Originally Posted by John Forester

The US National Safety Council made two studies of the use and crash rate of typical American cyclists, one group in school, the other group college-associated adults. Kaplan made a study of the use and crash rate of members of the League of American Wheelmen, who at that time were the group in America most likely to ride in the vehicular manner. The British CTC studied the use and crash rates of newer members (therefore typical of the general cycling public) and of longer-time members. In both the American and the British comparisons, those groups of cyclists whose members were most likely to ride in the vehicular manner had crash rates between 20% and 25% (depending on type of crash) of those of the general cycling public. At the time of the American studies, cyclist training was in the form of what I called "bike-safety" cautionings for staying out of the way of motorists; Effective Cycling had not yet been published. England had had an on-and-off history of cyclist training programs.