Advocacy & Safety - Stats

According to the New York City Dept. of Transportation, during the 7 years from 1986 through 1992, for every 1,000 bicycle-motor vehicle collisions in NYC, there were fewer than 5 fatalities.

According to the same statistics, for every 1,000 pedestrian-motor vehicle collisions, there were about 23 fatalities.

During that 7 year period, there were over 100,000 pedestrian-motor vehicle collisions and 2,308 pedestrian fatalities.

During the same period there were 26,497 bicycle-motor vehicle collisions and 127 cyclist fatalities.

Sounds about right to me. I've got stacks of stats like this for different areas and ratio's vary a bit place to place but mostly, they are very similar.

Bike riding is relativley safe if you ride in a safe manner but we get special attention because drivers don't like us because we're "in the way".

(P.S. how about this for stats -

according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information - in 1998/99, 2,222 of the hospitalizations due to a head injury in Ontario the victims were in motor vehicles, 358 were pedal cyclists,

and

Health Canada says for every 10,000 cyclists, 1 will die, but for every 10, 000 motorists, 10.51 dies. )

Originally posted by closetbiker

Health Canada says for every 10,000 cyclists, 1 will die, but for every 10, 000 motorists, 10.51 dies. )

Can you be a little more specific? My logic tells me that none of us are immortal. Of course, I could be wrong.

Originally posted by Chris L
Can you be a little more specific?

OOPS! I checked and it was per 100,000!


Cause of death_ _ 1991 fatalities per 100,000 participants
Source: health canada

Motocycle accident_ 44.04
Motor vehicle (4 wheel) use_ 10.51
Falls (all)_ _ 7.29
Homicide_ _ 2.21
Pedestrian_ _ 2.12
Swimming_ _ 1.8
Fire in private dwelling_ 1.02
Cycling_ _ _ 1
Air transport_ _ 0.59


Also, another favorite:

# of fatalities per 1,000,000 exposure hrs. by Failure Analysis Associates, Inc.
published at: http://www.helmets.org/stats.htm

Skydiving 128.71
General Flying 15.58
On-road Motorcycling 8.80
Scuba Diving 1.98
Living (all causea of death) 1.53
Swimming 1.07
Snowmobiling .88
Passenger cars .47
Waterskiing .28
Bicycling .26
Airline Flying .15

but of course, I understand when people say that stats can be manipulated so it makes sense to check if the facts bear up with other checks.

Once again, closetbiker, thanks for all the statistics. You amuse me. Where I differ from you is in the interpretation of what those figures mean.

Here's a conclusion.
People who live long enough eventually die. (that would be "all causes of death")

The secret to a long life:
keep moving

The risk of death due to certain causes can be reduced by taking some very simple precautions. Other causes of death are much more difficult to control.

Duh!

Originally posted by JRA
Where I differ from you is in the interpretation of what those figures mean.

Yup, that's why I said (as I've said before), I understand when people say that stats can be manipulated. We all look at things different because we all are different.

Some things, over time, on average, do tend to lead to others things though. That's why I agree with you that we will all die and if we keep moving we probably will first, increase the quality of, and second, possibly, the length of life over those who do other risky things! (like being a pedestrian, or swimming or going before my time because I didn't take care of my heart)

Stats can have hidden variables. For example, if .27 people dies (what's 27/100 of a whole person? :D ) per 1 million hours of cycling, and .47 people who drive, does that mean that driving is almost twice as dangerous as cycling? No.

Because in the cyclist group, you have a large group of children, inexperienced, untrained, etc. Cyclists are a completely unregulated group, whereas motorists aren't. This changes the meaning of the statistics that lump all "cyclists" together.

One might speculate that, if you studied only experienced vehicular cyclists, the number of deaths would much lower, making cycling several times safer than driving.

So even if closetbiker's stats are encouraging overall, I bet our chances are even better!

:thumbup:

Bike riding is relativley safe if you ride in a safe manner but we get special attention because drivers don't like us because we're "in the way".

Seems to me we were in the way a lot less then Pedestrians were.

Those statistics should cause pedestrain groups to form and start advocating helmet use for pedestrains.

Originally posted by Pete Clark
One might speculate that, if you studied only experienced vehicular cyclists, the number of deaths would much lower, making cycling several times safer than driving.

For sure! Like I've posted before, I've read the case reports of cyclists deaths for a 10 year period and, most all without exception, the most basic, common sense behavior was being ignored by the cyclist. No one deserves to die for a mistake but these victims had a large input to their own demise. It baffles me as to how ignorant some can be.