OHSU Study: Portland Bicycle Environment Dangerous
By:
NWHF Staff
| Posted on: November 19th, 2010
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Environmental Health •
Policies & Laws •
Public Health •
Transportation
People in Portland like to bike.
While the national bicycle commuter “mode share” was of 0.5%, in 2008, in Portland, that number is was 6.4% according to the US Census Bureau. That’s one of the highest rates in the nation.
While bicycle advocates say bicycling promotes health, a new study from OHSU shows that Portland’s infrastructure has some work to do before we can say that biking is the healthy way to go. According to the study, around 20 percent of Portland bike commuters were injured on their bike in a year, and five percent had injuries that sent them to the hospital.
This on top of national data showing that riding a bicycle is 12 times more likely to lead to mortality than riding in a car.
As one of the authors of the study, John C. Mayberry, MD, said in the Portland Mercury, “one of our major conclusions is that it’s not the rider themselves who is dangerous, it’s the environment.”
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This is a great article that provides quality information.Bicycling is part of a healthy lifestyle and it is not people’s fault that Portland doesn’t have a developed infrastructure.Moreover there are people who don’t afford to buy a car and they prefer to use the bike as it is cheaper and eco-friendly.I had a Mustang car and I’ve recently sold it as I couldn’t afford to pay taxes anymore.I bought a bike instead and I am very satisfied of it.