Originally Posted by
CommuteCommando
A lot of talk and argument over the validity of this statistic over that. For me it comes down to this. It is not disputed that flying on a commercial airline is safer than driving. I doubt that anyone will dispute that driving is safer than cycling.
Depends on your definition of "safer" -- are you more concerned with *when* you die, or *how*?
Bicyclists have higher accident mortality than motorists, though not dramatically higher. So if you only care about *how* you die, and find accidents particularly horrifying, driving is safer than cycling.
On the other hand, bicyclists have significantly lower *all-cause* premature mortality -- driving increases your risk of heart disease, deep-vein thrombosis, and various cancers, while bicycling reduces coronary artery disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, and various cancers. So if you care about whether you die prematurely, regardless of what the cause of death is, driving is clearly more hazardous than cycling.
The exact magnitude of cycling's safety advantage varies based on road safety, of course. Low estimates tend to be around 10-to-1 in favor of the mortality benefits of cycling, high estimates are 20-to-1 or better. In the Copenhagen Heart Studies, for one example, it works out to 40% lower all-cause premature mortality for bicyclists -- if you could sell that in a pill, you'd make billions.