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CDC report on cycling fatality rates.

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CDC report on cycling fatality rates.

Old 08-14-15, 03:54 AM
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Looigi
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CDC report on cycling fatality rates.

"Physical activity, including bicycling, is linked with multiple health benefits (1). However, although bicycles account for only about 1% of trips across all modes of transportation, on a per trip basis, bicyclists die on U.S. roads at a rate double that of vehicle occupants"

Bicyclist Deaths Associated with Motor Vehicle Traffic ? United States, 1975?2012
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Old 08-14-15, 06:51 AM
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Originally Posted by Looigi
"Physical activity, including bicycling, is linked with multiple health benefits (1). However, although bicycles account for only about 1% of trips across all modes of transportation, on a per trip basis, bicyclists die on U.S. roads at a rate double that of vehicle occupants"

Bicyclist Deaths Associated with Motor Vehicle Traffic ? United States, 1975?2012
Also: "Mortality rates based on population do not account for exposure to bicycling in the way that expressing deaths per unit time bicycling, distance traveled, or number of trips would. This analysis found that approximately 2% of 2009 motor vehicle–related deaths were cyclists, and data from the 2009 National Household Travel Survey suggest that travel by bicycle accounted for 0.9% of all travel time and 0.2% of all travel distance"

Measured another way, the analysis indicates that on a distance traveled basis, bicyclists die on U.S. roads at a rate 10X that of vehicle occupants.
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Old 08-14-15, 07:44 AM
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Some interesting information can be gleaned from this study. The decline in mortality was mostly due to fewer deaths among children, because they apparently are cycling less and using helmets more. Mortality actually went up among males 25-64 years old.

The statistics only include deaths from accidents involving motor vehicles. Thus, they omit deaths from cyclists who were riding on trails, bike paths and road accidents not involving cars or trucks. Most cycling injuries that I have observed involved cyclists who were not hit by cars or trucks, but crashed due to group ride antics, potholes, sticks, dogs and general inattention. I have pretty much quit participating in large group rides due to unsafe conditions. However, riding on multi-use trails is not necessarily safer due to various factors -- walkers and joggers wearing earbuds and not paying attention to their surroundings, people walking dogs on long leashes, unsupervised children, walkers and joggers not understanding the concept of staying on the right side of trails, cyclists riding too fast and not indicating their presence with bells or shouts, etc.
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Old 08-14-15, 08:01 AM
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Originally Posted by tarwheel
The statistics only include deaths from accidents involving motor vehicles. Thus, they omit deaths from cyclists who were riding on trails, bike paths and road accidents not involving cars or trucks. Most cycling injuries that I have observed
You are conflating statistics about on road fatalities with your observations about off-road injuries to include non-comparable (for evaluating risk) events resulting in insignificant and minor injuries and boo-boos usually incurred when motor vehicles are not involved in bicycling spills.
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Old 08-14-15, 08:55 AM
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Originally Posted by I-Like-To-Bike
You are conflating statistics about on road fatalities with your observations about off-road injuries to include non-comparable (for evaluating risk) events resulting in insignificant and minor injuries and boo-boos usually incurred when motor vehicles are not involved in bicycling spills.
Not sure what you mean by conflating. However, my point is that a significant portion of cycling injuries and deaths do not involve motor vehicles, and thus would not be considered in the statistics for this study. These are not all off-road incidents. Most of my riding is on roads, and in 40+ years of cycling and tens of thousands of miles, I have never witnessed a car or truck hitting a cyclist. However, I have witnessed numerous cycling accidents, some resulting in serious injuries, on group rides in which no motor vehicles were involved. That is my point. In many respects, cyclists are their own worst enemies.
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Old 08-14-15, 11:14 AM
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The ratio I had remembered from older DOT data was a 1:6 ratio for auto:cyclist fatalities, so 10:1 is still in the ball park. And easier to remember. Cars to motorcycles was more like 1:30 but over half of motorcyclist fatalities don't involve another vehicle.

I know of one example of a cyclist who died riding on the road, hit a board, and wrecked, but I have no idea what percentage of total cyclist fatalities do not involve a motor vehicle.

Thanks for the link, OP.
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Old 08-14-15, 11:16 AM
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Originally Posted by tarwheel
Not sure what you mean by conflating. However, my point is that a significant portion of cycling injuries and deaths do not involve motor vehicles, and thus would not be considered in the statistics for this study. These are not all off-road incidents. Most of my riding is on roads, and in 40+ years of cycling and tens of thousands of miles, I have never witnessed a car or truck hitting a cyclist. However, I have witnessed numerous cycling accidents, some resulting in serious injuries, on group rides in which no motor vehicles were involved. That is my point. In many respects, cyclists are their own worst enemies.
Conflating as in mixing two dissimilar scenarios together to reach a conclusion.

