The Worst Year on Two Wheels — and Foot

GT County isn't alone in the spike in vehicle vs. bike/pedestrian collisions

By Craig Manning | Nov. 6, 2021

On Aug. 24 this year, a 16-year-old girl died after being struck by a semi-truck while riding her bike in Interlochen. She was on her way to work.

On Sept. 6, a 76-year-old woman was killed after being hit by a pickup truck. It was 10am, and she had been walking along Traversefield Drive in Traverse City.

On the morning of Sept. 16, a Traverse City Area Public Schools (TCAPS) student was hit by a pickup truck as he attempted to cross Peninsula Drive to reach his school bus stop. The student survived the crash and was treated for his injuries at Munson Medical Center.

These incidents constitute just a few of the many vehicle-versus-cyclist or vehicle-versus-pedestrian crashes that have occurred in the region this year. If you’ve felt like headlines and stories of this ilk have been alarmingly common lately, you aren’t mistaken: According to Grand Traverse County Sheriff Tom Bensley, there have been a dozen traffic fatalities in the county – plus another two in the City of Traverse City proper — as of mid-October this year.

It’s the deadliest year on Grand Traverse County roads in recent memory. For comparison’s sake, 2020 saw just three traffic fatalities in Grand Traverse County and the City of Traverse City combined. In 2019, the count was seven. In 2018, it was five. From 2013 to 2017, annual traffic death numbers for the city and the county ranged from 7 to 14.

Those numbers account for traffic fatalities in general; not just crashes involving pedestrians or cyclists. Still, this year’s numbers show the higher risk levels that non-vehicle groups shoulder when using local roads. Collectively, Bensley says pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorcyclists accounted for eight of the 14 fatalities that had been recorded through mid-October.

“This year has not been a good one,” the sheriff says.

THE ILLUSION OF SAFETY
Grand Traverse County’s spike in crashes and deaths has made local roads a scarier place for pedestrians and cyclists to be. Alarmingly, though, the trend isn’t just a local one. In fact, 2020 was the deadliest and most dangerous year on American roads in over a decade.

It’s not a trend most would have expected. At the outset of the pandemic, many assumed that 2020 would actually be a safer year on America’s roads and highways. Businesses closing their offices and pivoting their teams to remote work meant that there were fewer people commuting to and from their jobs. The travel and tourism industry took a huge hit as well, as people stayed home and “sheltered in place.”

A general assumption was that the reduced traffic patterns would loosen gridlock, in big cities and small communities alike.

Those assumptions weren’t wrong, per se: According to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the number of vehicle miles traveled (VMT) in the United States dropped 430.2 billion in 2020 compared to the year before — a 13.2 percent decline. Meanwhile, pedestrian and cyclist activity increased: Reports out of New York City, for instance, indicated that metro cycling traffic spiked 50 percent last year. More broadly, bike sales skyrocketed in 2020 — to the point where there were significant bike shortage issues in many parts of the country.

But the fewer-cars-on-the-road phenomenon has not made the world safer for pedestrians, cyclists, or even other drivers. On the contrary, pandemic-era traffic patterns have actually kicked risk levels into higher gear.

Let’s start with pedestrians. Per the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA), whose membership is made up of state highway safety offices of the 50 states, U.S. territories, and the Indian Nations,

2020 saw “the largest ever annual increase in the rate at which drivers struck and killed people on foot.”

Even looking at the raw numbers, more pedestrians in the United States died in 2020 than in other recent years. The total death toll — of 6,721 pedestrians killed — was up 4.8 percent from 2019 (6,412 deaths) and up more than 11 percent from 2017 (5,977 deaths). To put the numbers in perspective, 2020’s fatality rate means that one pedestrian was hit and killed about every 78 and a half minutes last year.

At first glance, things didn’t seem nearly as dire in the cycling community. According to Outside Magazine, there were 697 cyclist deaths in the U.S. in 2020. That number is down from 846 in 2019, which itself was a slight decrease from 857 in 2018 — the highest fatality rate on record since 1990.

