Originally Posted by
gcottay
How dangerous is biking around cars?
Answer One: Approximately as dangerous as cycling on a MUP, walking the dog, or taking a shower.
Answer Two: It all depends on the particulars. What are your riding skills? What route will you take? When?
Answer Three: Not so dangerous to keep you from doing it that's what you really want to do.
I'd say the MUP is more dangerous in terms of frequency of potential collisions. I've had lots of close calls there. None on the street, except from pedestrians suddenly stepping into traffic against the light.
You can get some stats and studies from sites like The Vehicular Cyclist, John Forester, and Robert Hurst's 'The Industrial Cyclist.'
Riding with traffic can acutally be fun. Forester's 'The Effective Cyclist' is one source. A much shorter version of the technique of vehicular cycling is Allen's 'Street Smarts'
http://www.bikexprt.com/streetsmarts/usa/index.htm