Traffic collisions, including injury accidents, and bicycle collisions declined last year in San Luis Obispo, according to an annual report on traffic safety.
Traffic accidents have declined by 50 percent in the past eight years since the city started a safety program in 2002 by seeking a link between collision data and road improvements.
The city had its first traffic related-death since 2006 when a 71-year-old drunken man walked in front of a bus traveling north on Santa Barbara Street last October.
The City Council will discuss the report’s findings Tuesday.
In 2010, bicycle collisions decreased by 4 percent from 72 collisions to 69. Of those, 44 percent were caused by the cyclist involved.
Those accidents had spiked to an all-time high in 2009. In response, the Public Works Department launched a safety campaign to teach tips on avoiding such collisions.
In 2010, there were a total of 597 collisions, down 12 percent from 682 in 2009, according to the report. Injury collisions declined 1 percent to 233 in 2010 from 235 in 2009.
Collisions in 2010 were the lowest recorded since the city started tracking such data in 1999.
The City Council will be asked to approve several improvements at some of the areas indicated in the report that have more collisions.
One such improvement — painting bike lanes and extending them through the intersection at California Boulevard and Monterey Street — is intended to raise the awareness of motorists who do not always see cyclists as they turn right onto Monterey, said Jake Hudson, traffic operations manager. There have been 11 collisions at that intersection since 2006 — four of those in 2010.
City staff also intends to study the possibility of installing a four-way stop or a traffic signal at Osos and Pacific streets and restricting left turns at the intersection of Parker and South streets — both areas that have higher collision rates.
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