Bicycle usage has been on the rise in Iceland and other western nations, in part due to government policies intending to increase bicycling as a transportation mode. As city planners and transportation engineers move forward with the development of sustainable transport policies and designing the infrastructure that supports bicycle utilization of all forms, safety is paramount.  Unfortunately, often resources and funding for these types of projects may be limited, leaving those in charge of planning needing to prioritize projects that will maximize benefits while being cost effective. This paper reviews the literature to identify important factors that have been found to either promote or decrease bicyclist safety. Then this paper will investigate bicycle crashes in Iceland that resulted in an emergency room visit using emergency room data. In this way the paper is able to explore bicycle crashes that do not involve automobiles, but police recorded data generally only contains bicycle-automobile crashes. The aim of this study is therefore to further enhance understanding of bicycle safety in general based on hospital records from emergency room visits.