Originally Posted by
I-Like-To-Bike
You are right, the posted graph is a simple way of looking at the gathered "data", but does not come close to providing any useful information about the actual risk incurred by participation in any of those activities.
The odds of dying by legal execution is very low for the public at large; the risk for those who participate in the activity are quite high.
Risk is not determined or evaluated by gathering data on the odds of any single activity occurring in a lifetime, but rather evaluating the likelihood that negative events will occur when (and if) exposed to the "hazard", as well as the likely severity of the negative event.
The graph and the data aren't meant to provide any information on the 'risk' involved in an activity. They are not stated that way nor presented that way. They are the 'odds' of death from a particular activity based upon all the causes of death in 2004 based on your living in this nation and in this population of people. I'll agree that the risk of dying in a particular activity depending on the activity. The risk of dying in an activity depends a lot on the location of the activity. For example, the risk of dying in a shark attack is probably pretty low. The risk of dying in a shark attack in Colorado is probably much, much closer to zero then in California which is much lower then if you go in the water
However, when someone makes a statement like this
Originally Posted by
macteacher
He's told me that i'm risking my life for no logical reason at all, and that it is only a matter of time before some crazy driver swerves for one reason or another and hits me. That drivers can't be trusted, that they are crazy and my odds of surviving an accident in tact are very slim. Ride on a trail on a pathway, but on the major arterial roads he said i'm crazy for doing so. He ended that if he was ever in an accident, and it meant him surviving or killing a cyclist, he'd do whatever it takes to survive.
he's not looking at the risk of his own actions. Comparing the odds of his death in an automobile accident...a supposedly safe activity...vs the odds of dying on a bicycle...a supposedly unsafe activity...with a simple easy to grasp graphic tells him just how full of crap he is