Improving Safety

Increasing bicycling and walking as a percentage of all trips is a state transportation goal. To meet this goal, we must consider and plan for the needs of people walking and biking, who are the most vulnerable from a safety perspective. People often make choices about walking or biking based on their perception of safety. For example, perceived or real traffic-related dangers are common barriers cited by parents for not allowing children to walk school.

We are seeing a larger share of crashes involving people walking and biking that result in fatal and serious injuries in Minnesota. Both speed-related and total fatalities have increased.

Infographic showing the fatality rate of collisions between a passenger vehicle traveling different speeds and a person walking. At 20 mph, there is a 5% fatality rate for the person walking. At 30 mph, there is a 45% fatality rate for the person walking. At 40 mph, there is an 85% fatality rate for the person walking.

There is a significant correlation between vehicle speed in a crash and fatalities for people walking and biking. At 20 miles per hour, there is a 5% fatality rate for people walking from being struck by a car. This fatality rate rises to 85% at 40 miles per hour.

A Complete Streets approach can help:

calm traffic,
reduce speeds,
decrease fatalities,
reduce injuries from crashes,
avert costs from medical treatment and the cost of property damage