On 9/9/2018 6:55 PM, wrote:
On Thursday, September 6, 2018 at 6:28:53 PM UTC-7, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 9/6/2018 6:45 PM, wrote:

This would indicate that for every 7 Million miles traveled on bicycles some bicyclist is killed.

Other estimates are far better. Most estimates claim over 10 million
miles ridden per bike fatality.

On the surface that makes motor vehicles approximately 11 times safer than bicycles.

That's largely because of the tremendous number of miles driven on
freeways. The bike to car comparison is much closer on the sorts of
roads that both bikes and cars are allowed to use.

But even that looks at only part of the picture. There have been at
least five studies that evaluated the benefits vs. risk of cycling.
Because of the moderate exercise built into daily life from biking, the
lack of pollution, the lack of harm to others, etc. every study ever
done on the topic has found the benefits of bicycling _greatly_ outweigh
its tiny risks. Nobody has ever claimed that sitting on one's butt in a
car increases one's health, quality of life or longevity.

In other words, if you examine the big picture and include all causes of
death, riding a bike is actually safer than NOT riding a bike. You can't
say that for driving a car.

About your crap about head injuries causing the majority of deaths on bicycles - SO WHAT?

It goes beyond "so what." That factoid is absolutely false. Jute and
other helmeteers claim that 75% (or whatever percent) of bike fatalities
"involve a head injury." That's carefully phrased weasel wording. If
your chest is run over by a truck and you have a scratch on your
forehead, one could say that your death "involves a head injury." (And
let's remember that some helmet promotion studies literally counted cuts
to the ears as "head injuries.")

The real question is: What percentage of bicyclist deaths are _caused_
by head injury - or really, brain injury?

According to the best data I could find on the subject, 45% of the 800
or so annual U.S. bike deaths are due to brain injury. That total
includes both the helmeted and the unhelmeted fatalities.

For comparison, 40% of the 4000+ annual U.S. pedestrian deaths are due
to brain injury. The percentages are quite close; in other words,
bicycling is nothing special regarding TBI deaths. And in absolute
numbers, that means about 360 bicycling TBI deaths, vs. 1600 pedestrian
TBI deaths.

And John Pucher of Rutgers has published estimates that pedestrians are
at over three times higher risk of fatality PER MILE than bicyclists.

The risk of bicycling TBI fatalities (or even debilitating TBI injuries)
is highly exaggerated. It's not that it never happens; but it happens
far less than to pedestrians, or to people just walking around their homes.

The data's available. But the "Cycling is dangerous!" meme is now so
common and powerful that it's rare for anyone to actually look for the data.

Actually no Frank. Cause of death is CLEARLY written on a post mortem exam and car fatalities are ALWAYS given a post mortem.

So when they attribute deaths to head injuries that is exactly what it is.

....
So we can agree that most bicycle fatalities are caused by head trauma...

Sorry, I can't agree based on what I've found.

The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, in Victor G. Coronado et.
al., "Surveillance for Traumatic Brain Injury Related Deaths, United
States, 1997‑2007" Surveillance Summaries May 6, 2011 / 60(SS05); 1‑32
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwr...cid=ss6005a1_w
shows, in table 10, that for 1997-2007 there were an average of just 325
bicyclist traumatic brain injury (TBI) fatalities per year. The total
annual TBI fatalities from all causes averaged 53014.

Activity Avg. TBI Fatalities/yr Percent of total
Motorists 7955 15%
Pedestrians 1825 3.4%
Motorcyclists 1361 2.6%
Bicyclists 325 only 0.6%

Also note from the above data that only 44.5% of cyclist fatalities
(325/730) were due to head injuries .

The occasional claim that 75% of fatally injured cyclists die of head
injuries is false.

Most often, that 75% factoid is stated something like this: "Up to 75%
of cyclist deaths involve a head injury." But the words "up to" are a
method of exaggerating everything from weight loss diets to investment
returns. Even if true, they state an upper limit, not a typical value.

More significant, "INVOLVE a head injury" is a far cry from "are caused
by a brain injury." Head injuries are not the same as brain injuries.
Head injuries, by definition, include minor scratches abrasions and
bruises above the neck, which are pretty likely if someone's been run
over by a truck.

Flattened chest and scratch on the ear? That "involves" a head injury.

--
- Frank Krygowski