But these raw numbers look starker when factoring in the decrease in cars on the road.

According to the GHSA, based on 2020’s 13.2 percent decrease in vehicle miles traveled (VMT), the pedestrian fatality rate was 2.3 deaths per billion VMT — an unprecedented 21 percent increase from 1.9 pedestrian deaths per billion VMT in 2019.

“This projection is the largest ever annual increase in the pedestrian death rate since the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) was established in 1975,” the GHSA reported.

For cyclists, deaths per billion VMT in 2020 were 0.298, up from 0.256 in 2019.

A YEAR OF DRIVING DANGEROUSLY
So, why aren’t the less-busy roads of the pandemic era also proving to be safer roads, as many assumed?

A change in driver behaviors is the most likely explanation. With fewer cars on the road last year, drivers had more opportunities to drive faster and more recklessly. “Pandemic set off deadly rise in speeding that hasn’t stopped” proclaimed an AP News headline in August, citing damning statistics about the lack of caution drivers were exhibiting. In California, for example, AP reported that tickets “for speeding levels in excess of 100 mph from January to June [2021] were nearly double pre-pandemic levels.”

Abuse of alcohol and drugs has also been a factor. One of the most widely reported traffic tragedies of the pandemic era occurred last December when the driver of a box truck plowed into a group of 20 cyclists on U.S. Highway 95 near Las Vegas. Five of the cyclists died, and the driver of the truck ultimately pleaded guilty to DUI charges because he had methamphetamines in his system; he will spend 16 years in prison for his crimes.

All told, traffic deaths in 2020 spiked 7.2 percent, to 38,680, even despite the 13.2 reduction in total miles traveled. There had not been a deadlier year on American roads since 2007.

The pandemic isn’t the only factor at work here, though. Even before COVID-19 changed the dynamics of American highways, trends relating to pedestrian or cyclist crashes had been ticking upward. Per the National Safety Council, the number of preventable deaths “from bicycle transportation incidents increased 37 percent” between 2010 and 2019. Experts say issues like faster speed limits on roads and highways and an increasing number of driver distractions — related to everything smartphones to elaborate “infotainment” systems in vehicles — are to blame for the upward trend.

STAYING SAFE
As local and national roads become more hostile places for people traveling on foot or on bike, what can be done to keep pedestrians and cyclists safe?

Locally, there are multiple efforts aimed at creating a more welcoming environment for non-vehicular traffic. The Traverse City-based bike advocacy organization Norte coaches kids in bike safety and has been a core player in the local Safe Routes to School effort, which has added miles of new sidewalk around Traverse City neighborhoods and schools.

TART Trails, meanwhile, will soon complete its Boardman Lake Trail Loop, and is eyeing projects that would expand trail access to Elk Rapids and Charlevoix – projects that will give more alternatives for bikers, walkers, or runners who want to avoid busy roads.

Traverse City Area Public Schools (TCAPS), finally, is working to educate local parents on safety measures for kids walking to and from bus stops — especially in the dark.

A SOBERING STORY
Unfortunately, a cyclist or pedestrian can sometimes do everything right and still end up injured in a crash. Such was the case for local cyclist Brian Hofstra, who was severely injured on Valentine’s Day 2018 when a driver struck him from behind on Diamond Park Road just north of Interlochen Center for the Arts.

Hofstra recalls the day vividly. It was around 5pm, and he decided to take advantage of the remaining daylight to fit in a bike ride. Aware of potential visibility concerns (in northern Michigan, sunset in mid-February falls just after 6pm), he wore a hi-vis fluorescent yellow and reflective jacket for the ride, as well as a pair of blinking red lights. He was traveling west on Diamond Park Road, on a section of the street that he describes as “a long straightway.” Then, suddenly, he was airborne.

“The driver hit me from behind,” Hofstra says. “He probably hit me going 45 or 50 miles an hour. And I could hear the car back there. You can usually hear the vehicle, unless it’s something like a Prius or a Tesla that's quiet and very aerodynamic. So then, all of a sudden, I just felt this weird, rushing jolt, and I was upside down in the air, and I could see his mirror under my head. [The driver] told police he didn’t see me in the sun, but the sun was at an angle off to the side [of the road], so that didn’t really add up to me.”

