Originally Posted by
RollCNY
This is nonsense. Statistics for road cycling deaths are poor, and typically categorized by non-riders, so how they bucket is poor. But the clear ones: 25% of cycling deaths involve alcohol, on the part of the cyclist. Separately, 35ish% involve riding the wrong direction against traffic (but some % of these involved alcohol, so the 2 don't stack). Only 10% involve a hit from behind fatality, which is the one we are most powerless against. ...
Happy holidays!
Thank you for pointing that out. So around 60% of the deaths are avoidable without much effort. Also, depending on where you ride, upwards of around 80% of the accidents involve intersections, which means your vulnerability is down to only 8% of the fatalities by taking moderate care there. Multiply that by the ratio of deaths of experienced cyclists vs unskilled or kids (although there will be some overlap in all this) and we'll be at risk for only a few percent of the total fatalities.
It boils down to this: road riding, for an experienced cyclist taking moderate care, is safer than mountain biking. Far safer in my opinion.