Safety Indicators for Skateboarding on Transportation Facilities and as a Mode of Travel - A look at Enigmatic Injury, Fatality, and Incident Data

Skateboarding as a recreational activity occurs in many places including streets. While not as well known, skateboards can also be used as a means of active travel on transportation facilities. The presence of skateboarders on streets has ramifications for safety, both for skateboarders and other users, as this paper demonstrates. An estimated 43,000 skateboarding injuries occurred on streets in 2013, a plurality of skateboarder injuries. While it is not known exactly how many injuries occurred during skateboard travel versus recreation, approximately 13 percent involve motor vehicles. A skateboarding interest group has found at least 93 cases of skateboard fatalities from 2011-2013. Most fatalities appear to occur on streets and approximately half are transportation related. Federal data also shows 11 skateboarder fatalities just from traffic collisions, in California alone, in 2013. That said, injury rates are moderate, and while skateboard fatality rates are high, they are not exceedingly high, and similar to pedestrians. Incident data from college campuses where skateboard commuting is popular shows that it is possible for skateboard travel to occur more or less without serious incident. More data is needed to completely understand safety. However, it appears that while skateboarders are certainly vulnerable road users, skateboarding is not so unsafe that it cannot be a viable mode of travel.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ANF10 Pedestrians. Alternate title: Safety Indicators for Skateboarding on Transportation Facilities and as a Mode of Travel: Enigmatic Injury, Fatality, and Incident Data
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Fang, Kevin
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 94th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2015-1-11 to 2015-1-15
• Date: 2015

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 18p
• Monograph Title: TRB 94th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Campuses; Fatalities; Human powered vehicles; Injuries; Streets; Traffic incidents; Traffic safety; Transportation modes
• Uncontrolled Terms: Skateboarding
• Geographic Terms: California
• Subject Areas: Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Safety and Human Factors; Vehicles and Equipment; I81: Accident Statistics; I90: Vehicles;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01555052
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 15-3800
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Feb 26 2015 10:03AM