PatrickGSR94

Zero crashes, ever, that I can recall, not from riding when younger or riding as an adult.

Have been riding seriously as an adult since April 2012, commuting since May 2013 (nearly 8,000 total commute miles probably).

I fell over exactly 3 times in the few weeks following when I first started using SPD pedals. Foot slipped a pedal once when starting at a traffic light, and bruised my inner thigh pretty bad from hitting the top tube of the bike.

InTheRain

I've only had one accident. It was when I first started commuting - probably my third commute. I was riding from the road up onto the sidewalk where there was a driveway cut out for vehicles. There is still a small lip in the cutout. Due to my inexperience, I did not ride across the lip at enough of a perpendicular angle - I was more "parallel" to that small lip than I should have been. It grabbed my 23mm tire and sent be flying over the bars onto the sidewalk. I'm glad I had the helmet... it flattened and cracked one side of the helmet. I had some abrasions and a very sore shoulder. I'm very aware now as to why even the most experienced cyclists have the broken collar bone injury (luckily, I did not have a break.)

So, just one accident, about eight years ago. I'm feeling fortunate.

loky1179

One more data point for your thread: 4 years commuting, 545 commuting days, 13,000 miles, zero serious accidents.

Had one crash my first year when I was exploring new routes - was on a side path, it ended, tried to hop into the street and didn't quite make it. It was actually an over the handlebars washing machine crash, but fortunately I got up laughing at myself, uninjured.

wphamilton

The randomness is where statistics become useful, and the more of the "random numbers" you have, the more meaningful the math becomes. Bike forum members because it's more interesting, and more pertinent to us, what the nature of the risks are for people who are experienced with a high volume of bike commuting. We have plenty of studies of accident data in general, but it includes all riders regardless of skill and experience. Broken down by age group, gender, and a few other demographics but not to that level of detail. This particular question hasn't been asked previously, as far as I know.

I began this inquiry precisely because of the random nature of my two injuries. You cannot draw conclusions from a sample space of one rider, but you can form a hypothesis and investigate it by acquiring more data.

Leaving aside the fact that we're not investigating falling down, but rather injurious falls, that doesn't appear to be a valid conclusion. Several riders have had extensive mileage without an injury accident, so clearly there are other factors that are more significant than is time in the saddle. So we've already learned something.

alan s 

Well, you were the one asking how many accidents in how many miles, so you must have thought there was some correlation. Guess not. Perhaps it comes down to bike handling skills and awareness of your surroundings.

wphamilton

It's the null hypothesis, that has to be examined and questioned in the context of high-volume commuters. It also qualifies the response, since I'm looking at primarily experienced commuters.

Perhaps, or perhaps all of the respondents with 10's of thousands of miles over several years or more have comparable skills and awareness. Devising some means to categorize that, other than by the obvious but not necessarily valid measure of accidents suffered, would be the next step if that's where the data leads.

Clearly any accidental slip, no matter how minor can lead to an injury on a purely random level. One question is how likely is that, and how significant is that probability compared to other possible factors. That's not a trivial or insignificant question. For example I could be riding around thinking that my skills and situational awareness are influencing my safety to a much greater degree than is warranted in reality, while there is greater statistical risk of injury in some situation or habit that I disregard because it hasn't happened yet!

RubeRad

wphamilton, I don't know why you don't just stop posting and let alan s tell us all the answers. Obviously he's got it all figured out.

noglider 

I've had one accident while commuting, and it was a very bad one. I was turning left, and ...

I work up in the hospital. I don't remember the collision or the ambulance ride. The doctor who just happened to witness the impact and see me fly through the air was standing over me as I gained consciousness.

I was 20 years old, so that was 34 years ago.

In the intervening years, I spent a lot of time commuting by car rather than bike. I'm back in the city now, and I'm back to commuting by bike. It's too hard for me to give you my collision-to-mile ratio, but the numerator is a "one." I believe -- or would like to believe -- that I have gained a lot of skill and am less likely to be hit than I was then. Of course, there is a factor of luck, so there's no way to know how long it will take to get hit again. It's not a question of "if" but of "when." Chances are, it won't be as severe.

I was only bruised and cut. I didn't break any bones. My bike was mangled, and my helmet, being a one-time-use helmet, was rendered useless, because it did its job. I don't remember if I was diagnosed with a concussion.

noglider 

@alan s, what do you do for a living? I assume it's something where knowing the relevance of statistics is not involved.

alan s 

I am a writer. You know what Mark Twain said about statistics, right?

noglider 

I believe he said there are lies, damned lies, and statistics. Yes, statisticians can use numbers to lie and deceive, but it is not true that all statistics are lies or irrelevant. The fact that you don't see how some statistics are relevant is your problem, not anyone else's.

wphamilton

Yep. Most lies are expressed in words, not numbers.

I am of the opinion that mathematics represents ultimate truths. Not absolute truths, since a mathematical statement requires you to accept axioms or postulates that are dependent on the particular system, but the truths expressed seem to me to be the ultimate than may be obtained. So Clemens, though clever as always, was wrong in that particular expression.

alan s 

If the OP really wants to know about safe riding habits, why not just ask people's opinions on the matter? Why limit the inquiry to miles ridden vs. the number of accidents? A list of safe riding habits practiced by people who have bike commuted over 10 years without a serious accident would actually be useful.

noglider 

No, he was right, because it's possible to be precise without being accurate or relevant. A clock is precisely right twice a day, so just because something can be expressed numerically doesn't make it useful.

But we are trying to discuss relevant injury statistics here.

I didn't include my falls that resulted in no injuries or minor injuries, because we're discussing injuries here.

noglider 

@alan s, a list of habits practiced by people with no injuries would ​also be useful. It's not the only useful thing. Statistics have the potential to help. If you don't see it, that doesn't make it false.

wphamilton

Because we are all knowledgeable about safe riding habits. That's the point of asking experienced commuters, to look beyond the obvious assumptions.

The suggestion is unhelpful and pointless - it is better to arm ourselves with facts first.

skye

Commuting since 1984, except for a few years in the late 90s. A couple of falls, once on black ice. That was kind of awesome because I hit the ground before I even knew I had fallen. No injuries though, if you exclude the whiplash from checking out a hot brunette going the other way.

alan s 

Here's a good example. It is not unusual to catch up to a rider and their taillight is completely obscured. That's a very unsafe practice, because not only can they not be seen very well, they think the opposite, and act accordingly. I always let the person know I couldn't see their taillight when I pass. Someone who has ridden a long time and has seen this, knows to make sure their lights can actually be seen. There are dozens of safety practices I engage in on a daily basis, and even then, I have crashed a few times (but have never been seriously hurt).

metro2005

3 crashes in my whole bike commuting life. on 1 crash i slipped when the road was covered in black ice just after the snow had gone, had major pain in my hip and wasnt able to bike for a weeks or so.
On another occassion i crashed into some lady on a bike who didnt see me and my 10W LED headlight coming and didnt give way, we both could ride away with little to no damage.
The last crash was on a slippery bridge 2 weeks ago which bruised some fingers and removed some skin ...

I've been commuting almost daily on my bike for the last 10 years. Average mileage per year is around 2700 miles

irwin7638

Our city planner forwarded this link to the local bike club. It's a new website somebody in Portland (of course) started so that people could record actual collisions and near misses. Hopefully, with responsible reporting, it can produce real world information useful for future planning by city and county street departments.

Marc