I was hit
http://sockpuppet.ca/xray
He is dispatched to a 911 call for "cyclist struck" and manipulates that into cyclist had a seizure?
He argued with me about what I did for a living. I blacked out from oxygen deficiency trying to argue on one lung.
I just began relating events and got as far as describing "a push from behind" when he cut me off and began making unfounded accusations and telling me what he was going to report. Investigation? It was more an interrogation. At no time was I given an opportunity to relate what happened.
He told me since I was less than coherent coming out from the general anesthetic administered me so they could insert a chest tube to reinflate a lung, whatever I said could be dismissed.
damn they look alike.
EVERY report filed is considered laborious and onerous by police. They want to be dealing with the stuff that generated the report in the first place, not doing the paperwork.
You say many cyclists are reluctant to report, like they get hit on a regular basis. Is that really the case? I would imagine if that were the case, each successive accident will result in more anger and willingness to file a report.
I believe the real reason behind the trend you're describing is simply due to word of mouth. Cyclists think that the police wont listen to them, when that's not the case. Sure, somtimes police don't treat a situation seriously, but then again that's not exclusive to dealings with cyclists. It's also human nature.
Police aren't monsters actively trying to discourage people from reporting accidents. I'm really sick of seeing this kind of talk. I've had enough dealings with police to know that they aren't treating the issues on the streets like it's some kind of playground argument.
Hang out with some officers, people. Make an effort to find out what makes them tick. They'll welcome the opportunity to make the connection and find out what makes you tick too. This is community relations 101
I couldn't really say, since the effect of either cause is the same; the reports don't get filed.
I'm also not saying that all police are bad but, of course, there is always a wide variety.
Yes, I think many cyclists get into seemingly innocent little accidents all the time and that only the more traumatic ones get reported. As for how many of those accidents go unreported I can only guess. However, those successive "untraumatic" accidents might be creating those militant cyclists we keep hearing about. The ones out for justice old school style!
Maybe it's obvious that I'm not enrolled in community relations 101. To me though, the existence of such a class seems like an ill portent for the community. Sounds like something they could program Robocop for! :)
Were there more of less cyclists on the road and/or was there a change in the number of cyclists on the road. I think one could assume yes as many people have lost their jobs. Same goes for drivers.