On 11/17/2010 12:29 AM, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On Nov 17, 12:27 am, Frank wrote:

If you worry about the minuscule chance of being killed from behind,
and therefore spend a lot of time gazing into your rear view mirror,
you're almost certainly _more_ likely to get into a wreck from a left
cross, a right hook, a door, a pull-out, a pothole, a slippery spot,
or even a dog.


P.S. And while data collection on this is poor, there are some strong
indications that a large percentage of the "hit from behind" cyclists
are riding in the dark without lights or reflectors.


http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/st...-accident.html



This link shows some statistics regarding cycling accidents in Quebec.
While there are some rear ends at night it's not a large percentage.

http://communities.canada.com/montre...cyclistes.aspx


BTW, if you look at the table that shows the number of deaths by
category, you will see the listing "pietons" which means pedestrians
listed just below "occupants de bicyclette" which means cyclists.

Considering that cyclists comprise ~ 16% of the population

http://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/programs/env...ation-1971.htm

it doesn't seem that there is this vastly greater number of pedestrians
being killed than cyclists. I don't have stats on the % of people that
walk but I imagine it's higher than 16%.

What I find curious is that there have been around 15 cycling deaths per
year in a province of 8 million while there are as you say ~700 in a
country of 300 million. What is the percentage of cycling in the states
these days?