raria

This question goes towards your feelings towards riding safety now compared to in the past. I've set the time frame as 15 years to allow for a reasonable passage of time.

Note, I'm not asking for data on fatalities. I'm asking for how you feel. Statistics of events can be deceptive particularly due to self selection issues. For example, if people are petrified to ride then the death statistics will plummet.

bikemig 

My guess--and I'd like to see some data on this--is that the roads are more dangerous because of distracted drivers too busy doing dumb things with cell phones.

jon c. 

I don't think it's substantially different. It would be very hard to determine though. The data is too incomplete.

mcours2006

https://www.bicycling.com/news/a2001...e-on-the-rise/

Eight hundred and eighteen is a small number compared to the number of fatalities resulting from automobile collisions, but it's still no zero.

I can't really answer the OP as I did not do much bike riding 15 years ago other than to the park with my kid. But I think it's safer than, say, 30 years ago when I did ride in my youth. There seem to be more cyclists now than there were 30 years ago, and that alone is a good sign that it's safer. Plus lights are much brighter now than the 10-lumen Cateye I had 30 years ago.

CB HI

Things started getting somewhat less safe about 1995 depending on where you lived.

Greater Washington DC area was always less safe. Angry self entitled motorist with higher traffic congestion.

Many other areas became less safe after 1995 as traffic congestion increased, cell phones became widely available for most and motorist became use to seeing more cyclist on the road and got use to passing cyclist closer than ever before.

The last few years, Colorado has gotten more safe for cyclist because the State Highway Patrol set up a cyclist reporting form on their website and after a license plate gets a few bad reports, the State Highway Patrol has a talk with the owner and sometimes arrest the driver when identified.

CB HI

As an example, this Colorado driver got cited by the State Highway Patrol.
https://www.westword.com/news/james-e...-viral-5824745

MoAlpha

Spoonrobot 

Strongly Disagree. Its much less safer now

There's been significant commercial and residential growth here starting around the end of the recession in 2012/2013 with very little corresponding roadway development. As such there are way more cars on the same amount of roadway. Couple this with the increase in distracted driving and I feel, and it appears statistics are bearing this out, that cycling in the Atlanta metro area is much more dangerous than 15 years ago, and even 5 years ago.

CB HI

As a kid and young adult, I found the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s to be much safer.
No one even claimed we needed helmets.

AlmostTrick

Seems about the same to me, even though my area has grown and there is more traffic than before. As long as you ride in a safe manner and are alert, the risks of being whacked are pretty low.

MoAlpha

Pobble.808

Interesting question. As a cyclist, my totally unscientific gut feeling is that at least in some places motorists are more accustomed to seeing us on the road and a little more willing to cut us some slack. On the other hand, the phone/texting phenomenon seems to have made things somewhat more dangerous for everybody on the road, cyclists included. So maybe for cyclists it's more or less of a wash?

pesty

I'm a bit neutral on this one, leaning a bit to safer. On the one hand, there have been lots of improvements in visibility and accountability due to advancements in lighting/cameras. On the other hand, the roads seem to be much more crowded and drivers are more distracted.

no motor?

I feel less safe now due to the increase in size/height of vehicles, the increase in distracted driving due to phones and other similar in car distractions, and the increase in the number of people carrying guns now. On the positive LED lights have made effective lighting much cheaper and easier, so now I'm a better target once people start paying attention to their surroundings. And cameras are a lot better and more common now, allowing some drivers to be held responsible for their actions.

JanMM

CB HI

Because he was Canadian.

Milton Keynes

Did he by chance have a sister named Leslie?

Hoopdriver

Less safe for sure. More vehicles, more distractions. Probably most significant, with all of the new, aggressively marketed vehicle safety features, drivers are lulled into paying even less attention.

scott967

No difference in my perception. I know "distracted driving" is supposed to be an issue now, but it hasn't really affected me. Maybe the biggest change is so many pickups and SUVs now that don't really fit on many of the roads. But it's probably more of a tire noise factor that just gets kind of tiring for me these days.

scott s.
.

Daniel4

When I get into a bike lane I feel safer. And there has been a lot more new bike lane installations since 15 years ago. Unfortunately, none of them are where I live, so I ride in the diamond lanes shared with public vehicles, service vehicles, taxis and car-poolers and cheaters. I don't feel very safe in diamond lanes when these vehicles try to push me even though we are all already going faster than the other lanes.

And in spite of all the increase in bike lanes, as well as biclycle awareness and VisionZero, there's still a whole bunch of people acting like they never seen a bicycle on the road before and don't know how to react to it.

So, overall I feel the same.

SHBR

In Shanghai, yes, 10 years ago I never even considered riding a bicycle here.

There is more accountability for drivers, and there are cameras almost everywhere.

Distracted driving is still a thing, and the worst offenders are usually 2 wheeled motorists.

I tend to agree with the general trend that smartphones have caused more problems than they have solved.

touring_bmore

With all these new heavy SUVs I feel less safe in the US than a couple of years ago.

Cuyuna

It's about the same. Bicyclists are just whining about it a lot more.

tungsten

More vehicles being driven faster/carelessly/incompetently with technologically impaired drivers in a city with the 2nd worst congestion in N.A.
Worse. Way worse.

KraneXL

Absolutely safer. Not just because motorist are more aware but cyclist themselves are better educated and do a much better job of being consistent -- that's the key to safety -- to the rules and cycling laws. Cyclist and the industry, has also done a much better job in adopting better accessories, and apparel i.e. lighting, high visibility garments, etc. And last but certainly not least, the infrastructure.

There are also a lot more bike paths and exclusive bike lanes today than there were 15 years ago. And cyclist are now accepted aboard all major transit systems. Not that we still don't have a long way to go.

Cyclist are still considered second-class citizen when it comes to the business sector -- you still can't bring your bike into a office building, mall, or a bank. Although a few friendly supermarkets do allow it. Speaking for the U.S. anyway, we are still nowhere near the friendliest nation in the world.