The study will be published online April 2, 2015 in Injury Prevention.

"Self-driving cars have been invented and apps tell cyclists of approaching vehicles but the vehicle/bicycle crash details are still hand written and drawn on the police crash report template, making crash analysis labor-intensive. To equal other technological advancements and improve the safety of bicyclists, multiple bicycle-crash-scene codes should be created for immediate data entry," said co-author Anne Lusk, research scientist in the Department of Nutrition at Harvard Chan.

The researcher's proposal addresses the increase in the number of bicyclists on the road in the U.S. The number of commuters who bike to and from work has risen about 62% from 2000 to 2013. Studies have indicated that if safety of the bicycle environment improved, more individuals would be willing to bike.