Originally Posted by
phoebeisis
Slight aside.
It might be interesting to see what the Lane Controlling vs FRAP breakdown is in respect to actually riding with a camera for evidence.
No it wouldn't tell us which was safer-but it might indicate which group feels most threatened-LC or FRAP.
It MIGHT indicate which group has the most "car encounters"
If FRAP is safer why are FRAPPERS dragging around cameras-same token if LC makes you safer,why the camera??
I would love to get some actual LC vs FRAP same direction "hit by car' numbers-to settle the LC vs FRAP interminable argument we love.
But these numbers might tell us something.
You have to be careful around correlation and causation and also perception. For example, during World War 2, there was a poll of the American troops to see which populations felt greatest dangers, among other questions. The group that reported highest levels of distress and fear for their life were ground troops, while the lowest levels were reported by bomber pilots. As it happens, those groups were on polar opposites of actual fatality rates with the pilots being most likely to die and ground troops least likely. This is commonly interpreted to be due to the perceived threat of death, of which the individual has no control (ground troops usually died in aerial bombings, while the pilots had a pretty good sense of when they were in danger (on missions) and when they were not).
If we tried to infer that one type of bicycle commuter chooses to use cameras as a symptom of perceived danger, this may or may not be true in the first place (we'd have to control for lots of other factors) and furthermore it may or may not actually indicate higher rates of incidents of injuries.