Eight cycling safety hot spots

Local cyclists gearing up for Bike To Work Week (May 25 to 31) might want to pay extra attention to the following eight hot spots mapped by citizens on Bikemaps.org, a project led by University of Victoria geography professor Dr. Trisalyn Nelson.

1. McKenzie Avenue at Highway 1
2. Galloping Goose between Ardersier and Burnside Roads
3. Johnson Street Bridge
4. Lansdowne Road between Richmond Avenue and Foul Bay Road
5. Fort Street at Foul Bay Road intersection
6. Quadra Street between Pandora Avenue and Courtney Street
7. Galloping Goose at Harriet Road/Highway 1
8. Cook and Bay Streets

Nelson points out that some of the above locations are already slated for improvement. For instance, Quadra Street has been listed as a priority project by the City of Victoria in its Bicycle Master Plan and the new Johnson Street Bridge will have improved cycling infrastructure.

“Cycling is still very safe,” she contends. “Until the infrastructure catches up with the demand, awareness from both drivers and cyclists is necessary to prevent collisions in these locations.”

The project is a web-map created by Nelson and a team of researchers in the UVic Geography SPAR Lab (Spatial Pattern and Analysis Research) to collect comprehensive data on cycling safety. Cyclists can record bike crashes, near misses, hazards and thefts for any location in the world. CRD residents have mapped over 475 incidents since October 2014.

A map of the eight trouble spots is available at https://bikemaps.org/blog.

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