Terms of Use and Disclaimer

By using this website, including browsing it, planning a route, signing in or posting anything, you agree to these terms and to how the data is described here and on How the data works. If you don't agree, please don't use the site.

The maps, city pages, hotspots, explanations, routes, ride checks, ride stories, street layers and the motorcycle simulator are our own reading of public data: the California Crash Reporting System (CCRS/SWITRS), NHTSA's Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), OpenStreetMap and other open sources. Choices about what to show, how to group crashes, how to rate streets and how to word explanations are ours. Other people could read the same data differently. How the data works explains our methods and their limits.

We don't provide the crash data. Crash records are written by police officers and published by government agencies: CCRS by the California Highway Patrol, FARS by NHTSA. We don't collect, create, check or correct them, and errors in them carry over to the site. Those agencies don't make, review or endorse Safe Streets Map, and nothing on the site is an official record.

Crash records are filled in by police and other agencies. They miss many crashes, and many have no location or a wrong one. Some of our crash locations are estimated from street names. Map data from OpenStreetMap is edited by volunteers and can be missing or out of date. Roads, traffic and infrastructure change. We don't check any of this on the ground, and we may make mistakes of our own.

How we sort and group crashes can also be inaccurate or wrong. Labels such as single-vehicle, multi-vehicle, "another vehicle turning left", serious or fatal come from what each report records, and reports can leave out or misdescribe the people and vehicles involved. For example, a crash counts as single-vehicle when its report lists no other moving vehicle, so a car that forced a rider off the road without being recorded makes it look like a solo crash. Crash-prone stretches, hotspots and the roads we match crashes to are worked out by our own rules and can put a crash on the wrong road or leave it out.

The site is provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including accuracy, completeness, timeliness, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement.

A place with few crashes on our maps is not necessarily safe, and a place with many is not necessarily dangerous: we have no traffic counts, so busy places show more crashes. Labels such as "low-stress", "quiet street", "path" or "hotspot" describe the data, not the conditions you will find, and so do the shares of a route we say run along bike lanes, paths or busy roads. Nothing on the site is traffic-safety, engineering, legal, medical or riding instruction advice. The motorcycle simulator is a game-like training aid, not a substitute for a riding course or real-world practice.

Live and time-sensitive information, such as CHP incidents, closures, chain controls, weather and street reports, is copied from other sources, can be late, incomplete or wrong, and is not an emergency service. In an emergency, call 911. Pages about getting a police report are general information, not legal advice, and using the site or contacting us creates no attorney-client or other professional relationship.

Walking, cycling and riding a motorcycle carry inherent risks, including property damage, serious injury and death, from traffic, other road users, road and trail conditions, weather and your own actions. You use the site at your own risk and voluntarily accept these risks, including any that arise from errors or gaps in the site's information. You are solely responsible for your route choices, your riding and walking, obeying traffic laws, and your own safety.

Routes on the site come from Mapbox's routing service, shown with facts from the data, such as the crashes reported along them. We don't check them. A route can use roads or paths that are closed, unsuitable for you or not open to your way of travelling, and showing a route, or a second route to compare, is not a recommendation. Times and distances are estimates without traffic or stops.

Check roads, paths, crossings and conditions for yourself when you get there, and follow road signs, local laws and your own judgment. Don't rely on the site for turn-by-turn navigation, precise locations or distances, or as a source of current conditions, and don't look at it while you are walking, riding or driving.

To the fullest extent allowed by law, you release Safe Streets Map and the people behind it from all claims, demands and damages of any kind, known or unknown, arising out of or relating to your use of the site, its information, or any walk, ride, route, group ride or place you find through it, and you agree not to sue them for those claims. You waive the benefit of California Civil Code section 1542, which says: "A general release does not extend to claims that the creditor or releasing party does not know or suspect to exist in his or her favor at the time of executing the release and that, if known by him or her, would have materially affected his or her settlement with the debtor or released party," and of any similar law elsewhere.

To the fullest extent allowed by law, Safe Streets Map and the people behind it are not liable for any injury, death, loss or damage of any kind, whether direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive, arising from use of or reliance on the site or its information, under any theory (contract, tort including negligence, strict liability or otherwise), even if we were told such harm was possible.

If any part of that is found unenforceable, our total liability to you for all claims together is limited to the greater of fifty US dollars ($50) or what you paid us in the twelve months before the claim arose (the site is free, so normally nothing).

Some laws don't allow certain exclusions or limits, so some of these may not apply to you; where that is so, they apply to the fullest extent the law allows.

Any claim arising out of or relating to these terms or the site must be filed within one year after it arose, or it is permanently barred, unless the law requires a longer period.

You agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless Safe Streets Map and the people behind it from any claims, losses, damages and costs, including reasonable legal fees, arising from your use of the site, your walking, cycling or riding, your breach of these terms or of any law, or anything you submit to the site.

Crash data, map data, base maps, group-ride calendars, place details and links to other sites come from third parties. We don't control them and aren't responsible for their content or availability. OpenStreetMap data is © OpenStreetMap contributors, available under the Open Database License.

Group rides listed on the site are organised by their clubs, shops and leaders, not by us. We are not a party to any ride, we don't check routes, leaders or conditions, and we aren't responsible for what happens on a ride. Any waiver or agreement for a ride is between you and its organiser.

Rider stops (shops, repair stations, water and restrooms) come mostly from OpenStreetMap and may be closed, moved or wrong. Anything other people submit to the site is their responsibility, isn't checked by us, and doesn't reflect our views.

You must be at least 18, or have a parent's or guardian's permission, to sign in or post. The site is not meant for children under 13.

You can sign in to post journal entries, ride stories, notes and photos. You keep ownership of what you post, and you give us a free, worldwide licence to store, resize, show and share it on the site for as long as it is up. Post only what you have the right to share. Don't post other people's private information, anything unlawful or anything meant to mislead. We may review, hide or remove posts and accounts at our discretion. You can delete your posts or your account at any time; see the privacy policy for what we keep.

Opinions in posts belong to the people who wrote them. If you think something on the site infringes your copyright, contact us with the page and the work, and we will look at it promptly.

You may view and share the site for personal, non-commercial use and quote our figures with a link to the page you took them from. Don't present our interpretation as official government data.

These terms, and any dispute arising out of or relating to them or to the site, are governed by the laws of the State of California, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules. Any such dispute must be brought only in the state or federal courts located in Los Angeles County, California, and you and we consent to the jurisdiction of those courts.

If a court finds any part of these terms unenforceable, that part is enforced as far as allowed and the rest stays in effect. These terms are the whole agreement between you and us about the site. If we don't enforce a part of them, we haven't waived it. We may transfer these terms; you may not without our consent. Sections 3 to 9, 12 and 13 survive after you stop using the site or delete your account.

We may change the site, the data or these terms at any time. The date at the top shows the latest version, and using the site after a change means you accept the new terms. Questions: contact us.