As for the 1.5x higher death rate for cyclists. The biggest problem I have with this stat is that it is measuring rate by miles traveled. I think hours driven vs. hours cycling would be a much more relevant measure.

A cyclist is never going to match miles traveled by a car, so it really isn't comparing apples to apples. For example, I spend three hours commuting to work and back (46 miles). A car can travel roughly 180 miles in that same amount of time.

Time of exposure to the dangers of a given task is a much more accurate measure of risk than mileage.