I have to scratch my head at stories like that. They just throw crap at the wall to see what sticks. What are the participation rates today compared to 1975? How about fatalities per mile ridden? It seems reasonable to assume that CA and FL has the sort of weather that supports year round riding. They say the age of the dying cyclists has changed dramatically but don't really look at it very hard. It seems to me that there are significantly more adults riding bikes these days for exercise & commuting than what I recall seeing in the 70s. How tough would it be to figure that out if you were writing an article like this one?

I also looooooove seeing this in the article: The lack of helmet use [...] contribute to bicyclist deaths, he said

As if that tiny little piece of styrofoam is going to save you when a 3 ton car rams you, but that's the first thing the news always mentions when discussing bicycle accidents. I wear a helmet every time I ride (well, except for on vacation last May and that was nice) but I have no illusions about what it can do for me.

OK, here's another way to look at the same data without being so melodramatic:

• Bicyclist deaths in 2001: 732
• Bicyclist deaths in 2012: 726 (NHTSA Traffic Safety Facts)
• Reduction in bicyclist deaths between 2001 and 2011: 7.5 percent (this is some seriously bad math here... it's really more like 0.75%)

Obviously it's an issue and it's near and dear to our hearts but this strikes me as another useless newspaper article.