A new study maps the most dangerous roads for cyclists in San Diego County.
The study, commissioned by local personal injury attorney Mike Bomberger, pinpoints the exact spots where people on bikes are getting hit and injured in collisions with cars, like the intersection of Midway Drive and Rosecrans Street.
According to crash data over the past seven years, 15 crashes involving bikes with 16 injuries make it the number one most dangerous crossing.
The intersection features several turning lanes going in multiple directions. Pair that with hectic, anxious, distracted and late drivers sometimes running stale yellow or even red lights, and you get a safety nightmare for oft-forgotten cyclists.
Midway Drive doesn't have bike lanes and the bike lanes along Rosecrans Street are dangerously close to fast-moving cars.
According to the study, from 2010 to 2016 there were 6,824 bicycle crashes in San Diego County documented by law enforcement. Of those crashes, only 177 did not involve any type of injury.
To be fair, many of the high-crash zones are in areas where you'll find people on bikes not obeying the rules and riding irresponsibly.
Local
Bomberger represents a lot of cyclists. He’s an avid rider himself and has been hit three times by drivers.
He hopes that by isolating the problem areas, the study will help city leaders and decision makers better prioritize where to make improvements.
Ultimately he wants more bike lanes, but specifically, he wants protected bike lanes similar to the lanes you’ll find in Seattle, Washington, with different colored pavement.
“Other cities are far ahead of us in their cycling infrastructure and what I was hoping to do through this study was identify areas that are dangerous so we can try and make those areas more safe,” Bomberger said.
For a more detailed look at where the crashes between cyclists and cars are happening, including in your neighborhood, click here.