Yes some non fatal bicycling injuries can be quite serious, most are not. The report in question dealt only with the most serious injury possible - death. Using the metrics of the analysis, a cyclist is 10x more likely than a motor vehicle occupant to be killed traveling a specific distance.

I suspect the risk (of fatality and severe injury) to be in reality even higher when measured on a distance basis since most cycling is done on urban streets or suburban roads where the speed limits are lower, often 30mph or less, and injury severity for motor vehicle occupants are often nil or minor at these relatively low speed, the same can often not be said for bicyclists. IOW riding 10 miles in city traffic may not be specifically dangerous, but it IS far riskier than being an occupant of a motor vehicle for the same distance.

No amount of vacuous arguments (as posted often on BF by some starry eyed proselytizers) about the health benefits of being a slim, trim, healthy, intelligent, caring bicycling stud vice being a fat, lazy, texting, distracted, stupid motorist overrides this data.
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Old 08-14-15, 11:39 AM
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Originally Posted by enigmaT120
The ratio I had remembered from older DOT data was a 1:6 ratio for auto:cyclist fatalities, so 10:1 is still in the ball park. And easier to remember. Cars to motorcycles was more like 1:30 but over half of motorcyclist fatalities don't involve another vehicle.
Motorcyclists are often their own worst enemies when it comes to accidents. When you factor out the accidents caused by drunk driving, people riding without any safety gear or training and the old guys riding overpriced lower performance bikes a couple of times a year you've cut out a huge amount of the accidents.
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Old 08-14-15, 07:10 PM
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Originally Posted by I-Like-To-Bike
No amount of vacuous arguments (as posted often on BF by some starry eyed proselytizers) about the health benefits of being a slim, trim, healthy, intelligent, caring bicycling stud vice being a fat, lazy, texting, distracted, stupid motorist overrides this data.
Originally Posted by K. Teschkea et al
One of the earliest efforts at quantifying the tradeoffs between benefits and risks of cycling was completed by the British Medical Association 20 years ago. It enumerated a benefit to risk ratio (years of life gained versus lost) of 20 to 1 and concluded that “in spite of the hostile environment in which most cyclists currently ride, the benefits in terms of health promotion and longevity far outweigh the loss of life years in injury on the roads.” Over the last few years, a number of teams have synthesized more recent evidence... The conclusions of all studies supported that of the British Medical Association: there is a large net health benefit of increased cycling, since the risk of fatal injury is greatly outweighed by the reductions in mortality afforded by increased physical activity. Air pollution risks and benefits had smaller impacts in either direction. Benefit to risk ratios ranged between 9 to 1 and 96 to 1.
https://www.ubcmj.com/pdf/ubcmj_3_2_2012_6-11.pdf


Oh, those darned starry-eyed proselytizers at UBC.

Face it, even a ten-fold higher risk of death per mile is ten times a VERY small number. Add in the fact that a great many of those deaths involve children, very inexperienced cyclists and drunks, and I feel pretty comfortable continuing to do my thing on two wheels.
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Old 08-14-15, 09:28 PM
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Here are MY conclusions.

1. Teens don't die anymore because they don't ride on streets anymore.
2. Old ten speeds with steel rims, poor brakes and drop bars were especially dangerous.
3. Old geezers in spandex on CF bikes have 2% chance of surviving a rearend collision.
4. Being drunk on a Walmart bike is really dangerous.
5. Pedestrians are 5 times as fat, slow and stupid as cyclists, therefore 5x more likely to die.
6. Wearing helmets is stupid.
7. NOT riding Dutch bikes is really stupid.
8. Riding anywhere near old geezer drivers is stupid.
9. There have been several celeb Fatsos dying at 50 lately in their SLEEP.
10. All corpses need to be required to fill in a survey about their life expectancy vs lifestyle and reasons for dying.
11. I don't wear a helmet, ride a Dutchish bike, wear regular clothes and seldom drink, so my chances of dying are ZERO.

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Old 08-15-15, 06:35 AM
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Originally Posted by GamblerGORD53
11. I don't wear a helmet, ride a Dutchish bike, wear regular clothes and seldom drink, so my chances of dying are ZERO.
Don't forget to stay out of beds and hospitals. Sooo many many people die in them.
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Old 08-15-15, 06:49 AM
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Originally Posted by B. Carfree
https://www.ubcmj.com/pdf/ubcmj_3_2_2012_6-11.pdf


Oh, those darned starry-eyed proselytizers at UBC.

