Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, if you really dig down into cycling accident statistics "enthusiast" riders and "commuters" who log very high mileage represent a very, very small number of these statistics. When one of our brethern is killed it polarizes and energizes the community to be sure... as in so many of these cases they weren't doing anything wrong and from our view -- based on reading media reports in many cases -- were not at fault. However, these types of folks aren't the ones that dominate the statistics. Case in point, a cyclist from Miami, FL, recently passed after having a single bike accident while descending the very challenging Hogpen gap during the annual 6-Gap century. Once her accident is recorded in the FARS data base you'll be hard pressed to find it.

Instead, as you look at the FARS data you get a picture of adult males riding bikes as an alternative form of transportation -- either due to economic reasons or because they lost their license due to DUI convictions -- and find themselves riding before dawn or after dusk... in dark street clothes and usually in highly unpredicatable ways without lights and often times after 'having a few'.

However, when it comes to the community, law enforcement, etc... they don't parse these very different riders the way we might so the statistics are what they are and the cyclist who lost their life on 6-Gap can't be distinguished from the DUI motorist who lost his license that was riding home on his mountain bike at 12:30am only to be hit by another DUI motorist.