Of the top 10 deadliest areas for cycling in the US, seven are in Florida, according to a new analysis of federal highway data.
Conducted by the Georgia-based personal injury law firm Bader Scott, the study looked at National Highway Traffic Safety Administration figures from the country’s 200 most populous counties, and the number of road crashes in each that killed pedal cyclists between 2017 and 2021.
Pasco county, near Tampa, Florida, was the most perilous, reporting 40 cyclists killed in a population of about 562,000, translating to a rate of about 7.12 cyclist deaths per 100,000 people over the period.
The Florida counties of Sarasota and Manatee ranked second and third, with cyclist fatality rates of 5.53 and 5.25 per 100,000.
The two largest cities in Louisiana helped round out the top 10. The parish (the Louisiana equivalent of county) containing the state capital of Baton Rouge was fourth deadliest, with a rate of 5.04, while Florida’s Pinellas county, the Louisiana parish containing the city of New Orleans, and the Floridian county of Volusia ranked fifth through seventh, with fatality rates of 5, 4.95 and 4.88. California’s San Joaquin county was eighth while the Florida counties of Marion and Hillsborough tied for ninth with 4.75 and 4.52 cyclists killed per 100,000 people.
The numbers illustrate “the concentration of cyclist safety issues in certain areas, especially in Florida”, according to the firm. The 200 counties accounted for 2,745 of 4,450 cyclist deaths – nearly 62% – in the US over five years, it added.
About 17 cyclists are killed on US roads weekly. While it is popular both for recreation and commuting, especially with residents who want to limit their carbon emissions amid the global climate crisis, American roads remain relatively dangerous: the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that cycling trips make up only 1% of trips in the US, yet cyclists make up 2% of people who die in car crashes.
The CDC also estimates that the costs associated with cyclists injured or killed by drivers exceed $23bn annually in the US, including for healthcare and lost work productivity.
The number of cyclists killed in the US prompted the Vision Zero plan, which aims to eliminate such deaths in part by generally reframing them as preventable rather than inevitable.
Proponents of the strategy, which was first implemented in Sweden in the 1990s, say it has proven successful in Europe and could bear similar results in the US.