Originally Posted by
mbabiker
This is very helpful, especially the last paragraph. As is the comments/criticisms in the thread and am incorporating them in my research. One of the items I'm trying to figure out is why bicycle insurance is more prevalent in Europe vs the US? Is it because of how much more embedded bicycling is within European culture? is it because of different homeownership insurance policy characteristics? Is it less/more homeownership? As usual, thoughts/criticisms are welcome. Thanks!
Europe has far more non-car-owning households than the US.
Generally, it only takes one car in a household to extend auto insurance benefits to all the cyclists in the household -- most adult cyclists have drivers licenses and will be rated as drivers on the one auto policy, while juveniles will generally be covered as covered family members of those drivers. (Minus exceptions for excluded drivers, etc.)
Some companies in the US that cover motorcycles and scooters have explored offering coverage on bicycles as a zero-horsepower motorcycle. That would avoid the expense of creating an entirely new form of insurance.
Every few years there's news of someone offering bicycle insurance, but it never seems to take off.