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With its open roads and pleasant suburbs, Contra Costa County might seem like a paradise for bicycle riders. 

In fact, the county’s bike commuters, of which there are few, are among the most likely to get into an accident in the Bay Area. From 2005 through 2009, 23 cyclists died in Contra Costa County. It's tied with Santa Clara County for the most cyclist deaths, but the death rate in Contra Costa County is higher.

The findings come from The Bay Citizen’s new Bike Accident Tracker, which maps and analyzes every bike accident reported to the California Highway Patrol from 2005 through 2009. Municipalities are required to report every crash its police officers write up to the CHP. 

The Tracker reveals that some suburban areas like Contra Costa County are actually more dangerous for cyclists that crowded urban areas like San Francisco. San Francisco saw nine bike fatalities over the same five-year period, and the city’s bike commuters were the least likely to get into a crash in the Bay Area.

The 23 deaths took place all across Contra Costa County. The city of Concord had the most -- with four. Concord also had the most bike crashes in the county with 277 and had the seventh most of any Bay Area city over the five-year period.

One common thread in the fatal accidents is that all but four appear to have occurred on roads without bike lanes, according the Bike Accident Tracker. The most well-known case was Mark Pendleton, a 49-year-old cyclist and electrician, who was hit and killed in 2008 by a truck that drifted across the center line on a windy road with no bike lanes.

The driver, Harold Brown -- who sped off, fixed and then hid his truck -- is set to plead guilty on June 15 to felony hit and run causing death and will be sentenced to two years in state prison, according to the district attorney and Brown's lawyer.

While Contra Costa County does have long off-road trails for bikes, the roads were laid out with one vehicle in mind: the car. In Concord, for instance, Clayton Road, a six-lane thoroughfare separated by a median has a little sign on the side of the road that reads “Bike Route.” There is no sign of a bike lane – or space to ride a bike.

“They have a higher percentage of roads designed during the automobile era,” said Dave Campbell, who works for the East Bay Bicycle Coalition. “They’re bigger, they’re wider  -- and the cars are going at higher speeds.”

Neela Kale bikes six miles to work every day from San Pablo to downtown Pinole where she works as the director of religious education at St. Joseph Catholic Parish. Before moving to Contra Costa County, she lived in Alameda County where, she said, biking was easier on the nerves.

“In Berkeley and Oakland, the biking facilities are better: there’s more bike lanes and signs, and I feel the drivers are much more aware of bikers,” said Kale. “Here I get harassed, I get yelled at, people honk at me – they’re just not as hospitable to cyclists.”

Contra Costa County cyclists were found to be at fault in 55 percent of the crashes in the county, although bikers often complain that police reports are biased toward car drivers.

Bike Accident Tracker

The little dots note the location of the 23 cycling deaths in Contra Costa County between 2005 and 2010

In the 23 fatal accidents, 17 were found to be at fault of the cyclists by police. Three were caused by drunk cyclists, according to police reports. Five were caused by right of way violations.  In the fatal accidents where drivers were found to be at fault, three were because of improper turning and two were because of unsafe speed.

An unlikely advocate for bikers has emerged in Contra Costa County: the district attorney Mark Peterson. Peterson has been pushing for more bike lanes – and ratcheting up the punishment for drivers who hit cyclists.

In the Pendleton case, the former district attorney, Robert Kochly, was leaning toward a deal that would have meant probation for the hit-and-run driver Brown, said Assistant District Attorney Bryan Tierney. But Peterson directed Tierney to pursue a harsher punishment.

Peterson is a cyclist himself – and he said he’d rather prevent bike crashes before he has to try the cases in court where juries could be sympathetic to drivers who hit bikers. “People think there for the grace of God go I,” he said.

Peterson also charged Hung Guo with vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence, after she allegedly hit and killed John Greaves, a 44-year-old tri-athlete, on Camino Tassajara in 2009. Guo has pleaded not guilty.

Here's a ranking of accident rates per bike commuter. Click on column headers to sort: