Originally Posted by
cooker
Well, that's about the speed limit for bikes so by your logic bikes must be safer!
Incorrect. There isn't enough information to determine the relative safety of driving a car versus riding a bicycle.
It's possible that, at a maximum speed of 25mph, cars would be significantly safer than bicycles.
Originally Posted by
cooker
It's impossible to do a fair comparison since cyclists and motorists don't necessarily do the same kind of miles, especially commuters.
It's
is very hard to do a fair comparision. Your "40 thousand deaths" is about the
worst way of making the comparision!
Originally Posted by
The Human Car
So far I have seen no conclusive proof or correlation that cycling crashes or fatalities is related to the amount of miles or time out on a bike. That correlation has to be proved first before we can venture down the road you suggest.
My point is that an absolute number of car fatalities is meaningless in determining whether cars are "more dangerous" than bicycles. Cars (in the US) are driven by many more people. many more times, for many more hours, and for many more miles than bicycles are ridden.
Anyway, if the same cyclist rides more frequently in the same traffic, it isn't reasonable to expect that the risk of being in an accident increases?
Originally Posted by
cooker
Also, many of those cyclists die in collisions with cars, so since I was talking about how dangerous the vehicles are (which is what you responded to), at least some of that risk has to be attributed to the cars.
The simple comparision is driving a car in traffic versus riding a bike in traffic. The traffic can't be eliminated.
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Originally Posted by
cooker
"The study found that over the 10-year period following the repeal of the National Maximum Speed Law, about 12,500 deaths took place due to the increased speed limits across the U.S."
That's 1,250 per year or an increase of about 1,250/46,000 per year or 2.7%.
Originally Posted by
cooker
The same authors also cite evidence that increased traffic speed enforcement in England and Australia lowered fatalities.
Is this changing the number of people who are excessively speeding or people who are moderately speeding?