Transportation
Streetcar Tracks Cause a Huge Number of Bike Crashes in Toronto
The rails are to blame for one-third of incidents requiring emergency-room care.
Although it’s probably not news to a legion of sprained and scarred commuters, researchers are reporting that streetcar tracks are to blame for a large percentage of bicycle accidents.
At least that’s the case in Toronto, where 32 percent of bike wrecks (or 87) from May 2008 to November 2009 were the direct result of riders hitting such tracks, say public-health experts at the University of British Columbia, Ryerson University, and elsewhere. Meanwhile, about half of the 276 accidents recorded during this time happened in areas with streetcar tracks.