Motorist drove through intersection: 24% involve a wrong way rider
Motorist drove out of alley/driveway: 67% involve a wrong way rider
Motorist drove out - stop sign: 57% involve a wrong way rider
Bicyclist ride out - stop sign: 23% involve a wrong way rider
Bicyclist ride out - no stop sign: 44% involve a wrong way rider
Motorist turned left in front of cyclist: 78% involve a wrong way rider

Based on these numbers, it is quite likely that as many as one in five of all bicycle/motor vehicle crashes involve a rider who is riding the wrong way against traffic. Many of them are also riding on the sidewalk. In a lengthy article explaining why riding the wrong way against traffic is dangerous, author Ken Kifer explores the three principle dangers: http://www.kenkifer.com/bikepages/traffic/wrong.htm

· Turning motorists are not looking where wrong-way riders are riding
· The motorist and bicyclist have limited time and little space in which to react to each others presence
· The closing speed of a bicyclist and motorist riding head on into each other

He also points out that riding with traffic decreases the number of vehicles passing you, and doesn't bring you into conflict with bicyclists who are riding the right way with traffic!

Because the problem is so widespread and potentially dangerous, there are hundreds of brochures, leaflets and other materials that encourage riders to ride with traffic. For example, the Florida Department of Transportation publishes a fact sheet on where to ride that lays it on the line. http://www.dot.state.fl.us/safety/ped_bike/brochures/pdf/JWDIB.PDF .The Oregon DOT has a similar statement in its bicycling manual http://www.odot.state.or.us/techserv/bikewalk/manual/princ2.htm, and there are numerous city government publications that are similar. In Canada, provincial and local agencies deal with the same issue http://www.city.saskatoon.sk.ca/org/municipal_engineering/cycling/index.asp and even the insurance industry has woken up to the need to prevent crashes from happening with simple safety advice. http://www.yins.ns.ca/tips/tip70.htm

Working with the City of Chicago, the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation has hired cycling ambassadors to ride the streets and trails sharing safe riding tips and other information with the cycling public: one key message is the need to ride with traffic. http://www.biketraffic.org/ambassador/. The Chicago program was based on the pioneering efforts of the city of Toronto http://www.city.toronto.on.ca/cycling/rtsambassadors.htm . Bicyclists in Iowa City have developed a series of Public Service Announcements that include a message on riding with traffic. http://www.jccn.iowa-city.ia.us/~bic/buspost.html

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration also publishes a wide variety of safety literature that stresses the need for bicyclists to ride with traffic. http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/kids/biketour/citybike/index.html
http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/pedbimot/bike/Getting_to_School/mc_bs.html

Solving the "wrong way rider" problem, however, is not just an educational activity. Many bicyclists (and possibly many more potential bicyclists) are scared or intimidated by the prospect of riding on the road. They feel as if there is no place for them to ride on the road and thus are much more likely to ride on the sidewalk, and believe they will be safer riding towards traffic so they can "see what's coming".

The Florida Department of Transport's bicycle facility design manual explicitly says that increasing bicycle friendly roadway operating conditions (i.e. striping a bike lane) on multi-lane highways can substantially reduce "surprise condition" crashes. http://www.dot.state.fl.us/safety/ped_bike/handbooks_and_research/bhchpt3.pdf

(Go to Chapters 19 and 20 of FHWAs Course on Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation)

In FHWA's evaluation of bicycle lanes and wide curb lanes http://www.walkinginfo.org/task_orders/to_7/to7/new_html/IMPCH2.htm , the authors found that:

"Wrong-way riding, or riding facing traffic, was present for approximately 6 percent of the videotaped bicyclists. There seems to be a prevailing feeling that this practice is more widespread in BLs, but in this study a higher proportion of the wrong-way riding tended to occur at WCL sites, whether in the roadway or on the sidewalk (figure 14). Proportionally more of the WCL wrong-way riding took place on the sidewalk; however, eliminating sidewalk riding from the tabulation still showed significantly more wrong-way riding in the street associated with WCL sites. This may be related to the fact that WCLs are often associated with higher volume roadways and that maneuvering through intersections on these roadways can be a complex task. Thus, the bicyclist may choose what seems to be a safer route by riding the wrong way on an adjacent sidewalk or in the street. It may not be safer in actuality, as wrong-way riding either in the street or on a sidewalk is a frequent factor in bicycle-motor vehicle crashes (See Hunter, Stutts, Pein, and Cox, 1996)."