Perspective on Cycling Safety

[Mr. Bloom]

There have been many posts recently about cyclists' deaths.

We understand the emotion. In our household, Silver was PROFOUNDLY affected by the death of a cyclist she was riding with last year.

But, cycling in the USA has a better average fatality rate than cars.
Biking Fatalities: 2.64 per million people
Vehicle Fatalities: 146.7 per million people

Personally, I'm encouraged that this statistic is so low by comparison given that cyclist are not cloistered in steel as car drivers are.

Every death is a tragedy...particularly when it results from someone's careless negligence.

But, I remain encouraged that cyclists have a very good probability of safety compared to our primary nemesis - cars.

My source is this government study from 2005: http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pdf/nrd...005/810617.pdf

[smilingcat]

Dear Mr. Silver,

Fatalities is very much final. But, what about statistics on serious injury per xx miles per person??

And wasn't there a study where the trend for cyclist injury was on the rise even though the compliance for helmet use was going up?

I don't want to scare anyone here. Its just..., well, I'm a lot like my cats, very curious. And like cats, too lazy to search.

For those of you who may get worried over some of the horrible news, it might be worth noting that much of the accidents are from racers, ex-racers and such (I think).

Racers tend to skew the statistics I think. Case in point, the year I "quit", well there was me sorta like Saul Raisin, can't recall my accident..., one gal crashed into a tree and broke her pelvis; another gal crashed and had multiple pins in her arm; another half mooned her wheel while practicing pace line and ended up with pins in her left thumb. And all of these happened during practice/training. And I thought we were being careful and mindful about safety. Definitly far less than million miles.

2 death per million miles and almost 70x lower death rate than a car is something to cheer about. I wish it was 0.0 per million miles...

smilingcat

[Mr. Bloom]

SC, you're absolutely right. There's a lot more statistics out there ( I couldn't quickly find the injury stats)...PLUS, we can make stats say anything we want them to... I acknowledge that the stats I cited could be interpreted in many different ways.

But here's another one: Worldwide Bike Production is about 100Million units/yr. Car Production is about 40Million units/yr. Annual production was equal for most of the last 50 years, but Bike production went into orbit about 10-15 years ago.

So, despite statistical interpretation issues, I personally remain encouraged that with the number of bikes on the road exploding, fatality rates are still low relative to cars.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I read recently that after many years of slow but steady decline in deaths of motorcycle riders in bike/vs/car accidents, these past two years have shown a sudden alarming leap in deaths for motorcycle riders. The only guess they have so far is the sudden proliferation of car drivers talking on cell phones...

[KnottedYet]

It was a kid on a cellphone who rear-ended my Subaru at a stop light last week.

[kelownagirl]

I wonder how the stats work as far as fatalites per million riders and fatalities per million drivers? Maybe the car fatalities are higher because there are so many more people who drive than bike?

We've had 4 bike-related accidents in my small town (100,000) in the past month. The one fatality was a 23 year old man without a helmet who jumped the curb on a mt bike, lost control and hit a telephone pole.

The other 3 people survived with injuries -
- 1 was a 16 year old boy without a helmet, crossing against a light.
- 1 was a man with a helmet on a bike lane, crossing the highway, someone turned left. His bike was more damaged than he was luckily.
- 1 was a man with a helmet riding downhill in the bike lane, through an intersection a few blocks from my house and a van turned left right in front of him. The van left the scene.

In my town, the last 2 are anomolies. More often than not, the "cyclist" who is hit and injured or killed, is riding at night, without lights, on the highway, without a helmet, weaving into traffic (and often intoxicated).

I get my panties tied in a knot when I hear about these types of accidents and then the inevitable calls for cyclists to stay off our roads.

[OakLeaf]

I read recently that after many years of slow but steady decline in deaths of motorcycle riders in bike/vs/car accidents, these past two years have shown a sudden alarming leap in deaths for motorcycle riders. The only guess they have so far is the sudden proliferation of car drivers talking on cell phones...

There's no comparison between bicycle accidents and motorcycles, except in one aspect: Most if not all of the jump in motorcyclist deaths has to do with repeal of helmet laws in several states.

I have no interest in discussing helmet laws. Zero. Don't start. Suffice it to say that I am alive right now because of a bicycle helmet I was wearing at 21 mph twenty years ago.

