CPSC's mandatory standard for bicycles was shown to result in sizable reductions in injury rates by a recent study at Duke University.<1> The study showed that annual bicycle injury rates would likely have been 25-30% higher without the CPSC standard. However, almost 500,000 injuries requiring emergency room treatment and 1,000 deaths still occur annually among bicyclists. More than two-thirds of the injuries involve children under the age of 15 and an estimated 90 percent of the deaths involve crashes with automobiles.
Concerned about these large numbers of injuries and deaths, the Commission continued its research into bicycle hazards and improved technologies to make bicycles safer. In 1993, CPSC completed a study of bicycle injuries and deaths that was the first national study of bicycle hazards ever conducted in the United States. This study identified riding after dark as particularly hazardous. As illustrated in the pie charts, while about 7% of bicycle riding takes place after dark, about 35%, or as many as 350 deaths per year, occur after dark.
In response to these research findings, the Commission sponsored The Chairman's Conference on Nighttime Bicycle Safety in 1994 to discuss nighttime riding hazards and safety strategies. This highly successful conference was attended by all of the important industry and user groups, as well as by several nationally recognized experts. They agreed to work with CPSC to make bicycle riding safer and industry volunteered to begin developing a national voluntary standard for bicycle lighting. The participants also supported a CPSC project to evaluate current CPSC reflector requirements and examine new reflector technology to determine if revisions in the standard could significantly reduce nighttime riding hazards. This project is expected to be completed in 1997.
<1> 1Wesley A. Magat and Michael J. Moore, "Consumer Product Safety Regulation in the United States and the United Kingdom: The Case of Bicycles," Working Paper #93-11, Center for the Study of Business Regulation and Economic Policy, The Fuqua School of Business, Duke University, 1993.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission protects the public from the
unreasonable risk of injury or death from 15,000 types of consumer products under the agency's
jurisdiction.
To report a dangerous product or a product-related injury and for information on
CPSC's fax-on-demand service, call CPSC's hotline at (800) 638-2772 or CPSC's teletypewriter
at (301) 595-7054.
Consumers can also report product hazards via electronic mail by sending a message to
info@cpsc.gov.
Comments: info@cpsc.gov
Revised: May 5, 1996
URL: http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/pubs/success/bikes.html