Centre County Bicycle Crash Data Summary
Disclaimer
These are summary statistics for bicycle-involved crashes from the PennDOT crash data. CentreBike’s presentations of crash data are for informational purposes only.
Some Takeaways
- By a 4-1 margin, males are most likely to be involved in crashes as cyclists. Nearly 80% of those men and boys are under 30. This is somewhat due to more males cycling than females, but it also speaks to a bit of the I’m-invincible-devil-may-care-risk-taking attitude many young (and some older) males exhibit. Showing off your prowess is great for courting, but dial back the aggression a bit and you’ll be a lot safer on the road.
- The vast majority of cycling crashes — over 90% — are crashes that are preventable with a little training. Our safety courses offered in conjunction with Penn State and Centre Parks and Rec can give you the skills to minimize your exposure to Head-on, Angle, Sideswipe, and other types of crashes. Those we can’t prevent by smart cycling are about 7% of all crashes (distracted, impaired, or aggressive driving, for example), however, even some of those may be avoided by being visible. Following traffic signage and signals, not riding the wrong way on one-way streets, and lights front and rear 24-7-365 also will help you avoid collisions. Even if you can’t avoid a collision altogether, our training will help you minimize your risk of serious injury by teaching you bicycle handling and emergency maneuvering. Check our calendar for upcoming classes. If you would like to offer a safety class at your organization or business, one of our League of American Bicyclist Certified Instructors would be happy to work with you. Send us a General Inquiry on our Contact Us page.
- Protect yourself. When all of the above preventions fail, be sure you are protected by a helmet. Only 1/3 of crashes reported had confirmed helmet use, while 98% of bicycle crashes resulted in injuries to the cyclist.
- Pay extra care at intersections. 73% of crashes were left or right “hooks” (where the car turns in front of you). Be prepared for rolling stops by cars, red-light running, or failure of the motorist to see you. Lights help with visibility night AND day!
- Ride like you drive. Cyclists fare best when the act and are treated as drivers of vehicles. Bicycles are considered vehicles in PA and the other 49 states. If you wouldn’t do it in a car, don’t do it on your bike!
- In the 25 years of data we have, bicycle accidents are trending down slightly, and cyclists’ ages are trending up.
- Unless noted, percentages are of the total number of crashes listed. The percentages have a bit of error due to rounding to one decimal point, and using total crashes vs. the total number of cyclists involved.
- The data presented here are only as good as the data from PennDOT and the police agencies filing the reports and sometimes that’s a bit vague. Like “Illegal Drug Related” or “Drug Related” crashes do necessarily include “Opioid” or “Marijuana” related, though the are definitely drugs. In their defense, there are a lot of boxes to check on the PennDOT forms, so it’s not surprising that some data conflict, but it is still useful information. Also, the data is for PA legally reportable crashes, and does not include data for solo crashes in Rothrock for example.
- We started this project in 2015 or so and PennDOT has changed reporting requirements often since then. PennDOT also only keeps 20 years of data. We kept most of our original crash data back to 1997 and adapted the newer data to remain consistent. Feel free to contact us using the General Inquiry link if you want more information about how this information was compiled.
| Item | Count | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
Source Data Info | ||
| Bicycle Crash Records | 452 | – |
| # of Years of Data (1997-2022) | 26 | – |
Outcome | ||
| Bicyclist Deaths | 6 | 1.3 |
| Bicyclist Major Injuries | 22 | 4.9 |
| Bicyclist Moderate Injuries | 103 | 22.8 |
| Bicyclist Minor Injuries | 273 | 60.4 |
Driver Stats | ||
| Solo Cyclist | 1 | 0.2 |
| Male Cyclists | 357 | 79.0 |
| Female/Unknown Cyclists | 101 | 22.3 |
| Male Motorists | 257 | 56.9 |
| Female/Unknown Motorists | 188 | 41.6 |
| Hit and Run | 15 | 3.3 |
Helmet Use | ||
| Cyclist Helmet Used* | 106 | 25.2 |
| Cyclist Helmet Not Used* | 166 | 39.5 |
| Cyclist Helmet Use Unknown* | 167 | 39.8 |
Illumination | ||
| Dark | 96 | 21.2 |
| Cyclist Front Light Used* | 30 | 7.1 |
| Cyclist No Front Light* | 202 | 48.1 |
| Cyclist Front Light Use Unknown* | 207 | 49.3 |
| Dark and Cyclist Front Light Used** | 15 | 16.1 |
| Dark and Cyclist No Front Light** | 36 | 38.7 |
| Dark and Cyclist Front Light Use Unknown** | 44 | 47.3 |
| Cyclist Rear Light/Reflector Used** | 164 | 39.0 |
| Cyclist No Rear Light/Reflector** | 23 | 48.1 |
| Cyclist Rear Light/Reflector Use Unknown** | 252 | 60.0 |
| Dark and Cyclist Rear Light/Reflector Used** | 42 | 45.2 |
| Dark and Cyclist No Rear Light/Reflector** | 5 | 5.4 |
| Dark and Cyclist Rear Light/Reflector Use Unknown** | 48 | 51.6 |
Collision Type | ||
| Non-Collision | 5 | 1.1 |
| Hit from Rear | 28 | 6.2 |
| Head-on | 16 | 3.5 |
| Angle (Left or Right Hook) | 328 | 72.6 |
| Sideswipe (same direction) | 58 | 12.8 |
| Sideswipe (opposite direction) | 8 | 1.8 |
| Hit Fixed Object | 1 | 0.2 |
| Hit Pedestrian | 5 | 1.1 |
| Unknown Collision Type | 2 | 0.4 |
* — Records with Helmet and Light/Reflector Info: 420
** — Records indicating Dark with Light/Reflector Info: 93
