wrldtraveller

Hey folks,

I was looking through this forums, and noticed several posts about cyclist being killed while on tour for charity or for other reasons. It made me wonder, how many cyclists have already toured any parts of the North American Continent and Europe in proportion to the cyclists being killed by some inattentive driver.

A potential tourer with dreams of doing one.

Thanks.
W

Ty0604

I would say very little. The latest statistics I could find, from 2013, said 743 cyclist were killed that year compared to 4,735 pedestrians in the US. It was the most in 7 years. How many of those were on tour is unknown but most accidents happen in urban areas for obvious reasons.

Source ----> National Highway Traffic Safety Administration via Pedestrian & Bicycle Information Center

andrewclaus

I enjoyed reading this article: Bicycling: The SAFEST Form of Transportation

An excerpt: Regardless of how you tweak the stats for your own personal situation, the case for cycling over driving is so enormous that it would be difficult to even put them on the same level. Can you afford to take the risk of NOT riding a bike?

dorkypants

And compare to about 40,000 motorists dying every year in the US. The reason you hear about a cyclist being killed is because it's so unusual "it's news". You only hear about a tiny fraction of the motorists or pedestrians who are killed, also only when the circumstances are sufficiently unusual to be newsworthy.

chasm54

Cycling is very safe. In the UK (one of the less cycling-friendly environments in Western Europe) there's one cycling fatality for every 28 MILLION miles cycled, according to Department of Transport stats. Those are very good odds indeed.

BigAura

Interesting to add is:

I'm sure there's risk in touring but no matter what you do there's a risk: 3,391 people drowned in 2013*

*US figures

staehpj1

I always figured that I was safer when riding on tour than when riding near home. In a more general sense I consider riding a bike to be a relatively safe activity. I would suggest you not worry about it.

mstateglfr 

What posts have you noticed?

saddlesores

that's because most everyone reading this forum is interested in cycle touring, and
touring fatalities are so rare that someone is sure to link to a news article.

indyfabz

Imagine how much reading you would have to do if there were a post for every cyclist who was not killed while touring.

Don't let fear of the rarity keep you from doing what you want to do.

Ty0604

Saw this on the news this morning. Thought it was random since this came up last night.... He's going to be okay luckily.

Outside of Forks, WA

London cyclist struck on U.S. Route 101, just 3 days into ride from Vancouver to Panama - Newstalk KBKW

cyccommute 

If you dig a bit deeper into the NHTSA's data, some other trends start to emerge about bicycle deaths. The link you provided takes you to this page where they state

which suggests that many bicycle fatalities occur in the evening hours. But even that isn't the whole story. NHTSA's break down of the data for time of cyclists fatalities for 2012 (the latest data I could find) is the following

Time of Day
Midnight – 3:59 a.m. 7%
4 a.m. – 7:59 a.m. 12%
8 a.m. – 11:59 a.m. 14%
Noon – 3:59 p.m. 18%
4 p.m. – 7:59 p.m. 24%
8 p.m. – 11:59 p.m. 24%

Depending on how you define "dark", many (if not most) of the deaths occur during hours of darkness. It's a sliding scale, of course, but I would consider 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. to cover periods of darkness for much of the year as well as 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. That covers 67% of the fatalities. I doubt many people on tour are going to be out riding during those hours. Additionally, the NHTSA breaks down the fatalities by urban (69% of fatalities in 2012) and rural (31%) locations. Most touring cyclists are not doing that much riding in cities at night so their risk of being killed is quite low.

Could you be killed while riding on a tour? Yes. But as an activity, the odds of death for bicyclists is rather low. This graphic is old but still applies. The odds of dying in a motor vehicle accident were 1 in 84 in 2008. The odds of dying while bicycling are 1 in 4900. I've seen other diagrams based on 2011 data that puts the odds of dying in a motor vehicle accident at 1 in 112 but it doesn't include bicycling. I doubt the numbers have changed much.

