As a relative neophyte to urban bicycling (I’ve been biking for decades but have never lived in a city until I moved to Montreal four years ago), I’ve always assumed that biking was more dangerous than walking. But in the US, at least, it’s far from true – I just came across these fatality and injury statistics from the Federal Highway Administration:
In the year 2004:
725 bicyclists were killed and 41,000 were injured in traffic accidents.
4,641 pedestrians were killed and 68,000 were injured in traffic accidents
Of course, this could be due to the fact that there are more pedestrians than bicyclists but still it’s an impressive difference.
An interesting set of numbers, but surely there are many
more people walking than two-wheeling. A rate per thousand
would be interestring to see. Or…am I missing something here ?
No, you’re not missing anything at all…a rate per thousand is exactly what I’m looking for! I’d be fired if I did an “analysis” like the one above for my work, but this is the pub!
Yup, I’d want to see the percentage figures as well. Given the exponential difference in the number of walkers v the number of bikers, the injury rate for cyclists may in fact be WAY higher.
When I was young and immortal, I was quite an intrepid urban cyclist and rode my trusty Raleigh 3-speed round Picadilly Circus in London and up and down New York’s Avenues. My cycling career came to an end when I found myself passing a bus at a bus stop. It started to pull away just as an express bus zoomed past me on the other side. The wind from the passing bus threw my bike out of control and it was all I could do to keep upright until the two busses passed. Fortunately the driver of the car behind the bus saw what was happening and stopped, and I was able to get up and out of the road without being squashed but it was a near thing. I rode the bike a few times after that, both in NYC and later in Chicago but tended to stay off the streets and stick to bike paths in the park, using the bike for recreation only and not transportation.
It’s safer than walking on the footpaths around here (South Buckinghamshire, U.K.) as the cyclists zooming past you on the footpaths are likely to give you a heart attack.
I wonder how they classify “traffic accidents”. I also wonder if people are more alert while biking compared to walking. I will say it is starting to get dark early around here and using reflectors and lights* has become almost a must, something that the walkers and joggers rarely seem to do.
*Unfortunately the batteries don’t seem to like the cold.
I cycle most days and it amazes me to
encounter the car driver “mental set”
which includes only other cars. A two-
wheeler just doesn seem to be there at all.
Call me a rubber-neckin’ defensive biker,
by all means…
I think bicycling in a mixed urban environment is much more dangerous than walking. To get killed as a pedestrian you usually have to do something really stupid like cross against the lights, but cyclists get killed by careless drivers all the time. Of course pedestrians do get killed by drunk, careless or drugged drivers too.
It’s not entirely the drivers’ fault - in London there’s no proper place for cyclists to exist. If they ride on the pavement the pedestrians hate them, and if they ride in the road the drivers curse them. Attempts to put in “cycle lanes” are worse, because the lane is frequently blocked by a parked car, and anyway a cycle can’t be ridden in a space 2" wider than the handlebars, especially when that lane is full of pot holes and drainage covers.
The irony is that the average speed of the cyclist is often faster than the person who cannot proceed without a big metal bubble around them.
I’m scared to death to bicycle in traffic here. For that matter, I keep ruling out get a motorcycle to save gas money for the same reason: distracted, cell-phone using, coffee-drinking, possibly medicated drivers. They don’t jump sidewalks that often, but certainly swerve into the so-called bike lanes…
Before I got stationed in the UK I made the mistake of reading C.S. Lewis’ book “Out of the Silent Planet.” Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great book, but it starts with the main character on a walking tour in England. This gave me the notion that footpaths existed here. Apparently with the invention of the car the notion that anyone would choose to walk or ride a bicycle is so entirely unheard of that in most areas I’ve seen it would be suicidal to do either.
A pity really. I was planning on taking a month of leave in the spring to do a walking tour.
I commuted on a motorcycle for years - not much fun compared to a weekend ride in the hills, but it saved both gas and time. Then came a commute-time motorcycle accident that I was lucky to walk away from, and I did a reality check - I’d avoided quite a few other equally serious accidents over the years by skill (a handful) and luck (more than I liked to admit).
I’ve seen statistics that show that in roughly 2 out of 3 car/motorcycle accidents the car is at fault, mostly because even a big motorcycle doesn’t “register” with drivers scanning for other cars. And a motorcycle is quite a bit bigger, and louder, than a bicycle.
It may be skewed recollection on my part, but over the last few years I’ve noticed more car/bicycle fatalities in the news than car/pedestrian fatalities - maybe because they are more dramatic, given the raw numbers Brad cites.
The thing that struck me was that the bulk of the pedestrian fatalities were older people and kids, crossing the road away from marked crosswalks (and often in low visibility conditions). The bulk of the bike fatalities were daytime, with the rider following the rules of the road, but “not being seen” because the driver wasn’t alert (and often driving too fast).
You can do a lot to make yourself more visible, and (if you’re a pedestrian) only cross the street in well-marked locations with good visibility. But what you can’t control is the people around you - the more time you spend sharing the road with drivers, the higher your risk.
I gave up riding a bicycle in the city years ago. Too many close calls, too many jumping off the bike, etc. I’ve also had two friends killed (one was riding in a group, single file, on a Sunday morning and was hit by a drunk driver!).
My son has a motorcycle, but it’s barely street legal, and he doesn’t ride it on the highway at all (it’s a 1977, Suzuki 275, 2 stroke that we call the “wing-dingy-dingy” cuz that’s what it sounds like).
I’ve never seen a study, but “LOUD == SAFE” is an article of faith with at least some motorcyclists.
At least, it’s the justification that most give for removing their stock exhaust system and replacing it with something much, much, louder. Possibly because “I like being loud and obnoxious” doesn’t get much sympathy.
I know a fellow with a pickup truck and an intentionally loud - I mean LOUD - exhaust system. Can’t be legal. He has a sticker pasted on it that reads, “Loud Pipes Save Lives”. I called him on it, and he winked at me.
I know another fellow who has the same sticker on his uilleann pipes case. He’s a Roman Catholic novitiate. Scary.
I tell you, missy, you are describing exactly the same general setup I was describing! Does Nate’s truck look like someone used it as a boat anchor, too?
Nate’s truck actually started life as my dad’s. Dad passed away in 1986, when I was pregnant with Nate, and we kept the truck and used it for hauling stuff, etc. Nate said from the time he was little he wanted to grow up and drive “Grampa Frank’s” truck.
It’s a typical GM product from the 70’s however, had a terminal case of rust. Tom and Nate completely redid the outer body of it the summer Nate was 15, painted it the original colors (dark gray with black middle panels) and it really looks good. It still has less than 100,000 original miles on it.
After it had it’s last “E check”, Nate pulled all the exhaust and pollution stuff and put the headers on it.
He used to take it over to the drag strip and run quarters in it - 18.4, 18.4, 18.4 - all he was doing was flooring it!
It’s not been driven much the past year and a half since Nate’s been in the Navy (he got a new truck once he got to Virginia) - but whenever he comes home and goes to start it, two cranks and it starts right up, no matter HOW long it’s been sitting there.
Yes. That was odd. I thought the happy suburbanesque American Dream type music was a nice touch as the cyclists met their mostly grisly ends one by one.
but still it’s an impressive difference.