New report sees safety benefits in bike paths

Some cyclists are vehicular in nature - they want to be treated just like cars on the road. Others are fans of specialized bicycle infrastructure like bike lanes and cycletracks. Many of us employ a combination of these two views to get where we're going safely and quickly. Whatever your opinion on the subject, a new report in the Injury Prevention Journal provides some very interesting data on urban bike paths.

From the Montreal Gazette:

The Montreal-based study, done jointly by researchers from McGill, Harvard and Northeastern universities as well as the Universite de Montreal and Montreal's public health department, was published Wednesday in the Injury Prevention Journal. The study concludes that cycle paths encourage cycling and they lessen, or at least do not increase, crash and injury rates. The construction of cycle paths should not be discouraged in urban areas, the researchers conclude.

I suggest you read the whole article - and the journal article if you're feeling froggy - then hash it out in the comments below.

Image: www.pedbikeimages.org / Dan Burden