Originally Posted by
genec
The vast difference in what we are talking about here is that in all the activities you mention, you are not participating in a field of other people who can vastly affect your life by their actions or inactions. Cycling in traffic is something that one does while surrounded by other people, traffic, and those other people can make one critical mistake that can massively affect others.
SCUBA diving, rock climbing. etc., is on par with MTB riding, in that those things are fairly solo events... not done in an area filled with others.
The point is that there are risks associated with any activity, including death. On the road you don't have to worry about Sharks ;-) (unless you are hit by an Attorney talking on his cell phone)