Originally Posted by
buzzman
I'm sorry but I have to take issue with this constant drumbeat of "maKing riding on the street seem more dangerous than it is."
They are simply taking the means by which most cyclist/auto fatalities occur and advocating for solutions. Just because they don't include every knuckle scrape cyclists have while getting their bike out of the garage in order to gild the lily of cycling safety is way beside the point. It's about reducing fatalities.
In the grand scheme of things yeah, maybe 700 cyclist deaths per year (that's roughly 2 of us a day) in the US doesn't seem like much to some people. Personally, I find it unacceptable and, in fact, as safe as cycling may be be it is way more dangerous than it needs to be in the US. Something needs to get done but nothing will get done if we can't even agree that it is a problem and that it needs to be addressed.
There is a huge range of injuries that are not fatal, but are considerably more significant than a knuckle-scrape. The fact that most bicycle/car accidents are not fatal means they are ignoring most of the data that would indicate trends about what is "dangerous" and what isn't.