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Bicycle Injury Statistics
Hello,
I was wondering if there was anywhere that I could find statistics about bicycling injuries...specifically I am looking for night vs. day. I want to see if it is worth it to scrap the car insurence and give up driving. Mainly I'm just worried about getting hit by a drunk driver or something at night (maybe I shouldn't be worried about this.) I'm sure that I could get enough bike lights to make myself noticable to most people. Thanks for the help! -cjkogan111 |
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Bicycle Injury Statistics
From what I have heard and do not ask for any scientific experiments or
lancet article on it, but flashing red led on the back of bikes attracts drunks like a magnet. Just what I heard. Also, people act drunk when they are not or sleep at the wheel so watch your mirror. I might put an angled flag extending toward traffic if I was that paranoid. Ask a bike shop for those. They have red flags too that stick straight up a few feet and there is a drag factor and that would be best during the day. Good powerful lights and maybe stick to the sidewalk. just my 2 cents |
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Bicycle Injury Statistics
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Bicycle Injury Statistics
Thanks for the info!
I checked out the statistics Mike (exactly what I was looking for), and you were right Bill, it is hard to put things together to come up with any solid conclusion. It looks like around half of the fatalities happen at night though, so I think that is something that I will think on. Thanks! - cjkogan111 |
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Bicycle Injury Statistics
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Bicycle Injury Statistics
wrote in message oups.com... wrote: Think of it this way--riding at night is more dangerous than riding during the day, regardless of the rider. I looked at all those graphs and didn't come up with this. There wasn't anything in that research that said why riders in the dark were more likely to be injured or killed. It didn't divide out the well lighted folks versus those riding unlit. It didn't divide out those riding in expected places versus those riding the wrong way down the sidewalks. OTOH, the fatality statistics which look so bad for night riding are skewed by the drunken doofii who tend to make up a substantial portion of the night riding population. This is for another thread, but looking only at fatality statistics provides a woefully incomplete view of the overall risk of cycling. Yep. My personal experience: I was riding this week to a tennis tournament 6 miles from my house. I was always taking the exact same route, sometimes during the day, sometimes after 10pm at night. It felt much safer at night, as you rarely saw a car on the streets without seperated paths, and when you did you could see them coming from a long ways away, so you can make sure to get out of their way even if they don't see the bright red blinking leds, reflectors, front headlights, and reflector jackets. |
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Bicycle Injury Statistics
Cathy Kearns wrote:
wrote in message oups.com... wrote: Think of it this way--riding at night is more dangerous than riding during the day, regardless of the rider. I looked at all those graphs and didn't come up with this. There wasn't anything in that research that said why riders in the dark were more likely to be injured or killed. It didn't divide out the well lighted folks versus those riding unlit. It didn't divide out those riding in expected places versus those riding the wrong way down the sidewalks. True, these things are not in the stats. There is some guesswork involved if we want to draw such conclusions based on what is available. My guess is that night riding is so much more statistically deadly than daytime riding (about half of cyclist fatalities occur at night, while only a small percentage of cyclist rider-miles/hours occur at night; and this is true even though almost no children ride at night, and children always make up a substantial portion of total cyclist fatalities), that this could not be explained by the special type of rider and riding we tend to see at night, that there must be something more to it. And it turns out you don't have to look too far to find examples of fatalities among experienced and 'competent' night riders. But, no, there is no Doofii Index which will tell us the exact ratio of doofii to Real Cyclists in the fatality numbers. Analysis of accident reports to determine at-fault ratio is not encouraging, imo. We would prefer if every fatality were the result of some clear mistake on the part of the cyclist--that way we could persuade ourselves that accidents will be easily avoidable as long as we make no silly huge mistakes, that we can steer our own fate as long as we ride visibly predictably and follow the traffic laws. Unfortunately, the statistics do not support this. OTOH, the fatality statistics which look so bad for night riding are skewed by the drunken doofii who tend to make up a substantial portion of the night riding population. This is for another thread, but looking