Dougmc- I originally wrote-"So roughly 1/10,000 people die per year in the USA-in traffic -car vs whatever deaths."
In other words in the next 365 days you have about a 1/10,000 chance of dying in a "car crash run over by car "
Your crude total risk of dying in the next 365 days is more like 1/80 or so- 3,500,000 deaths 300,000,000 people(3.5 million deaths from memory)
Of course car wrecks kill folks at much younger ages than "natural causes"-so lotta years lost-same story on killed bike riders-they are young-lotta lost years
Genec-the numbers I found only started in 1960-immediately peaked in 1970-1980-and they peaked for EVERYTHING-hy aviation trains boats They were crude numbers total deaths-not rates-and fair chance the 1960 numbers were much less complete-increase in autism certainly not a real increase-just "better" more complete reporting.
And the numbers-across all modes-dropped from 1970-2001-dropped about 25% across all modes-this is despite maybe a 15-20% increase in population-250 million to 290 million
Now bike riding sure seems more dangerous in the last 2 years-texting- but it will be tough to get those numbers-most car/bike accidents DON'T result in deaths-maybe 1/100???
Yeah I think bike riding is more dangerous now vs 10 years ago-no proof-
WHY WOULDN'T IT BE MORE DANGEROUS??
Maybe someone has access to car insurance claims-are their more claims for rear end wrecks-especially ones at redlights-obvious sign of inattention??
Charlie
PS-I still don't have proof transportation killed 1/10,000 people per year in 1912-but things were pretty dangerous back then-safety was strictly an afterthought