Face it, even a ten-fold higher risk of death per mile is ten times a VERY small number. Add in the fact that a great many of those deaths involve children, very inexperienced cyclists and drunks, and I feel pretty comfortable continuing to do my thing on two wheels.
Starry eyed or fogged vision is correct. Their analysis is corrupted by the fact that they ignore the issue that people who choose or continue to bike commute more than likely are already fit and healthier than the general public. Few people with serious health and/or fitness issues are likely to take up or continue with regular bicycle commuting.

No doubt the typical bike commute routine provides some health benefits, but attributing all benefits of a healthy lifestyle to include all exercise programs and healthy diet to bike commuting a few miles/day, as well as comparing dissimilar populations is analysis with blinders on their eyes. Actually more likely a "study" made by gathering cherry picked data for making a biased meta analysis to reach a desired conclusion.
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Old 08-16-15, 03:20 PM
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The only real significant trend in that report is a huge decline in child fatalities, and that's probably because so many fewer children ride bicycles than they used to. Kids don't ride bikes to school anymore, they're ferried in land barges. Heck, a few years back a friend who lives within 1.5 miles of a school made her son walk to school one day when he clearly intentionally delayed to force himself to miss the bus (thinking she would drive him) - she was told that she'd be reported to CPS if her son walked to school again. This is in an area where all the crossings have lights and there are sidewalks all the way.

Schools around here usually don't even install bike racks anymore - they feel that it's inviting students to ride and if they get hurt the school could be sued.
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Old 08-16-15, 09:41 PM
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Originally Posted by ItsJustMe
- she was told that she'd be reported to CPS if her son walked to school again.
"Told" by whom? What exactly would be "reported"?

Wack-a-doodles can "tell" somebody any foolish thing, whether anyone in authority will pay serious attention to wack-a-doodle "reports" is another.
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Old 08-16-15, 10:59 PM
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The statistics are meaningless. Think about it. Of course someone encased in a steel box, with padding, airbags, seat belts, and child seats is going to fare much better than someone riding on a spindly 20-lb frame of alloy, or aluminum, exposed to everything in the world, including insects, dogs. etc..., and a modified beer cooler on their heard. This is a no-brainer. How about we compare walking fatalities to car occupants? Wanna bet it comes out even worse? So what? That doesn't mean cycling is more dangerous than riding in a vehicle. It really doesn't mean much of anything, except that it gives a bunch of bureaucrats something to do.
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Old 08-17-15, 02:24 AM
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Originally Posted by Schwinnhund
The statistics are meaningless. Think about it. Of course someone encased in a steel box, with padding, airbags, seat belts, and child seats is going to fare much better than someone riding on a spindly 20-lb frame of alloy, or aluminum, exposed to everything in the world, including insects, dogs. etc..., and a modified beer cooler on their heard. This is a no-brainer. How about we compare walking fatalities to car occupants? Wanna bet it comes out even worse? So what? That doesn't mean cycling is more dangerous than riding in a vehicle. It really doesn't mean much of anything, except that it gives a bunch of bureaucrats something to do.
Very well put.
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Old 08-17-15, 04:15 AM
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Originally Posted by Schwinnhund
So what?
It's something advocates can point to, when asking for safer road conditions, cycling infrastructure, better driver education and awareness, reviewing laws, etc. Also good to point out to newer riders when it comes to safety -- nothing says "be aware, ride safe and defensively" like such a lopsided statistic. Not to mention a great way to scare people off of bikes or give them another excuse to not ride.
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Old 08-17-15, 05:59 AM
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Originally Posted by I-Like-To-Bike
"Told" by whom? What exactly would be "reported"?

Wack-a-doodles can "tell" somebody any foolish thing, whether anyone in authority will pay serious attention to wack-a-doodle "reports" is another.
The assistant principle called her and said that making her child walk to work was child endangerment and she would be reported for that. Generally the assistant principle is the highest authority when it comes to a single school and student welfare and relations. They take the lead on this sort of thing.

But by all means, continue to do your normal thing of assuming that anyone who you disagree with has no facts and is pulling stuff out of an orifice.
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Old 08-17-15, 06:32 AM
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Originally Posted by ItsJustMe
The assistant principle called her and said that making her child walk to work was child endangerment and she would be reported for that. Generally the assistant principle is the highest authority when it comes to a single school and student welfare and relations. They take the lead on this sort of thing.

But by all means, continue to do your normal thing of assuming that anyone who you disagree with has no facts and is pulling stuff out of an orifice.
Having worked as a CPS investigator, such a complaint would be evaled-out. Meaning that it would typically be rejected for investigation on a prima-facie basis. Investigators have more meaningful thing to be working on.

