Have urban motorcycle deaths gone up this year?

[sanjuro]

I was reading a sad story about a rider who was in a fatal crash in NYC, and the article pointed out that motorcycle deaths are up 75% this year.

I wonder if there are more riders in the year of COVID or drivers are less careful? Also, I read this crash, a teenager and her passenger without helmets. Maybe it's just random, but I wonder if she was more reckless because of covid?

https://www.nydailynews.com/new-yor...0200922-xdi63cyq6rdehjd4ax5fjzfpka-story.html

 

[redtail]

That is very sad. :rip :rose

Although, the 75% is "citywide"; "As of Monday, citywide motorcycle deaths were up 75% this year — with 35 fatal crashes so far in 2020 compared to 20 by this time last year."

 

[vaara]

If I had to hazard a guess, I would imagine that moto deaths are *down* this year in the Bay Area, due to the reduction in work commuting (people in NYC don't commute on motorcycles nearly as much as we do here). But that's just a guess. And as workplaces reopen and people continue shunning public transportation, I wouldn't be surprised to see the casualty rate go up.

 

[sanjuro]

BTW, I was a bit surprised to read a followup to this case.

The article has been cleaned up a bit, failing to mention that any of illegalities of riding helmetless, and my guess without a license, turning her ride into a needed family errand.

RIP rider.

https://www.nydailynews.com/new-yor...0200922-ffwsklunqnajxattbm4evuuoke-story.html

 

[senpai71]

The article also refers to her as "neophyte" and "inexperienced" and mentions that she'd only started riding a few days before...

 

[gixxerjeff]

Motorcycles have been in a downward trend for a few years now. I personally see less and less of them on roads where they were noticeably more prevalent.
Add COVID in to the mix and remove a bunch of them from the commuting ranks and the number should be even smaller.
I suspect Data Dan will be along any minute with a detailed graph that I will find impossible to fully comprehend. :laughing

 

[East Bay Mike]

I still hear more bike accidents and fatalities than I want to on KCBS.

Hope they are down, though. Stay safe riders.

 

[Climber]

Paging DataDan to the white courtesy phone.

It's hard to tell, there doesn't seem to be a reduction of rider deaths this year from previous years, but the CHP data that I see doesn't include accidents that are handled by the city police (it doesn't go into the CHP database).

 

[DataDan]

Paging DataDan to the white courtesy phone.

I don't have any 2020 data, and I've pretty much quit archiving crash news (though I do scan it every day).

My impression is the same as Sanjuro's. There seem to have been a lot of New York fatalities this year, but relatively few in California.

It's hard to tell, there doesn't seem to be a reduction of rider deaths this year from previous years, but the CHP data that I see doesn't include accidents that are handled by the city police (it doesn't go into the CHP database).

Over the past 5 years, 57% of Bay Area motorcycle fatalities have been CHP jurisdiction. In the San Joaquin Valley it's 63%. Extrapolating a count of CAD fatalities would be a pretty good guess, but I know that some that end up fatal aren't closed that way on CAD.

 

[Climber]

I don't have any 2020 data, and I've pretty much quit archiving crash news (though I do scan it every day).

My impression is the same as Sanjuro's. There seem to have been a lot of New York fatalities this year, but relatively few in California.


Over the past 5 years, 57% of Bay Area motorcycle fatalities have been CHP jurisdiction. In the San Joaquin Valley it's 63%. Extrapolating a count of CAD fatalities would be a pretty good guess, but I know that some that end up fatal aren't closed that way on CAD.

I've got 10 years of CHP reports for around the Bay Area and one year for additional areas around the central valley in a database.

If you ever want an extraction of that data, let me know, I've got a lot of respect for what you've done with data over the years.

 

[DataDan]

I've got 10 years of CHP reports for around the Bay Area and one year for additional areas around the central valley in a database.

If you ever want an extraction of that data, let me know, I've got a lot of respect for what you've done with data over the years.

Can you count Bay Area fatal crashes 2020 thru 9/25?

From my data, 2017-2019 thru 9/25, CHP only, I have 31, 30, and 33. We may not match exactly geographically. I've included the 9 counties on the Bay plus Santa Cruz.

 

[Climber]

I got a count of 50. I'm including North Sac, Placerville, Hollister and Santa Cruz areas.

Here is a list of the CHP zones I'm using:
"San Francisco","Contra Costa","Oakland","Redwood City","Marin","Santa Rosa", "San Jose","Solano","Redwood City","Napa","Hayward","Dublin","Castro Valley", "Hayward","Golden Gate Communications Center","Monterey","Hollister-Gilroy", "Santa Cruz","Sacramento"

 

[DataDan]

I got a count of 50. I'm including North Sac, Placerville, Hollister and Santa Cruz areas.

Here is a list of the CHP zones I'm using:
"San Francisco","Contra Costa","Oakland","Redwood City","Marin","Santa Rosa", "San Jose","Solano","Redwood City","Napa","Hayward","Dublin","Castro Valley", "Hayward","Golden Gate Communications Center","Monterey","Hollister-Gilroy", "Santa Cruz","Sacramento"

I think that corresponds to these counties: Alameda, Contra Costa, El Dorado, Marin, Monterey, Napa, Placer, Sacramento, San Benito, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano, Sonoma.

My count from CHP SWITRS database, CHP jurisdiction only, is 45 fatal motorcycle crashes in 2019 thru September 25. For 2017, 53. For 2018, 51.

The SWITRS count for 2019 is probably a little low because some investigations were not complete at the time of download (does not apply to 2017-18). Your count for 2020 is probably a little low because some fatalities are not identified as such in CAD.

So, in this area it looks like 2020 is slightly higher, but not a lot, compared to recent years.