Bicycle injury accidents have ticked up in the city of San Diego this year, as the city has seen thousands of dockless bikes appear across its neighborhoods since January.
New city data shows that there were 130 injury accidents involving bicyclists through May 1, 2018, up from 102 in the same period of 2017.
A San Diego Police spokesman said it would take more research to determine whether the uptick is related to dockless bikes.
However, the data shows that some parts of the city are seeing fewer incidents, while others are seeing more.
Hillcrest, for instance, has seen improvement. By May 1, 2017, there were already seven injury accidents in the heart of the neighborhood. This year there have not been any.
However, there has been an increase on Mission Boulevard along the coast, which has no bike lane and can get narrow. In 2017, there was just one injury accident on the boulevard. Through May 1, that number was up to six.
Claire Mathena, who lives in Hillcrest, said she can't afford a car but the dockless bikes help her get around.
"Everyone's in a hurry, I just don't think people are paying attention. I just don't think it has anything to do with the dockless bikes," she said.
Meanwhile, others, like Stephan Vance, choose to commute daily by bike. He rides from Ocean Beach to his job at the San Diego Association of Governments.
"Don't do anything you wouldn't do if you were driving driving a car," he said, noting some key tips are to ride with traffic on the ride side of the road, be predictable, and always signal.
Thursday is bike to work day, with SANDAG hosting a series of pit stops and events along hundreds of miles of bikeways in the region.
