Berkeley is considered the most dangerous city of its size for pedestrians and cyclists, according to the city’s health department which, along with its police force, has received funds worth a total of $434,000 to address road safety.
The health department ranked Berkeley number 1 out of 55 similarly sized cities for bicyclists and pedestrians injured and killed, according to a report in the Oakland Tribune. Last year, three pedestrians were killed by cars, and cars injured 90 people on foot and 192 bicyclists. The article notes, however, that Berkeley’s higher than average number of cyclists and pedestrians might skew the data somewhat.
Sgt. Mary Kusmiss of the BPD reported that the city’s most dangerous intersections for bike and pedestrian accidents involving cars were Shattuck and University, San Pablo and Ashby, University and Sixth Street, Ashby and Shattuck, Ashby and Telegraph, Ashby and Seventh Street and Ashby and Martin Luther King Jr. Way.
Grants made by the state’s Office of Traffic Safety — of $200,000 to the police department and $234,000 to the health department — will be used to fund speed detection equipment and bike safety education at schools, among other things.
Read the full story at the Oakland Tribune.
