Originally Posted by
jon c.
So you would contend that no bicycle should ever be ridden in a traffic lane regardless of traffic density, traffic speed, visibility or other considerations?
If you're going to take strawman arguments to the extreme, might as well do it from both sides.
That is a strawman argument that you are making and falsely attributing to me.
Evaluating risk properly
mandates consideration of likely severity of mishaps as well as the probability of mishaps to include exposure to the various hazard. Stats that only add up the total number of crashes in various road scenarios/environments and ignore severity (as in skinned knee boo-boos suffered on the sidewalk by low speed mishaps carry the same value as fractured skulls and traumatic amputation injuries from high speed collisions) pollute the typical "crash rate" stats and "facts" so beloved by so-called bicycling safety advocates who tout conclusions based on bogus hazard analysis. Such conclusions have seeped out of the Vehicular Cycling list into this thread.