Phoenix Bicycle Accident Statistics: 2026 Crashes & Deaths

In a city of 1.6 million people, the worst corner recorded four collisions. That is why rankings built on all traffic accidents, including car accidents and other vehicle accidents, name entirely different corners. The bicycle accident statistics in Phoenix below come from the city’s own publications rather than totals for Maricopa County, home to the wider Phoenix metro area, and every table links the source it came from.

Key Takeaways

• The 2024 data puts 35th and Osborn and 43rd and Peoria first, followed by 19th and Union Hills.
• The 2021 and 2024 high-crash lists share no location, so individual hotspots shift while corridor trends hold.
• A crossing missing from the all-mode danger map is not safe by default, because 15 of the 21 junctions on the bicyclist map are missing from it too.
• 80% of Phoenix bicycle accidents happen within 150 feet of an intersection, but mid-block stretches produced 5 of the 9 fatalities in 2021.
• Arterials are Phoenix’s most dangerous roads for cyclists, at 5.8 times the network-average likelihood of a crash that kills or seriously injures the rider.
• Saturday ranks sixth of seven days by volume and first by severity, at 21.9 killed or seriously injured per 100.
• A bicycle accident after dark in Arizona is 3.6 times more likely to be fatal.
• Two municipal summaries give totals 41 apart, and the city has not reconciled them.

Phoenix Bicycle Accidents by Injury Severity, 2020 to 2024

Phoenix recorded 304 accidents involving cyclists in 2024, the highest total in the five years its newest summary covers, and 15 of those riders died.

From the Phoenix 2024 citywide summary, 2020 to 2024 data.

The bicycle accident total rose 35% between 2020 and 2024 while serious injuries stayed close to where they started. The fatal count swung from 5 to 17, back to 8 and up again to 15, on a base too small to show a reliable trend.

The share of bicycle accident victims killed or seriously injured, known as the KSI share, has held between 14% and 19% for five years. More riders are being hit, and the same proportion of them is being badly hurt, so the odds of walking away have not improved.

Serious Bicycle Injury Trends in Phoenix, 2016 to 2023

The March 2026 network study counts 2,737 incidents involving cyclists over eight years, and 416 of them killed or seriously injured the rider.

Serious injuries fell by more than half between 2016 and 2019, from 72 to 30, and have risen every year since 2021. The number killed or seriously injured dropped from 80 in 2016 to a low of 34 in 2020 and climbed back to 52 in 2023, erasing most of the earlier improvement.

Why Phoenix Bicycle Accident Numbers Differ Between Publications

Phoenix reports bicycle collisions in three separate documents, and they disagree about the same years.

The gap between the two citywide totals is exactly 41 in both 2020 and 2021. Corrected records would not land on the same number twice, which points to a change in definitions, and the city has published no reconciliation.

The fatal counts line up more closely. All three sources record 9 deaths in 2021, both sources covering 2022 record 17, and for 2020 the 2024 summary records 5 where the other two record 4. The department’s 2022 collision summary recorded that year as 289 accidents and 15 deaths, while its 2024 publication records the same year as 291 and 17. Name the source and the year whenever you quote one of these figures, because an insurance adjuster will check.

Phoenix’s Bicyclist High-Injury Network

The March 2026 study introduced Phoenix’s first network built specifically for cyclists. The study calls it a validation of a predictive model, not a ranking of past crashes.

Phoenix’s Bicyclist High-Injury Network

The March 2026 study introduced Phoenix’s first network built specifically for cyclists. The study calls it a validation of a predictive model, not a ranking of past crashes.

HIN is the High-Injury Network and HRN the High-Risk Network. From the March 2026 network study.

Most high-risk locations concentrate northwest of downtown along Interstate 17 between Indian School Road and Bell Road, with a secondary cluster north of Interstate 10 between 87th Avenue and Interstate 17. The 21 bicyclist junctions appear only in a map figure, so Phoenix names no individual crossing as a High-Injury Network location.

From the March 2026 network study.

