Quick Take
A study from a California-based law firm has ranked Santa Cruz the sixth-most-dangerous city in the state for cyclists. Active transportation advocates and professionals, despite not being intimately familiar with the study, say that the ranking reflects persistent gaps in bike infrastructure, even as safety improvements move forward.
Santa Cruz ranks as the sixth-most-dangerous city in California for cyclists, according to a new analysis of state traffic safety data.
The analysis, prepared by California-based law firm Maison Law, looked at the most recent data from the state’s Office of Traffic Safety (OTS), which was from 2023. It ranked 270 California cities with at least 25,000 residents, using three factors to calculate an overall score.
Those factors are the number of bicyclists injured or killed per 100,000 residents in 2023, the change in that rate from 2021 to 2023, and a city’s status in The League of American Bicyclists’ Bicycle Friendly Community program. For the third factor, the analysis assigned scores, with 100 being a platinum rating, 80 for gold, 60 for silver, 40 for bronze and 0 for no recognition. Santa Cruz holds a bronze rating.
The factors were weighted 65%, 25% and 10%, respectively. Santa Cruz received a score of 95.70, about 4 points below the most dangerous city, Huntington Beach, which received a 99.19.
Matt Miller, director of mobility transformation for Ecology Action, told Lookout that while he is not closely familiar with the study, a quick read generally matches up with his take on the current state of cyclist safety. He added that since the study considers OTS crash data, it’s at least the same starting point as many local reports. That includes one from the Community Safety Traffic coalition last summer, which found that Santa Cruz County ranked second statewide for bicycle crashes and alcohol-involved collisions.
Miller said that while bike infrastructure in Santa Cruz is heading in the right direction, it’s still incomplete, especially along major corridors such as Mission Street, Ocean Street and Water Street, which have little to no separation between cyclists and cars.
Mike Cohen, a board member with Bike Santa Cruz County, agreed, saying that cyclists needing to be close to cars without a separated facility poses consistent danger on the roads.
Both Miller and Cohen cautioned that the study doesn’t show the full picture, as neither OTS nor Maison Law accounts for ridership levels in Santa Cruz compared to other cities, and Santa Cruz has a high number of cyclists per capita.
“I think, unfortunately, we’re still there. The combination of relatively high ridership, combined with getting there, but incomplete infrastructure,” Miller said. “You add into the mix the growing popularity of e-bikes across age spectrums, and you’ve got a recipe for showing up high in the charts where you don’t want to be.”
Miller said that speed and driving under the influence remain major issues for road safety, which was also mentioned in Santa Cruz’s road safety action plan. He also said he believes the city has been stuck in a cycle of having difficulty making room for bikes because there’s so much car traffic, but also that the amount of car traffic can be attributed to the lack of bicycle infrastructure.
“In some cases, we’ve entirely neglected or dramatically underinvested in the alternatives to make it a reasonable thing,” Miller said.
Miller, however, said there are a lot of positive changes in the works, including the continued development of the Coastal Rail Trail and the upcoming safety-improvement project on Water Street. But he said the city needs to commit hard to improving its roads.
“I think the uncomfortable truth is that unless we really aggressively go after all these interventions and put in the physical infrastructure in places we know are problematic, we’re going to see more people get hurt,” he said.
Cohen said protected bike lanes and greater focus on dangerous intersections are vital, which Miller also agreed with. Cohen added that awareness and courtesy can go a long way.
“That person on the bike is one less person that is causing more traffic for the person in the car,” he said. “I think we all have a part to do in this, and being a good car citizen is probably really helpful.”
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