If it were investigated it would go nowhere (unless something else was observed at the time of the investigation . . . like a meth-lab in the living room, or signs of mistreatment). It is repeatedly stressed in CPS training, Poverty is not a crime. Definitely walking to school is not a crime, particularly with he mother in attendance.

In the unlikely event that I had been sent out, I would have laughed with her, told her that it was great meeting her, and been on my way (on my way to have a few words with e Vice Principal in that case).

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Old 08-17-15, 07:13 AM
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Originally Posted by ItsJustMe
The assistant principle called her and said that making her child walk to work was child endangerment and she would be reported for that. Generally the assistant principle is the highest authority when it comes to a single school and student welfare and relations. They take the lead on this sort of thing.

But by all means, continue to do your normal thing of assuming that anyone who you disagree with has no facts and is pulling stuff out of an orifice.
Nobody said you had no "facts" or made up your anecdote.

The "fact" is that the assistant principal is an ass for threatening a parent with a nuisance report and would confirm it if he actually went forward with making an unfounded report of child endangerment based on the "facts" that you posted.

See Robert C's comments in msg 18 for further comments about your "facts".

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Old 08-17-15, 12:27 PM
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None of the things you mention will change the statistics, because they are not a function of safety, infrastructure, etc....but are simply functions of the nature of the activities, and the equipment involved. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that if you have an accident, especially involving a vehicle, the vehicles occupants are going to come out of it a lot better than you will. Nothing will change that, unless maybe they start building rubber cars.


Originally Posted by mconlonx
It's something advocates can point to, when asking for safer road conditions, cycling infrastructure, better driver education and awareness, reviewing laws, etc. Also good to point out to newer riders when it comes to safety -- nothing says "be aware, ride safe and defensively" like such a lopsided statistic. Not to mention a great way to scare people off of bikes or give them another excuse to not ride.
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Old 08-17-15, 12:31 PM
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I would've considered that a threat. The Assistant Principal would be looking for a new job, and I would be suing the entire school system.

Originally Posted by ItsJustMe
The assistant principle called her and said that making her child walk to work was child endangerment and she would be reported for that. Generally the assistant principle is the highest authority when it comes to a single school and student welfare and relations. They take the lead on this sort of thing.

But by all means, continue to do your normal thing of assuming that anyone who you disagree with has no facts and is pulling stuff out of an orifice.
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Old 08-17-15, 12:39 PM
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Originally Posted by no motor?
Motorcyclists are often their own worst enemies when it comes to accidents. When you factor out the accidents caused by drunk driving, people riding without any safety gear or training and the old guys riding overpriced lower performance bikes a couple of times a year you've cut out a huge amount of the accidents.
Years ago, when I owned motorcycles and read related magazines and such, 95% of all reported MC accidents occurred within the first year a person started riding motorcycles, and 95% of THAT subset crashed badly on their FIRST RIDE.

So as a motorcyclist, getting past your first ride is huge, and making it through one year of regular riding almost makes you bulletproof - at least to the extent that you must have reasonable riding habits and the ability to focus on what you are doing while remaining sober.

Due to relatively low speeds I do not believe that cycling is as demanding (or naturally selective) for newbies as is motorcycling.

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Old 08-17-15, 01:13 PM
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Originally Posted by Schwinnhund
None of the things you mention will change the statistics, because they are not a function of safety, infrastructure, etc....but are simply functions of the nature of the activities, and the equipment involved. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that if you have an accident, especially involving a vehicle, the vehicles occupants are going to come out of it a lot better than you will. Nothing will change that, unless maybe they start building rubber cars.
Sorry, but I just don't agree with that. I believe that over time, such statistics can and will be used effectively by advocates to support legislation at national, state, and local levels which make cycling safer. So while cyclists will still lose in motor vehicle/bicycle crashes, there may be less of such interactions.

Whenever advocates lobby for change, proof is demanded, and some proof is better than others when talking to legislators and policy-makers. Official CDC reports are very high up the ladder of reputable proof which demands attention.
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Old 08-17-15, 02:22 PM
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Originally Posted by ItsJustMe
Heck, a few years back a friend who lives within 1.5 miles of a school made her son walk to school one day when he clearly intentionally delayed to force himself to miss the bus (thinking she would drive him) - she was told that she'd be reported to CPS if her son walked to school again. This is in an area where all the crossings have lights and there are sidewalks all the way.
Does anyone ever know what happened to Tennessee bike Mom who went through something like this when one of her kids was riding to school? She lived in some small town down there and the whole thing ended up sounding like some updated Faulkner novel with the CPS getting involved, the police chief's son getting arrested for being a drug dealer and the mayor getting arrested after getting caught with a hooker.
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