Chicago's Bicycle Crash Map Now New and Improved, Contains Bike Traffic Data

Chicago's recently created bicycle crash map now contains bike count data.  Now the number of crashes in the city between 2007 and 2009 can be compared to the total amount of bicycle traffic at various locations.  The crash map, and the newest version with the traffic overlay, is the creation of Steven Vance, a blogger, urban planner and Chicago cyclist using data from the Illinois Department of Transportation, the Chicago Department of Transportation and his own know-how.  Click here to view the map.

The map seems to reveal some of what one might expect.  For example, there is a lot of bicycle traffic overall along Milwaukee Avenue.  However, the significance of much of the data isn't immediately clear.  Why, for example, is there so much bike traffic on South Blue Island Avenue but so few recorded bike crashes?  Also, there are important areas with high incidents of crashes but no bike traffic data, like the Loop.  In any event, I'm sure that folks skilled in interpreting such data will have a go at making sense of all of this.  Thanks Mr. Vance!