Density of traffic collisions with cyclists in Louisville, 2002 - 2011

Here is a follow up to my post on traffic collisions with cyclists in Louisville from last February. I’ve mapped the point locations of all the automobile collisions with cyclists (injury and non-injury) in Louisville/Jefferson County, and calculated a density map, where areas with more collisions with cyclists appear from yellow (lower densities of collisions) to red (highest densities of collisions). Unfortunately, the geographic information for each collision is sometimes imperfectly collected by various law enforcement agencies, so some of the points end up being in the middle of nowhere thanks to transposed coordinates, misspelled streets names, etc.

[NOTE: After a few discussions with folks subsequent to posting these maps, I thought it  necessary to clear up a possible misconception related to these data. The areas of collision density are not necessarily any more or less dangerous than any other area where people cycle in Louisville. It is likely that these are areas where people are doing more cycling, therefore the higher number of collisions is a result of the higher numbers of cyclists, and NOT that these parts of town are unsafe for cycling. However we should investigate these "hot spots" and target improvements in cycling infrastructure.]

Below is a detail that shows the highest densities of traffic collisions in urban Louisville. We see that downtown has the highest concentration (which is to be expected given the larger number of conflict points). The higher density of collisions continues south from downtown well into the Old Louisville neighborhood. We also see a couple of areas in urban neighborhoods that have high concentrations of collisions with cyclists as well. One area in West Louisville along Broadway in between Russell and Parkland neighborhoods, and another in the Highlands, roughly between Grinstead and Eastern Parkway.