Bikes send 500 pedestrians to NYC hospitals annually: study

More than 500 pedestrians in the city require a trip to the hospital each year after getting struck by a bicycle, with parts of East Harlem and the Lower East Side among Manhattan’s accident hot spots, according to a Hunter College study released Monday.

About 1,000 pedestrians require hospitalization overall in New York state. It’s a surprisingly higher number, the study’s authors said, because it was believed about 1,000 pedestrians need hospitalization annually throughout all of the U.S.

The number in New York, however, is believed to be much larger since the study didn’t include pedestrians who sought treatment in a walk-in clinic or from their physician.

In the Big Apple, Manhattan takes second to Brooklyn for the number of accidents requiring hospitalization, the study found.

The debate over how much more bike friendly New York should be has grown in recent years. Transportation Alternatives, an advocacy group, noted cars still cause 70,000 injuries in the city each year.

“We can ignore that number and bash bikes, or we can get serious about safety,” the group said in a statement.