are the chances of a fatal crash on a bike greater than driving a car? What I mean is...are you more likely to die riding to work on a bike then you are driving to work in a car? Last I heard we experience about 35,000 automobile fatalities each year in this country. But the number of drivers far outweighs the number of cyclists so the deaths per 100K may be higher for cyclists versus drivers. Does anyone know the stats? How many cyclists are killed each year? Anyone know?
It's a little unnerving when you visit this forum and you hear about a forum contributor being killed by a teen text messaging in a pick-up truck, or a guy getting hit by a cement mixer, or a tow truck, etc. Seems like in a car your chances of survival are better due to airbags, seat belts, steel side beams, etc. I'm certainly not trying to make a case for not riding but I would like to know realistically how dangerous this activity I really love, is.
There must be some stats out there somewhere.
The BikeForums Team
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Thanks...that's a lot of fact and figures but a lot of it makes sense.
Pat
I looked up the statistics a few years back.
Bicycle riding is half as risky as driving per hour of activity. I know that it does not "feel" that way when you are out there on the road, but I think the statistics are accurate. There are about 800 bicycle fatalities per year and 80% of those involve a motorized vehicle. About half of the bicycling fatalities occur at night and I strongly suspect that the vast majority of these are people riding without lights. Also, from a number of my sources such as Forester, I suspect that it is inexperienced cyclists who have most of the fatalities. I would wager that most of the miles ridden in the USA are ridden by club cyclists on weekends. Club cyclists tend to ride a whole bunch on Sat and Sun mornings. Now if club cyclists suffered any where near the fatality rates of inexperienced cyclists, one would expect that Sat and Sun mornings would show high numbers of bicycle fatalities. The thing is that Sat and Sun show no more fatalities than week days.
I would suggest that among experineced cyclists the fatality rate per hour is probably something less than 25% less than a motorist. Now why so low? Remember this is the "average" motorist. A large fraction of fatal motor accidents involve DUI, falling asleep at the wheel, distractions (like cell phones) or reckless driving like speeding. The thing is that cyclists are not likely to engage in these behaviors. It is hard to ride a bike while DUI. I suspect that few cyclists ride when they are so drowsey as to possibly fall asleep. Again it is rather difficult to ride whilst putting on make up, fooling with a radio or calling on a cell phone. Finally, reckless riding is tough in cycling because one has to be in great shape to even ride over 25 mph and over 40 mph is out of the question except downhill.
John Wilke
I believe you can beat the average by your own personal behavior. You can't reduce your risk to zero, but certainly improve your odds.