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by ill0gicity 3584 days ago
Regardless of all the statistics, math, and you-live-longers in this I have to disagree. Maybe I'm just an incredibly lucky driver (zero collisions) and a disaster-magnet on a bicycle (40 year old woman driving an SUV (SF), 33 year old man driving delivery van (SF), drunk driver (Sunnyvale), 92 year old driving a van (Sunnyvale)), but I know where I feel safe. That said, I still love to ride my bike.
5 comments
mikeash 3584 days ago
Looking at a single individual is completely uninformative for rare risks like car crashes. The average driver in the US has a very roughly 5% chance of being involved in a car crash each year. If you've been driving for 50 years (just an example, no idea how long you've been on the road!) then you'd expect to have been involved in two or three crashes by that time, but there's also about an 8% chance that you've never been in a crash.
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rhinoceraptor 3584 days ago
The most common types of car-bike collisions are some sort of scenario where the car fails to yield. If you know that, you can prevent a lot of them. For instance, never assume that a car turning left across your lane will yield.
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endemic 3584 days ago
Very accurate. Pretend that car drivers cannot see you, and act accordingly.
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phyzome 3584 days ago
You have to separate out what feels safe from what is safe; our intuition isn't always up to the task of sorting that out. (There's the usual example of airplane travel being very safe, but people being scared of it.)

I bet there's also some complexity here around incidents vs. injuries vs. deaths.

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ZeroGravitas 3584 days ago
Another complexity is that one thing that makes a big difference to cyclist's safety, is the number of people who cycle, so you can have a vicious or virtuous cycle of people taking up cycling and making it safer, or people giving up cycling and making it less safe.
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takk309 3584 days ago
It would be interesting to see these stats for non-fatal accidents. One issue with bicycle safety analysis is that non-fatal crashes tend to be under reported. For example, in Montana a crash is reported to the State only if there is a fatality or the cost in damages exceeds $1,000. I have been hit by a car while on my bike and the damages only came to $700 (I had no physical damage).
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ill0gicity 3584 days ago
Oh and let's be clear: extending your life and saving you money do not make you safer.
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