Originally Posted by
tjspiel
The one stat in peddlephile's favor is the one that says that most fatal accidents did NOT occur at an intersection. About 60% to 70% occur somewhere else. Unfortunately, it's not really broken down any. We don't know how many cyclists where hit from behind, hit because they were were riding in the wrong direction or hit because they were drunk and weaving all over. We don't know how many were unlit and hit at night.
It does say that 28% of cyclists killed were drinking.
But the big thing he was putting forward was it it more dangerous to ride on the sidewalk or on the road. Which this study absolutely doesn't say.
What also he doesn't note is how much safer it is becoming in terms of fatalities. Number of fatalities is almost cut in half from 1975 to 2009 yet the number of bicycles sold every year runs to about 18-20 million units. Presuming that they don't get thrown away, that is a lot of people on a lot of bicycles and is probably increasing. But even it the number of cyclists stays constant, it is still getting a lot safer to ride on the road then (can be inferred). Unless, of course, one presumes that people are continuing to buy bicycles at the rate of 20 million per year and then ceasing to ride them. Pretty low rate of fatality either way.
I guess if he is this worried about it, and doesn't understand the statistics, he probably shouldn't ride on the sidewalk either.
J.