Bike Forums - View Single Post - Bicycle Only Elevated Roadways

05-10-11 | 02:19 PM

#58

JohnJ80

Senior Member

Joined: Feb 2011

Posts: 4,681

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From: Minnesota

Bikes: N+1=5

Quote:

Originally Posted by PeddlePhile

It appears that many here want to consider their bikes equal to motor vehicles when the truth is they aren't.
Also, many here appear to be unaware of the dangers of modern driving.

Although my argument may be opposed, no concrete evidence supports the opposition....instead, overwhelming evidence of the dangers of street riding are readily available.
A quick Google search of bicyclists killed by motorists yields thousands of results whereas bicyclists killed riding sidewalks are far and few in between.
Simply saying something is so does not make it so.

Regardless of your beliefs, riding on the road is orders of magnitudes more dangerous and potentially fatal than riding on sidewalks.
The problem is that many here feel that riding on sidewalks is the same as riding on the road and feel they can push the envelope and race past
pedestrians disregarding them altogether. Sad. I can see why those voicing their opinion believe sidewalks are more dangerous.
And that is because the person voicing the comment is likely to be a more dangerous and wreckless person overall.

Also, facts support my argument that the roads are far more dangerous today not only for bicyclists, but for everyone on them including motorists.

Although a British story, our societies are similar...and blames cyclist attitude as a major component...it's only a few years old vs opposing evidence
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...opularity.html

Here's another...just happened..he was struck and killed by a motorists who never stopped....
http://jacksonville.com/news/crime/2...oad-loved-ride

How about a State Champion Bicyclist killed recently?
http://glendora.patch.com/articles/f...-mountain-road

There is an unlimited number of these on the Internet.

Finally....here is the end of the argument.

Data taken from the National Highway Traffic Safety Board which definitively supports my argument.
Counter to some here that have stuck to their claim that most of the accidents involved intersections...here's proof that is incorrect.

First, a summary of US statistics available from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration: 2009 Data

630 bicyclists died on US roads in 2009 (718 in 2008, 1,003 in 1975)
74 were 14 or younger, a reduction of 58 per cent from the 178 killed in 2000.
Bicyclist deaths represented 2 per cent of all 2009 traffic fatalities.
51,000 bicyclists were injured in traffic in 2009 (Up sharply from 43,000 in 2007)

Please read the last line item in red several times for clarity.

And some more statistics from 2008 data also released in 2010:

One-seventh of the cyclists killed were between 5 and 15 years old.
Average age of a bicyclist killed on US roads: 41
Average age of a bicyclist injured on US roads: 31
Bicyclists 15 and under killed: 93. Injured: 13,000
Bicyclists 16 to 34 killed: 168. Injured 20,000
Bicyclists 35 to 54 killed: 270. Injured 13,000
Bicyclists 55 and older killed: 179. Injured 6,000
Alcohol involvement was reported in 37% of 2008 deaths.
Nearly one fourth (23%) of the cyclists killed were drunk. (BAC over .08 g.dl)
Fatal crashes typically were urban (69%) and not at intersections (64%).

It is critical to not that this is 2009 data and at the time, the number of Bicycle Road related injuries was taking a VERY sharp increase...just as I had stated.
No doubt, we will see that trend continued in the 2010 data when it is released.

So, while you may argue, you have been proven incorrect by indisputable evidence..

However, if you still feel safe on the roads with your bicycle, by all means you should continue to take those chances.
After all, it is ultimately your hide motorists will devour, not mine.

Personally, I will make the smart choice and I will steer clear of the roads until such time as bike paths clear of the hazards of motorists are made available.

By the way...have any members of this forum ever died while riding their bicycle on the roads? How about sidewalks?

The 2010 data will be ready soon at which time there will be even more overwhelming evidence that riding on the roads is as dangerous as I have said. I will be watching for it's release and post it as soon as it is available.

All the Best !
Be careful out there.

FAIL.

I read those studies before you even posted them and noted that the make no comparisons to riding bikes on the road or sidewalk. Unless I'm mistaken, isn't that what we are talking about here?

None of these statistics compare the relative safety of riding your bike on the sidewalk vs riding it on the street. The links I posted do just that and show it to be many times more dangerous riding on the sidewalk to riding on the street. The argument that this makes is the whether to ride a bike or drive a car. If you want to make that argument, then you ought to be doing that in a car drivers forum not in a cyclists forum. I had presumed we were talking about where to ride a bicycle most safely not whether to ride a bike or drive a car.

Your note indicating that there are more accidents in the last studied year are not corrected for the hugely increased number of cyclists. You need to be normalizing this to accidents per mile ridden to get an actual measure of the danger. That is not done. If so, I'd bet you that, if anything, cycling has become safer per mile ridden (but that is another topic for another time) due to drivers becoming more aware of cyclists. Anecdotally, that is very much happening around here.

Also, do you want me to go out and post individual examples of cars hitting other cars and people getting killed to prove... what? that people in cars hit people in cars? Or that there are examples of people in cars hitting people on bicycles? So what - anecdotal evidence.

Please read the links I provided. Apparently you have failed to do that.

J.

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