[bmink]

Age is another differentiator. Take young men out of the equation and you get a much better picture.

Another interesting stat is that the majority of motorcycle crashes are single vehicle accidents, ie. the rider going down by themselves. While this can be equipment failure, in most cases this will be crashing due to riding too fast or above skill level.

So yes, riding very carefully at safe speeds and avoiding dangerous situations (I choose my routes to avoid situations where drivers are likely to be in their phone — mostly freeways and freeway-like streets in cities) will make bikes a lot more safe.

[potato3732842]

Some guy out for a cruise laying his bike down after things got a little more spicy than her was prepared for mid corner is a fundamentally different kind of accident than someone T-boning a left turning car and going over the handlebars in commuting traffic.

Texting and driving probably accounts for a lot of minor bumps in stop and go traffic that cause inconsequential damage and obviously no injury and isn't really relevant to someone who texts and drives into stopped traffic at highway speeds.

Treating those sorts of accidents that are categorically different in both cause and effect one homogenous statistical blob really rubs me the wrong way.