Cycling is dangerous

Rick Onanian wrote:

On 15 Oct 2003 11:09:52 -0700, (Frank Krygowski)
wrote:
Not according to the largest risk-consultation company in America.
See http://www.magma.ca/~ocbc/comparat.html

That chart is found on an anti-helmet website. How about a neutral
site, not about bicycling at all? Yes, you'll say that it was done
by an independent company, but an independent company can be biased
or wrong easily enough; and an anti-helmet site would post only data
by such a company. It's even easy enough for such a company to
gather broken data by accident, not knowing about bicycling.

That same chart appears 53 times on the web (according to Google),
mostly in bicycle contexts. But it originally appeared in _Design News_
magazine, which isn't cycling-oriented. I've never been able to find
any info on where they got their data or how they analyzed it, so I'll
take it with a grain of salt. Has anyone here seen the original
article from which the table is taken? It might have some useful info.

[snip]
What does this category mean:
Living (all causes of death)
Apparently, living an hour at all is many times more dangerous than
bicycling AND passenger cars.

It means that people live 653,000 hours, or 74.6 years, on average.

--
Ray Heindl
(remove the X to reply)

"Ian" wrote in message
. cable.rogers.com...
I tend to believe comparing cars to bikes to be like comparing apples to
oranges, they are 2 totally different beasts with more different about
them
than they have in common. Why not compare biking to walking?

You made an excellent point. I ride my bike to work for exercise. That means
it replaces the car ride and alternative exercise at the same time (I hate
gyms). For a real comparison we have to add the two risks to compare them to
cycling.

On the other hand, if we're trying to compare bike vs car and no exercise,
then we'd have to add the car risk to the sedentary lifestyle risk. That
would probably make cycling look better still.

Even for myself, cycling is the only exercise I've managed to do
consistently. It's possible, that if I couldn't commute by bike, I still
wouldn't be exercising.

Doug
Toronto

Robert Chambers wrote, after about 50 lines of quoted text:

All I do in response to this is shake my head in a combination of disgust
and amazement.

That's too bad. There are much more useful things one can do with a head.

--
Benjamin Lewis

Although the moon is smaller than the earth, it is farther away.

Robert Chambers wrote:

Hey frank ... try reading the entire thread. I know plenty about cycling
and its relative dangers. I've experienced them first hand.

Well, I guess you're an expert then. I also presume you'll start wearing a
helmet as a pedestrian when I tell you anecdotes of my friends who have
been hit by cars while out walking.

I can't stand enduring all the idiots out here who think they know
something about it when they spin a few miles a week and haven't had a
life-threatening accident ... yet somehow they're experts.

To whom are you referring here? Certainly not Frank.

--
Benjamin Lewis

Although the moon is smaller than the earth, it is farther away.

Pete wrote:

Several years ago, bumping up onto a curb, I mistimed the frontwheel lift,
and went over the front.
Result - chipped tooth on landing.

As I had the helmet on (military requirement) I suppose I counted am in the
other camp. Non serious head injury while wearing a helmet.
Of COURSE the helmet saved my life!

Perhaps if you had the correct helmet brand, or wore it "more effectively",
you could have avoided the chipped tooth too!

But just having survived should be good enough.


SMH

Ian wrote:

Per hour of use weighs unfavourably against the car. That one hour for a
motorist can mean multiple trips, many miles, many lights, stop signs, many
other drivers, I do not agree that it normalizes to the extent that it
produces a fair comparison.

If you're not exposed to danger (your car is in the garage), how can you be
sustain a traffic injury? Only if a car rams into your house while you watch
the tube.

I tend to believe comparing cars to bikes to be like comparing apples to
oranges, they are 2 totally different beasts with more different about them
than they have in common. Why not compare biking to walking?

Comparing cars and bikes is indeed difficult.

Not certain how many "walking accidents" there are beyond twisted ankles and
such. Don't think I've heard of any fatalities from walking collisions, yet
surely, some where at some time, it has happened!


SMH

Stephen Harding

wrote in part:

In fact, from higher "altitudes", predicting when you'll hit the ground is
really, really tricky!! I suppose it gets better with experience (my
experience
is a single jump only), but this problem was far trickier than I would have
thought.

Skydiving is the only activity I have personally experienced that defies the
laws of physics. It's amazing how you actually *accelerate* as you get closer
and closer to touchdown even though the forces determining that speed- gravity
and air resistance- have changed. Must be magic. g

Regards,
Bob Hunt

"Matthew" wrote


In my car I have seat belts and multiple air bags. These safety devices do
not encourage me to drive dangerously.

Seat belts, air bags, crumple zones...and still there are numerous head
injuries.


And now here is my question, has wearing a helmet on a bicycle ever killed
or seriously injured someone? In other words, except for the helmet, they
would still be alive today.

Not strictly *while riding a bike*, but:
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml99/99065.html

There were also a few cases in Sweden.

Pete

Claire Petersky wrote:

So, what are you going to do? Vaguely worry about the dangers of
cycling while being stuck in some malodorous steel box in an
interminable line of cars, fuming at your sorry situation?

Or be on your bike, out on God's Green Earth and be free!

--
Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky

Right on Claire!
You don't forget the cosmic joke!
Best regards, Bernie

Sorry about that. I have a new laptop. Using a touchpad instead of the
mouse I'm used to. I keep double-tapping when a single will do. I think
that's what's causing the double-posts.

Bob C.
"Sorni" wrote in message
...

"Robert Chambers" top-posted in message
...

Hey frank ... try reading the entire thread. I know plenty about
cycling
and its relative dangers. I've experienced them first hand. I can't
stand
enduring all the idiots out here who think they know something about it
when
they spin a few miles a week and haven't had a life-threatening accident
...
yet somehow they're experts.

Hey robert...

I agree with your helmet position, but why are all your notes preceded
with
a "blank" post (no new content)?

Bill "not even mentioning the top-posting" S.