Is bicycling as safe as being in your car?

[kat_h]

why is it ironic? he seems to have done his homework!

He was killed by a car while riding his bike.

[mimitabby]

oh, him!! bummer. thanks guys for letting me know.

[jobob]

Yeah, I was shocked by that as well. I had been reading his site for some time before I came across a mention of his death. His friends are maintaining the site in his memory. It's a very valuable resource.

[jobob]

An article came out in today's SF Chronicle stating that bike fatalities are on the rise in the Bay Area:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl.../MNHPVHGQB.DTL

Riding a bicycle in the Bay Area is an increasingly deadly pastime.

The number of bicyclists killed in collisions with motor vehicles has increased 28 percent over the past decade - from 18 to 23 deaths per year, according to a Chronicle analysis of data collected by the California Highway Patrol.

This is just statistical fear-mongering IMHO. I daresay the number of cyclists in the Bat Area has increased way more than 28% in the past decade, so in reality, deaths as a percentage of the number of cyclists has likely decreased significantly.

The article follows on a more optimistic note:

That increase is despite a 22 percent drop in the number of regional bicycle accidents between 1997 and 2006, the last year for which complete statistics are available for the nine Bay Area counties. The number of bicyclists injured in accidents over that period declined by a similar amount.

Yet, is that played up in the headline ? Noooo....

[rij73]

I believe Ken Kifer was hit from behind by a drunk driver in broad daylight. That's the rarest kind of incident there is, but it does happen...

[OakLeaf]

Ya, you notice how auto accident rates are always expressed in terms of vehicle-miles, not so here.

[kat_h]

Have a look at http://www.dothetest.co.uk/

It's part of an awareness campaign in the UK.

[Bad JuJu]

This is just statistical fear-mongering IMHO.

Yes, fearmongering of the worst kind. A similar kind of thing is often done with regard to motorcycles--reporting the increased accidents and fatalities without bothering to mention the increase in numbers of riders and bikes on the road. Other than trying to frighten people into giving up their motorcycles, I'm not sure what the goal is. It's not as if there are going to be motorcycle paths built. Well, I hope not........

[OakLeaf]

A similar kind of thing is often done with regard to motorcycles--reporting the increased accidents and fatalities without bothering to mention the increase in numbers of riders and bikes on the road.

Unfortunately not the case - rather it's the anti-helmet crowd who try to obscure the issues by claiming that rider-miles weren't taken into account, when in fact they were, and the disparity is almost entirely accountable by helmet law repeal.

/hijack off

[KnottedYet]

My doc just tried to convince me that bicycling is a bad choice of exercise, because it's too dangerous... I was resistant.