I live my life based (mostly) on two principles that I've from other people over the years. I had a coworker who said "you can always talk yourself out of an experiment" and the wise words of Pee Wee Herman "But what? Everyone I know has a big 'But...? C'mon, Simone, let's talk about *your* big "But'". Don't talk yourself out of touring because you can come up with a big "But", worldtraveller. You can come up with a thousand reasons not to go but none of them are truly valid. They are just big "Buts"!

Leebo

Bicycling is a very safe activity. Use a mirror and stay attentive. Avoid friday and saturday nights, late. Think about how many people die due to doing nothing. Sitting on the couch, obese, diabetes, overweight, high blood pressure etc.

Ty0604

Thanks for all of the information. I didn't dive too deep into the data. I rarely ride before/after dark personally. If I am it's because something happened along the way that caused me to not reach my destination in time. Part of my problem is that at the speeds I ride at my light doesn't give me enough coverage to feel safe at those speeds. Yes, I could slow down but I'm not patient enough to do so.

mev

Reminds me of the Stephen Wright quote:

• I was told that 90% of the accidents I would get in would occur within 1 mile of my house. So I moved.

cyccommute 

I don't know what lights you've been using but there are lots of lights out there for as little as $15 (maybe less) that I'm fully comfortable using at 30+ mph at night. I'm not patient enough to slow down either. I have 3 of these lights and have not problems seeing where I'm going. These have a fairly tight beam which some people don't like but I like having a narrow beam and with 2 on the handlebars and 1 on my head, I get as much coverage in front of me as most cars do.

I also have a pair of these which are more expensive but they aren't bank busters. They have a similar output to the lights above but they are a flood light rather than a spot.

Both of these lights have a better output (probably about 5 to 8 times the light) than any "be seen" light and they both are cheaper.

On caveat, I wouldn't carry these on tour. Their light output is great but they chew through batteries quickly...2 to 3 hours...and the batteries would need to be recharged. But I don't ride at night while on tour anyway. It's one thing to ride on streets that I know at night, it's quite another to ride on roads that I'm totally unfamiliar with.

Ty0604

The fact that I have terrible vision and even worse night time vision is also playing a part I'm sure. I'm not sure I trust myself riding for very long at high speeds in the dark due to such. The light I have cast a pretty wide beam which I prefer. The batteries last awhile as well. I don't use rechargeable batteries because it's one more thing to deal with while on tour. I'd rather spend more money and buy batteries now and again. For as little as I use my light even Dollar Store batteries will get me through a fair amount of time.

Ty0604

Missed this part of your comment... This is very true. When I ride from my place in Beaverton to downtown Portland and back (26 miles) I'll go pretty fast because I know the roads. I know where the potholes and the speed bumbs are. Couldn't tell you the names of them because I don't drive but I know I take a left at the Nike campus, right at the next light, right at the elementary school etc. More of a landmark person. Now if you know this area at all you'd know that in order to get from Beaverton to Portland (and back) you have to ride over the West Hills where you can catch speeds of 35-40 pretty easily going down.

While on tour usually the roads are new to me so I'm really cautious. I can only imagine hitting a pothole or speed bump going 35 on a road bike.

wrldtraveller

Thank you all for your responses. I am not afraid of biking, in fact it is my passion that have not diminished. I was doing some research about bike touring, and to be honest, I prefer to ride on "stand alone" bike trails or Multi use trail, like the Kettle valley trail in B.C. and am looking forward to the idea of using Trans Canada Trail, but from what i've seen on the website, alberta seems to be 'lazy' that they want to cheapen out of the trail by using pre-existing shoulder beside highways. The way the people drive on dual lane highway shames me in alberta as we aren't very patient and courteous. (i try my best to be courteous and patient) and the single lane highway seems to be the best choice, but for Trans Canada Highway, they don't have a single lane that go straight across Canada, but have to switch multiple times to different numbered highway.

I know that compared to general populace, bicycling is the most safest compared to driving, flying, etc.etc.

again, thanks again for your feedback.
looking forward to spring time when I can start biking again.

W