Only 6 of the 21 junctions on the bicyclist network also appear on the citywide network, which counts traffic accidents of every kind, from car accidents to single-vehicle accidents. Part of that gap comes from scoring method. The citywide network includes a location when its crash frequency runs at least two standard deviations above the mean, while the bicyclist network uses a total score that also weighs volumes and socioeconomic factors. The study found more overlap between the citywide and walking networks than between the citywide and cyclist networks. A crossing’s absence from the all-mode map is not evidence that it is safe to ride.

From the March 2026 network study.

Where Bicycle Accidents Happen at Phoenix Crossings

The intersection crosswalk is the most common bicycle accident location in Phoenix, and in 2021 none of those collisions killed a cyclist.

From the Phoenix 2021 bike summary, 2021 data. Read off a chart.

Mid-block stretches carried 13% of the year’s total and 5 of its 9 fatalities, while the crosswalk carried more than twice as many with no fatal outcome. Bike lanes carried 6%, none of them fatal. These counts cannot show whether the crosswalk, the travel lane or a painted bike lane is the safer position at a major arterial crossing, because none of them is adjusted for how many riders use each one.

Phoenix also reports how close to an intersection these accidents occur.

From the Phoenix 2021 bike summary, 2021 data.

Bicycle Accidents by Traffic Control

Half of all bicycle collisions in Phoenix happen at uncontrolled crossings, where vehicles and cyclists meet with no signal or signage. Those crossings also produce most of the fatal ones.

From the Phoenix 2021 bike summary, 2021 data. Read off a chart.

Signalized crossings accounted for 31% of the 2021 bicycle accident count and 1 of the 9 fatal accidents. Uncontrolled locations accounted for half the total and five of the fatal ones. The three incidents at HAWK signals killed two cyclists, a count far too small to read as a rate.

The 2024 split was nearly identical, so the lesson holds. An uncontrolled crossing is the riskiest place to cross, both for how often crashes happen there and how often they kill. Cross at the signal.

From the Phoenix 2021 bike summary and the 2024 citywide summary.

Why Arterials Carry the Most Risk for Cyclists

An arterial is involved in most bicycle accident reports at Phoenix junctions.

From the Phoenix 2021 bike summary, 2021 data. Read off a chart.

Combining the arterial-and-local, arterial-and-arterial, arterial-and-collector and arterial-and-freeway rows, an arterial appears in 77% of these. That is why nearly every crossing named on this page sits on a major arterial rather than a residential street. The network study measured the same effect per mile and identifies arterials as the most dangerous roads for cyclists in Phoenix.

From the March 2026 network study, 2016 to 2023 data.

The study also adjusts for exposure on posted speed, one of the road conditions it measures. In both pedestrian accidents and bicycle accident figures, crashes that kill or seriously injure happen most often on roads posted at 40 mph, even though those roads make up only 25% of the street miles studied. Check the posted speed on your route before you check its accident history.

What Time of Day Bicycle Accidents Occur in Phoenix, AZ

The 4 PM hour has more bike accidents than any other hour. The 5 PM hour has the most that kill or seriously injure the rider.

From the March 2026 network study, 2016 to 2023 data. KSI means killed or seriously injured, and the rate column is ours.

Two commute peaks dominate the raw data, the 7 AM hour at 218 incidents and the two late-afternoon hours at 241 and 237. The severity of injuries sustained follows the opposite pattern. A collision between 7 AM and 8 AM ends in death or serious injury 9.6 times in 100, the lowest rate of the day, while late-evening and overnight hours run up to five times higher on far smaller counts. That points to faster driving and lower visibility rather than traffic volume, so the most dangerous times to ride are not the busiest ones.

Bicycle Accident Severity by Day of Week

From the March 2026 network study, 2016 to 2023 data. The rate column is ours.

Wednesday has the most bike accidents and Thursday the most serious ones. Saturday has the second-fewest of any day at 265 and the highest severity rate at 21.9 killed or seriously injured per 100, well above Tuesday’s 12.4. A Saturday ride is less likely to end in a crash than a weekday ride and more likely to end badly when it does, which tracks fewer drivers on the road and more speeding.

