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Cycling/pedestrian fatalities 5-10x higher in US than Europe
 

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Nick Payne
Joined: 10 Jan 2004
Posts: 2625
Location: Canberra, Australia

10/14/20 7:55 PM

Cycling/pedestrian fatalities 5-10x higher in US than Europe

And I suspect that the situation here in Australia isn't much different from the US, given that the great majority of the population here is very car-centric. Every time I return from a cycling trip in Europe, as soon as I'm out on Australian roads I immediately notice the lead-footed shit-headedness of a substantial proportion of car drivers:

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01441647.2020.1823521

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KerryIrons
Joined: 12 Jan 2004
Posts: 3234
Location: Midland, MI

10/15/20 2:16 PM

Causation

We have two factors in the US - the motorists and the riders. Roughly half of the cycling fatalities are "urban ninja" riders who are out at night without lights, reflectors, etc., riding against traffic, cutting across roads, etc. Roughly 1/3 of the cyclist fatalities involve a drunk rider. And then there's the motorists and all of their issues. Plus, in the US if you hit a cyclist it's pretty much treated as collateral damage and you suffer no consequences unless it is proven you were grossly negligent. And of course the cops don't really investigate this kind of crash. In Europe, if you hit a cyclist it's pretty much assumed to be your fault and you are thus severely penalized. Put it all together and there should be no surprises in the resulting statistics.

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Sparky
Joined: 08 Dec 2003
Posts: 19068
Location: PDX

10/15/20 4:49 PM

Source??

" Roughly half of the cycling fatalities are "urban ninja" riders who are out at night without lights, reflectors, etc., riding against traffic, cutting across roads, etc. Roughly 1/3 of the cyclist fatalities involve a drunk rider."

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Brian Nystrom
Joined: 26 Jan 2004
Posts: 5096
Location: Nashua, NH

10/16/20 6:00 AM

Another interesting statistic is that ~70% of all cycling-related injuries are self-inflicted, due to inattention, poor skills/judgement or simple stupidity. Only around 5% of bike accidents involve motor vehicles. The remaining 25% are caused by road hazards, equipment failures and the like.

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KerryIrons
Joined: 12 Jan 2004
Posts: 3234
Location: Midland, MI

10/17/20 2:23 PM

Source

Source: NHTSA statistics. Frequently quoted by organizations like PBIC, LAB, APBP, People for Bikes, etc.

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Sparky
Joined: 08 Dec 2003
Posts: 19068
Location: PDX

10/17/20 4:54 PM

Thanks...

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Matthew Currie
Joined: 11 Jan 2004
Posts: 800
Location: Vermont

11/13/20 8:05 PM

Only five percent! Geez, I'm one of the elite!

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Brian Nystrom
Joined: 26 Jan 2004
Posts: 5096
Location: Nashua, NH

11/14/20 6:01 PM

As with most areas of risk in life, people are prone to freak out over low-risk, high-consequence incidents, rather than the risks that are far more likely to get them killed. For example, we're orders of magnitude more likely to die while driving than from being hit by a driver while on our bikes. Yet, have you ever heard anyone express concern that they may die behind the wheel on a typical daily drive?

The worst injury I've had while cycling was caused by my own inattention (part of that 70% I mentioned previously). However, most of the road crashes I've had were in races, where it was often out of my control. You pick your risks and learn your lessons from them.

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