Originally Posted by
Bacciagalupe
And again, the changes in bicycle and pedestrian fatalities are all but statistically insignificant. 2.47 million Americans died last year, and 700 of them were on a bicycle when it happened. That's 0.03% of all US fatalities. This doesn't mean you should cycle like a complete moron and feel safe, or that distracted driving is never an issue. It means we could use a nice dose of perspective here.
Using 2009 US stats, 628 cyclists were killed that year, representing .5 percent in the total of the 118,000 unintentional US deaths. Add in the fact that bicycling only accounts for .4 percent of the US transportation share, which in turn only shoots even more holes in that nice dose of perspective of yours.