If the statistic is true that someone posted that more bicyclists are wearing helmets, that's a great thing. But the opposite trend is true of motorcyclists, and *that* is what accounts for the increase in deaths. Unlike a bicycle, a motorcycle has big rear view mirrors and much more power than a car - it also has more maneuverability than a car. Unlike a bicycle, a motorcyclist *always* has the last clear chance to avoid a crash with a car, no matter whose legal fault the initial problem might have been.

Incidentally, most present-day motorcycle fatalities are also single-bike accidents.

There's no excuse for not paying attention *whatever* your mode of transportation. Recently a pedestrian was killed in my area, running at night with her back to traffic and an iPod jammed in her ear. I cringe every time I see a bicyclist with earbuds in. But motorcycle wrecks have no place in a discussion of bicycle wrecks.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

There's no excuse for not paying attention *whatever* your mode of transportation. Recently a pedestrian was killed in my area, running at night with her back to traffic and an iPod jammed in her ear. I cringe every time I see a bicyclist with earbuds in. But motorcycle wrecks have no place in a discussion of bicycle wrecks.

Well, if we are talking about car accidents, pedestrian accidents, bicycle accidents.....why the heck aren't we "allowed" to talk about motorcycle accidents as well?? They are all related in various convoluted ways, though they may have varied causes. Discussions here are open to many ideas.
I imagine more motorcyclists are now wearing iPod buds too, just like joggers and bicyclists do. More car drivers, cyclists, pedestrians, (and maybe motorcyclists too?) are talking on cell phones as they move in traffic. In fact, Manhattan was going to make it against the law for pedestrians to walk across the street while talking on a cell phone. (have they actually passed that law yet?) That would be interesting, as every 8th person walking down the street in manhattan seems to be talking on their cell phone these days. I see teenagers talking on cell phones while weaving through traffic one-handed on their bicycles all the time....with no helmets either.

[mimitabby]

Unlike a bicycle, a motorcyclist *always* has the last clear chance to avoid a crash with a car, no matter whose legal fault the initial problem might have been.
.

sorry, i don't understand what you are saying here???

[Kristin]

I've been lurking here for a while and I figure I should just jump in at some point.

Here's an article that I'm re-posting from C.I.C.L.E. It has lots of great stats about cycling safety:


Sep 10 '07 - Is Bicycling Safe?
Published September 9, 2007 by Raise the Hammer
By Ryan McGreal


Raise the Hammer promotes cycling as a great transportation choice. It's cleaner and healthier than driving, producing zero emissions and achieving the equivalent of 595 km/l (1,400 mpg) in fuel economy.

Nevertheless, would-be cyclists often ask: But is it safe? Will I have to pay for my environmental choice with crippling injuries or premature death?

An article in View Magazine a couple of months ago advocated for better bicycle infrastructure by focusing on cycling dangers. Though well-intentioned, it reinforced many preconceptions without examining them for accuracy.

In fact, cycling is arguably safer than driving.

Comparing the Risks
Every activity carries risks, and are many possible ways to compare the relative risks of cycling and other activities. Looking at several can help to form a more complete picture.

Fatality by Distance Cycled
The most obvious comparison is the fatality risk per distanced traveled. In this straight-up analysis, cycling is more dangerous than driving. Every 1.6 million kilometres (one million kilometres) cycled produces 0.039 cyclist fatalities, compared to 0.016 fatalities for motorists. They're both very low, but the risk for cycling is more than double.

However, this is not the most useful way to compare risks.

Fatality by Time Spent Cycling
Failure Analysis Associates, Inc. performed a comparative analysis of fatality rates for a variety of activities per million hours spent performing a given activity. They concluded that the fatality rate for every million hours spent cycling is 0.26, compared to 0.47 per million driving hours (on-road motorcycling comes in at a whopping 8.80 deaths per million motorcycling hours).

That is, riding a motor vehicle has nearly twice the risk of fatality as riding a bike for a given duration.

Overall Fatality and Commute Homeostasis
According to the US National Safety Council, for every million cyclists in the US, 16.5 die each year, whereas for every million motorists, 19.9 die each year.

This is important, because it helps us to draw conclusions about how the higher risk per distance traveled interacts with the lower risk per time spent traveling. Cycling is more dangerous on a straight distance comparison, but because drivers travel farther on average, the overall risk to an individual is higher for drivers than for cyclists.

This is related to what we might call "commute homeostasis", or the amount of time a person is willing to spend traveling. All things being equal, a person is willing to travel a farther distance only if they can get there faster.

