Alcohol involvement in cyclist injuries

I am expanding my work on the built environment to understand the link between nightlife establishments, nightlife districts, and alcohol establishments and cyclist injuries. My research group’s first paper on cyclist injuries compared estimates of the proportion of cyclists and motorcyclists injured while under the influence of alcohol across three publicly available datasets.

why does this matter?

Many cities, as part of economic development plans to revitalize urban centers, are now developing and promoting nightlife and nightlife districts, prominently featuring alcohol-serving establishments, which encourage patrons to walk between nearby alcohol serving venues. At the same time, US cities are also increasing the availability of bike share systems which are typically placed near restaurants/bars, and commercial/downtown areas. These economic and policy initiatives are likely to increase the number of pedestrians and cyclists under the influence of alcohol and at risk of injuries from motor vehicles.

the research.

Alcohol involved fatal and non-fatal injuries to pedalcycle riders (≥21 years) were identified in three public data sets from 2019: the National Emergency Medical Services Information System (NEMSIS); the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS); and the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) datasets. In NEMSIS, which reports on EMS deployments, 10.2% of the cases of injured cyclists were noted as involving alcohol. The NEISS data set, which provides data on patients presenting at EDs, showed that 7.3% of cyclist injuries involved alcohol. While the FARS data showed that alcohol was involved in 27.0% of cyclist fatalities from motor vehicle crashes. Regardless of the data source, cyclist fatal and non-fatal injuries were more likely to involve alcohol among middle-aged adults compared to older and younger aged adults, and for men compared to women, with rates that were generally 3-8% higher for men.

the takeaways.

The analyses of these three datasets shows estimates of the extent of alcohol involvement in pedalcycle injuries vary substantially across national public-use datasets. Standardized, valid, and feasible methods to measure alcohol involvement in pedalcycle injuries are needed to accurately inform injury prevention efforts.

in other news.

Here is a photo I took in downtown brooklyn near my climbing gym of Not One More Death

Inspiring to see community organizing efforts that took place in 2007 to reclaim neighborhood streets from traffic-deaths, led by Transportation Alternatives but also upsetting in that little progress has been made, in fact traffic violence appears to be worse than ever for vulnerable road users locally and nationally. Thinking lately about how we can blend science more with art and advocacy to make big statements and tackle this persistent public health issue.