Bicycle Accident Counts by Time of Day, 2021

From the Phoenix 2021 bike summary, 2021 data. Read off a chart.

The 3 PM to 6 PM block accounted for 68 of the year’s 284, which is 24% of the annual total inside three hours. Seven of those 68 riders were 17 or younger. Across the full year the 2021 summary counted 12 school-age cyclists between 5 and 17 struck during school hours, which it defines as a weekday between 7 AM and 4 PM. If your child rides back from school, that is the window to ride with them.

Lighting and Fatal Bicycle Accidents in Phoenix, AZ

Two of Phoenix’s own findings on lighting disagree, and both are current.

From the Phoenix 2021 bike summary and the 2024 citywide summary.

Low light was present in 31% of Phoenix’s 2021 bicycle accident total, yet 56% of the fatalities happened in that poor visibility. The March 2026 study finds the opposite for severity, reporting that more cyclist killed-or-serious crashes happen in daylight and mostly during commuting hours, with the reverse true for pedestrian accidents.

Statewide numbers side with the 2021 finding. ADOT’s 2024 Crash Facts report, which covers rural roads as well as urban areas, puts darkness at 19% of Arizona’s bicycle crashes in 2024 and 48% of its cyclist deaths. That is a 7.84% fatality rate after dark against 2.15% in daylight, which is where the 3.6 times figure comes from. Nationally, NHTSA records 52% of 2024 bicyclist deaths in the dark against 44% in daylight. The full lighting table is on our Arizona bicycle accident statistics page.

No single hour is safe for a Phoenix cyclist. Exposure peaks in the afternoon commute, when the most road users share the arterial grid, and the share of crashes that kill climbs after dark. Light the bike for the ride home, not just the ride out.

Who Is at Fault in Phoenix Bicycle Accidents, According to Police

Phoenix police attributed improper behavior to the cyclist alone in 43% of 2021 bicycle accident reports, a figure cycling advocates dispute.

From the Phoenix 2021 bike summary, 2021 data.

Arizona bike-law advocates argue that driveway and crosswalk accidents caused by a driver’s failure to yield are routinely coded against the cyclist rather than the motorist, and the location table supports that concern. Driveways and crosswalks, marked and unmarked, account for 135 of the year’s 284, and each is a spot where a vehicle crosses a cyclist’s path.

So the 43% describes a police coding practice rather than a finding about who was at fault. Under Arizona’s comparative negligence rules an insurer may still quote it back to you as though it settled liability, and it does not. Our state-by-state bicycle laws guide sets out what the rules of the road actually require of a rider.

Rider impairment is far rarer than commonly assumed.

From the Phoenix 2024 citywide summary, 2024 data.

Of the 304 bike accidents in 2024, 57 involved a hit-and-run driver, which is 19% of the total, and the 2021 summary notes that unknown drivers in its tables usually mean drivers who fled. Get the plate number, the driver’s contact and insurance details, and a police report before you get up, if you are able to. Note any sign of distracted driving, such as a phone in the driver’s hand. Nearly one rider in five never gets a driver to claim against, and in those cases your own uninsured motorist coverage is the main source of compensation. Check your policy limits now.

Talk to a Phoenix Bike Accident Attorney

A documented crash history at your crossing is context, not proof. Arizona apportions liability between the cyclist and the driver on what each of them did in the seconds before impact. The city’s count establishes that a junction is a known hazard and nothing about who had the right of way.

Most of these claims turn on a police narrative written by an officer who saw nothing. What decides them is whether speeding, distracted driving, an unsafe lane change or a failure to yield can be proven with the evidence that narrative left out. That document is the one worth contesting.

Our team gathers the proof, deals with the insurance companies and pursues compensation for medical bills, lost income and pain and suffering, in negotiation or in court. We handle bicycle accident cases on a contingency fee basis. You pay nothing unless we recover compensation for you.

Call (888) 521-6377 or request a free case evaluation. An experienced bicycle accident lawyer will review your crash, check whether the driver carried adequate liability coverage and tell you what your claim is worth.