Hofstra ended up spending three days in the hospital with a compressed vertebrae and other injuries that left him with “pain all over.” Even after being discharged, he had to miss three weeks of work completely, and then could only work four-hour days because he was “in too much pain just from sitting in my chair.” Today, more than three years later, he says he has to be careful with physical activity, since even “lifting something wrong” can re-injure his lower back.

Months would pass before Hofstra could get back on a bike, and even longer before he felt safe doing so. These days, he’s back to riding, but the fear of cars and motorists hasn’t faded. In addition to hi-visability equipment and blinking lights, he’s outfitted his bike with a Garmin Varia radar. It’s a taillight device with visibility up to 153 yards and a radar function that detects — and flashes at — cars as they approach. Mostly, though, Hofstra tries to avoid riding on busy roads, opting instead for trails and dirt roads.

As for the driver? Hofstra says he was arrested for operating while intoxicated, with tests confirming that he was high on marijuana when the crash occurred. The man also had a prior felony on his record, for marijuana manufacturing. Despite facing a possible sentence of five years in prison, though, the driver ultimately ended up serving just 45 days. Looking back, Hofstra feels that, in a way, he served more time than the driver who almost took his life; he’s not even sure if the driver lost his license.

“The punishments just don’t really seem severe enough,” Hofstra said. “He spent 45 days in jail, and he could have killed me. And I spent several days in the hospital, missed weeks of work, couldn’t bike for a long time, and still experience the effects of what he did. And he got 45 days in jail.”

“I think a lot of people just aren't paying attention,” Hofstra concluded. “They're eating, or they're on their phone texting, or they’re changing their streaming service settings, their music, their podcasts. All these new cars have these huge displays on them compared to what we had before. So, I think between smartphone and the cars themselves, people have a lot more distractions. And then probably a small minority is people that hate cyclists and are just angry to see you on the road.”


EYES WIDE OPEN
Tips for Cyclists 
Pedestrians and cyclists can and should take numerous steps to protect themselves from dangers out on the road.

The League of American Bicyclists, for instance, has five “rules of the road” that all cyclists are encouraged to adopt as the backbone of smart, safe biking habits. These include:

1.     Follow the law: Obey traffic signals and road signs, and always ride with traffic (e.g., in the right lane or on the right side of the road) rather than against it. Know when other users of the road have the right of way.

2.     Be predictable: Signal all turns, ride in a straight line, avoid sudden stops, and check behind you before stopping, changing lanes, or turning.

3.     Be conspicuous: Dress to make yourself visible, especially in the morning, at night, or in other low-light or low-visibility situations. Bright colors, reflective clothing, and headlamps or flashing bike lights are all useful for improving visibility.

4.     Think and plan ahead: Be a “defensive biker” and try to anticipate what drivers, pedestrians, or other cyclists are likely to do next. Make eye contact with other people using the road to convey your intentions or to assess theirs. Keep an eye out for turning vehicles, for objects in the roadway that might require drivers to stop or swerve suddenly, for potholes and debris that might impede your own path, or for open or about-to-open car doors. Have a plan for how to handle each of these situations safely.

5.     Ride ready: Make sure your bike is properly maintained and tuned up, with fully inflated tires, functional brakes, a reliable bike chain, and more. Consider carrying tools so that you can repair issues that might arise in the midst of a ride. Finally, wear a bike helmet on every ride.

Tips for Pedestrians
Recomendations for pedestrians aren’t always the same, which can lead to some confusion. For instance, where cyclists are expected to ride with the flow of traffic, pedestrians should always walk or run against traffic, or on the left side of the road. This way, pedestrians can know what traffic is coming toward them at all times, can make eye contact with oncoming drivers or cyclists, and can have more warning to get out of the way if a motorist doesn’t appear to see them.

* Photo above courtesy of Ian Valerio, Unsplash