only at fatality statistics provides a woefully incomplete view of the overall risk of cycling. Yep. My personal experience: I was riding this week to a tennis tournament 6 miles from my house. I was always taking the exact same route, sometimes during the day, sometimes after 10pm at night. It felt much safer at night, as you rarely saw a car on the streets without seperated paths, and when you did you could see them coming from a long ways away, so you can make sure to get out of their way even if they don't see the bright red blinking leds, reflectors, front headlights, and reflector jackets. There are some advantages to riding at night among the disadvantages. Personally, I prefer to ride at night. Too much sun, too hot, much too hot. Even the moon is blindingly hot these days. I'm getting a moon tan. Robert |
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Bicycle Injury Statistics
wrote: Cathy Kearns wrote: wrote in message oups.com... wrote: Think of it this way--riding at night is more dangerous than riding during the day, regardless of the rider. I looked at all those graphs and didn't come up with this. There wasn't anything in that research that said why riders in the dark were more likely to be injured or killed. It didn't divide out the well lighted folks versus those riding unlit. It didn't divide out those riding in expected places versus those riding the wrong way down the sidewalks. True, these things are not in the stats. There is some guesswork involved if we want to draw such conclusions based on what is available. My guess is that night riding is so much more statistically deadly than daytime riding (about half of cyclist fatalities occur at night, while only a small percentage of cyclist rider-miles/hours occur at night; and this is true even though almost no children ride at night, and children always make up a substantial portion of total cyclist fatalities), that this could not be explained by the special type of rider and riding we tend to see at night, that there must be something more to it. Keep these things in mind: First, "Much more statistically deadly than daytime riding" means little. The dangers of daytime riding are constantly being exaggerated. The true danger of fatality (or serious injury) is miniscule, on the order of one fatality for 3000+ person-years of riding. "Much more than miniscule" could still be negligible. Second, in the US at least, it really is a completely different population riding at night, and a very bi-modal one. Instead of the bell curve of competence that you see in the daytime, night riding seems to consist of a few dedicated cyclists fitted out with decent lights and expensive equipment, plus a large number of ex-drivers who need to find another way home from the bar. And yes, that's based on personal impression. I can't prove it because... .... Third, there is little or no good data on night cycling - for example, on whether those cylcists killed at night were using legal lights. It's a question that's essentially never asked. And given the low number of fatalities or serious injuries, it would need to be asked and properly recorded in almost every incident to gather enough data points for decent conclusions. That last one is not going to happen soon. Why? Because society has enough to worry about with the real dangers. We'll be very lucky indeed to _ever_ get meaningful data about something so minor as to cause just 300 fatalities per year in a population of nearly 300 million! Scroll about halfway down this page http://www.benbest.com/lifeext/causes.html to see the "pedacycle" [sic] listing, just 2% of the motor vehicle deaths in the US. That makes cycling deaths roughly 1% of accident deaths in the US, or less than 0.005% of all deaths. Night cycling deaths, then, are about 0.002% of all deaths. IOW, don't hold your breath waiting for the grant money to come in. Just accept the fact that cycling - even at night - is reasonably safe. We would prefer if every fatality were the result of some clear mistake on the part of the cyclist--that way we could persuade ourselves that accidents will be easily avoidable as long as we make no silly huge mistakes, that we can steer our own fate as long as we ride visibly predictably and follow the traffic laws. Well, follow the traffic laws and otherwise use decent common sense! Unfortunately, the statistics do not support this. ?? I suppose it's unfair to ask, since my internet access will be very limited for many weeks, and my files of data are not with me. But I don't know what statistics you're using! The general rule of thumb is that of serious bike crashes involving cars & bikes, roughly half are the cylcist's fault. Some say that number is inflated, since "winners write history." But OTOH, it's likely that many of the "motorist mistake" ones could have been avoided with more cyclist sense and skill. IOW, use decent common sense - including planning ahead for bad scenarios. It's not that hard. And it's not that dangerous! BTW, about an hour ago I rode out at night in this very crowded city to pick up some "One Hour" film. Generator headlight working beautifully, new bike running very smoothly, it was a joy. - Frank Krygowski |
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