We are expanding our work on the link between nightlife establishments, nightlife districts and pedestrian injury from motor vehicles to include cyclist injuries. Our first paper on cyclist injuries compared estimates of the proportion of cyclists injured while under the influence of alcohol across three publicly available datasets.
Many cities, as part of economic development plans to revitalize urban centers, are now developing and promoting nightlife and nightlife districts, prominently featuring alcohol-serving establishments, which encourage patrons to walk between nearby alcohol serving venues. At the same time, US cities are also increasing the availability of bike share systems which are typically placed near restaurants/bars, and commercial/downtown areas. These economic and policy initiatives are likely to increase the number of pedestrians and cyclists under the influence of alcohol and at risk of injuries from motor vehicles.
Alcohol involved fatal and non-fatal injuries to pedalcycle riders (≥21 years) were identified in three public data sets from 2019: the National Emergency Medical Services Information System (NEMSIS); the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS); and the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) datasets. In NEMSIS, which reports on EMS deployments, 10.2% of the cases of injured cyclists were noted as involving alcohol. The NEISS data set, which provides data on patients presenting at EDs, showed that 7.3% of cyclist injuries involved alcohol. While the FARS data showed that alcohol was involved in 27.0% of cyclist fatalities from motor vehicle crashes. Regardless of the data source, cyclist fatal and non-fatal injuries were more likely to involve alcohol among middle-aged adults compared to older and younger aged adults, and for men compared to women, with rates that were generally 3-8% higher for men.
The analyses of these three datasets shows estimates of the extent of alcohol involvement in pedalcycle injuries vary substantially across national public-use datasets. Standardized, valid, and feasible methods to measure alcohol involvement in pedalcycle injuries are needed to accurately inform injury prevention efforts.