We Need To Talk About The Risks Of Cycling

Let's be honest we get frustrated and aggressive inside our cars. Especially when we get delayed, cut off and over taken by others.

I've had more cycle related injuries than anything I've ever done including Motocross. It's not just crashing or being knocked off it's injuries such as sprains and back issues that have affected me. But still love it !

In Western Europe/public road is crazy to ride a bike, sOo scary guys

There’s a lot of other factors too.
Car safety is a selling point and tech has evolved massively for cars since I first learned to drive (rear view cams, radars, 4 side airbags etc) whilst for cycling it’s basically the same since I was a kid, your brakes and a helmet

The other thing I find important is the density of nearby interactions. Whether driving or cycling, how many other elements in movement around you and how long you spend in that context will drastically affect your risks. For example, even though I might spend 3-4h on a country road with no shoulder or bike path I have far fewer incidents, near misses and perceived danger than on the 45min through the city it takes me to get back home

It would be interesting if you added a variable that added defensive steps a cyclist could use to help the numbers in our favor. Like you said, helmet use would take down the deaths and the reporting of said deaths. I was thinking more about using lights and other strategies to make cycling safer and then redo the numbers and findings. Cars have so many safety features that a bike can't match and this makes the fatality counts seem out of our favor. How can we up the safety quotient for cyclist?

I must say, in last 15 years in Croatia where I live, 90% of road accidents were due to breaking the law. Drunk driving, over speed limit by 20 kmh or more, cellphone use, etc. In same time cars are 20% wider lots of SUV, triple the amount of craftsmen caddys, pick-ups and small construction trucks. Also cars are much more insulated and cushy, wheels are bigger, so percived speed and therefore percived risk is 50% lower. One thing not mentioned is MTB, how MTB on semiurban scale compares to cycling.. you can commute by car and use time saved to do a half hour MTB training in local parks daily. XC MTB especially with top of the line tires can be single most agile vehicle on the street by a good margin.

I don’t drive but as a passenger, if been more afraid than I have ever been riding on my bike. I definitely agree, driving is more risky but it doesn’t take away from the fact that cycling around those scary drivers puts us at greater risk too. Thank God for separated bike paths, and quiet roads.

What should be studied is how often a cyclist alters their ride to avoid conflicts with cars. If I were to ride down any road, in my rights, my risk would be substantial, and I would be regularly scorned.

I was hit by a car in Jan. I broke my elbow. Car hit me in a bus lane. I agree with all said about cycling being good for health BUT it is still not safe enough to just get people on bikes. Bad driving is more than a perception. I have a helmet cam and routinely submit footage to the Police. I would like to see more done to protect me from dangerous car/van/bus/truck drivers.

Just have to avoid silly falls. Just now recovering from going over the handle bars. Been 4m

ok phobias are irrational fears, so arachnophobia in the UK is an irrational fear because spiders in the UK generally arent anything to be feared of in so much as they cant really harm you, they on the whole cant kill you like Australian spiders would, though I still question why anyone when faced with a creepy crawly the size of your fist that starts running towards you, why you dont hot leg it away pronto. But a fear of dying is not an irrational fear, its perfectly rational to fear death, or serious injury undertaking an activity, thats not the same thing as a phobia and its wrong to try and draw parallels to them.

and I can drive my car and feel very safe,even when everyone around me seems incapable of driving properly or even in a crash, I still feel protected, weve sold cars for years on the very basis they are designed to protect us in case the worst happens.

On a bike, I dont feel safe, there is no protection for me, and I can be frequently inches away sometimes from very big machines that will totally harm me if things go badly, thats not a very nice feeling to have. now fine Im still here so statistically the odds have been in my favour on this and I ride more miles than I drive, great. but you know when I was crossing a roundabout last week when I saw a car approaching from my 9 oclock position, and it kept coming, and I kept thinking its ok theyll see me, and it kept coming and kept coming, and Im already taking emergency avoidance action before the driver spots me, slams on the brakes and skids to a stop…thats not a safe feeling when your cycling. ok.

I tried for a couple of years to commute to work in Canada even throughout the winter. I stopped recently because the current societal climate is more aggressive. People are just mad at me for riding on the road even when I'm not on Car lanes. I have also been getting in more near misses and I see more people looking at the phones.

It'd be great if there were more separate bike trails.

Cycling fatalities are totally dependant on how many cars and how fast those cars are on the road. Cycling deaths are extremely rare when there are no cars around. Whereas, single vehicle collisions and deaths can be quite common, especially on a Friday or Saturday night.

In Toronto, Yr2020 experienced really low road fatalities from pedestrians, cyclists and motorists. This was at a time when cycling activity and walking increased. That's because so many people left their cars at home due to Covid lockdowns.

Excellent video. Your comment about online car-bike incident videos being scaremongering really made me think. Weekly emails from a cycling dashcam company (bc I bought their product) and the convenience of Zwift have ennabled me to develop a near phobia of road riding, for going on 10 years now, where previously I used to ride absolutely anywhere. Of course the dashcam people are just trying to sell more product, really obvious now I think of it, but geez, I’ve fallen for it. Then I think of my father, now in his eighties, who has cycled on the road for nearly 70 years almost incident-free. So what am I worried about? What have I been missing? It’s a bit of an epiphany, tbh.

Been hit 3 times in 45 years. Run down from behind once . Pretty good survival record. It’s the odds for sure. Car drivers suck big wang .🚴🏾‍♂️

neither…pure objectivity is the practice of what; how to step away from the experience of both vehicle and human error. to justify what compares with justice /prejudice to alienation/experience (not respectively in this case)?
what outcome of the report (above will continue only for the beneficiaries) is not democracy; thus…

indefinite food for thought; thank you:)

Cycling creates more serendipity as compared to driving. You get to have many chanced occurence because you are more sensitive to your surroundings when cycling. This could in the way propel the society mental well being and economical well being. For economical well being, anywhere could be a potential pit stop or rest spot