People who drive tend to live farther away from destinations (e.g. work commute) than people who cycle. In fact, one benefit of cycling is that it saves so much money that cyclists can often afford to live much closer to where they work.

Cycling also tends to place a premium on proximity, so cyclists are more likely to locate in places where many destinations are nearby, which reduces the cycling distance and hence the risk as a function of distance.

Fatality Rate in Crashes
Another way of evaluating risk is to examine the odds of dying if you do crash. Common sense dictates that crashing in a bicycle has a higher risk of death than crashing in a motor vehicle, but according to the NHTSA, bicycles compare rather well.

The odds of dying from a bicycle crash are one in 71. This compares to one in 75 for a light truck (pickup truck, SUV, van), one in 108 for a car, one in 43 for a truck, one in 26 for a motorcycle, and one in 15 for a pedestrian.

In other words, the odds of dying in a bike crash are about the same as the odds of dying in an SUV crash. The false sense of security that comes from an SUV tends to produce far more dangerous driving behaviour.

"Life Years" Gained and Lost
In addition to the direct risk of death or injury, cycling and driving also carry indirect risks that must be factored into account.

According to a study by the British Medical Association, the average gain in "life years" through improved fitness from cycling exceeds the average loss in "life years" through cycling fatalities by a factor of 20 to 1.

Driving confers no commensurate health benefits through improved fitness; in fact, time spent driving actually correlates with poorer overall health and higher risk of heart disease, obesity, diabetes, cancer, and related lifestyle diseases.

Psychologically, it's hard to weigh the slight risk of being hit by a car tomorrow against the vastly reduced risk of having a heart attack in twenty years, but it is far too significant to ignore.

Risk is Mutable
Since cyclists are not a homogeneous bunch, it makes sense to examine whether and how cycling behaviour affects fatality rates. It turns out that cyclists who ignore the rules are much more likely to die than cyclists who follow the rules.

The difference is so stark that it would make more sense to regard them as two separate populations for the sake of comparison. Averaging the two groups - cyclists who follow or who disregard the law - together obscures the vast differences in their relative risks.

It also obscures the fact that an individual cyclist's choices strongly influence their risk of fatality. Cyclists are not helpless victims of safety statistics (even encouraging statistics).

It might not be politically expedient to state, but in the majority of bicycle crashes, the cyclist is at least partly at fault. Cyclists are hit when they ride on the sidewalk and appear out of nowhere at intersections; when they pass on the right; when they ride at night without lights and reflectors; when they ride the wrong way down one way streets; when they ride too closly to parked cars; and so on.

Bike infrastructure can certainly help: streets with clearly marked, well-maintained bike lanes are safer than streets without them. It's also clear that bike lanes increase the perception of safety for would-be cyclists.

However, the way you ride is a bigger factor in accident prevention. The absolute best way to avoid accidents is to ride as though you are driving a motor vehicle. In other words: be visible, follow the rules of the road, pay close attention to what's happening around you, and practice defensive riding. You will earn the respect of motorists, maximize your safety, and get the most enjoyment from cycling.

Back to Front Page

Would you like to contribute to C.I.C.L.E.? Do you a have bike-related article, news story, event, idea, suggestion, etc...? Check out our submissions page.

[DDH]

Well, all I can say is, I try to be safe in every circumstance but nobody, including myself is perfect and I make mistakes. I was driving the other day and had plenty of room between me and the truck in front of me, under what would be ideal circumstances but it had started raining that morning and the roads were wet. I looked down for what I thought was just a second and looked up to see Red Brake lights, I hit the brakes and skid and just barely, by inches missed him, but to close for comfort for sure.
I ride my bike, I wear my helmet, I take a light should it get dark, I have water for hydration, a snack should I decide I need something quick to eat, I even carry a little first aid kit with bandaides and such. Well, sometimes my neck starts to get sore so I will try to stretch my neck by bending it down and then around, and once went a little squirrley on the road, thank goodness a car wasn't coming down the road at the time.
Point is, we aren't always and cannot always be on our guard 24/7.
I don't borrow trouble if I can help it, but I learn from these mistakes, given another chance. and try do better the next time out only to find that some days I make different small mistakes which can always be costly.
Now I'm not saying I make a mistake daily to learn from, I just remember it when I do and log it in my brain for quick retrieval in the future.
I sound like an accident waiting to happen huh? LOL
Really I would be safe to ride with.