When it comes to roadway safety, Florida has set another record – the highest rate of bicycle deaths in the nation. Florida’s lead in bicycle deaths follows another Florida record as the number one killer of pedestrians.
In terms of population, Florida is only the third largest state in the US after California and Texas so it would seem that those two states would have a much higher rate of bicycle deaths and in raw numbers, that may be true but when you compare populations, Florida has the highest rate of all.
Let’s look at how the numbers fall out.
|
State |
Population in millions |
Number of registered motor vehicles in millions |
Number of cyclists killed |
Rate of cyclists killed per million of population |
|
California |
38.8 |
33.55 |
141 |
3.68 |
|
Texas |
26.96 |
23.87 |
48 |
1.81 |
|
Florida |
19.89 |
19.64 |
133 |
6.8 |
Florida, with less than half of the population and just a little over half the number of registered vehicles of California, had just eight fewer bicycle deaths than California. When compared to the rate of bicycle deaths per million population, Florida beats every other state in the nation.
So, what’s Florida doing wrong? The League of American Bicyclists puts out a report card every year that rates states on their friendliness to cyclists. To rate states they look at;
In their latest ranking, the League rates California as the eighth friendliest state for cyclists while it rates Florida 24th. In all five categories, California ranks near the top while Florida’s rankings are near the bottom.
The two main areas that Florida needs to work on are:
Read More: The Deadliest States for Bikers