Carl Pecot hasn't let a near-collision with a truck keep him off his bicycle, even though he must pedal through one of the nation's deadliest cities for bike riders.
Four of the five most dangerous cities in the country to ride a bicycle are in Florida, with the Tampa Bay area the deadliest, according to a report released Wednesday.Miami was next, with about 15 bicyclists killed by vehicles each year, according to the Surface Transportation Policy Project, a Washington-based nonprofit coalition that promotes safer roads.
Pecot, 40, who logs about 300 miles a week, isn't afraid to ride along Miami's congested roads. The only time he ditched his bike was when a truck pulled in front of him several years ago: He suffered a shoulder injury when he hit the pavement.
"It was the only thing I could do except run into the truck," he said.
The other metropolitan areas in the top five most dangerous were Phoenix, Fort Lauderdale and Orlando.
Last month, the Surface Transportation group ranked Florida communities as the nation's deadliest for pedestrians - for many of the same reasons.
"They are designed for cars, not people," said Steve Murchie, of the Florida Consumer Action Network.
Between 1986 and 1995 in Florida: 1,135 bicyclists were struck and killed by vehicles; 9,997 cyclists were injured; 29.8 percent of bicycle fatalities involved children under 18; and 3,389 children were injured each year riding their bikes.
Nationally, about 840 bicyclists are killed by vehicles each year, and more than 75,000 are injured, the study found.
If Florida streets are mean, other places are kinder to bikers.
The northern California city of Davis hasn't had a bicycle-related fatality in more than 10 years.
"What makes Davis significant is that everybody rides a bike here," said Tim Bustos, the city's bicycle safety coordinator. "You see businessmen riding to work on bikes, kids going to school and even women wearing dresses riding bikes."
The safest city was Providence, R.I., with only 0.7 bicyclist deaths for every million residents. Pittsburgh followed with 1.2 fatalities per million residents. Boston had 1.4 deaths per million.
In the Tampa Bay area, there were 9.2 bicycling-related deaths per million residents, or about 19 deaths every year.
Miami is working to make bike riding safer: 32 miles of a 215-mile bicycle beltway have opened since September. Most are separated from the highway.