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As More Adults Pedal, Their Biking Injuries And Deaths Spike, Too : Shots - Health News : NPRAs More Adults Pedal, Their Biking Injuries And Deaths Spike, Too : Shots - Health News : NPR

Not sure if this has been posted already...

tdreyer1

In other news, water is wet.

PaulRivers

Hmm, not sure what to make of this.

I've seen other articles saying that the death rate of cyclists has increased much lower than the rate at which more people started biking. Minneapolis was particularly striking, with the number of cyclists exploding but the death toll staying the same (when one would think with say 3x bikers there would be 3x accidents and 3x fatal accidents).

This article from 2014 on a similar topic:
Don?t Believe the Headlines: Bike Boom Has Been Fantastic for Bike Safety | Streetsblog USA

Buried deep in the report, though, GHSA notes that the annual death rate of cyclists is actually “among the lowest since 1975...yes, between 2010 and 2012, the number of bike fatalities did increase. And that’s because the total number of bike trips in the country has been soaring:

ThermionicScott 

+1.

Daniel4

1) They probably cycle the same way they drive;
2) As more adults drive, collisions with motor vehicles and everyone else increase;

E.S.

As more of our society becomes sedentary, early death from heart disease, diabetes, etc. has spiked.

I'd rather die quickly as a healthy person by getting run over while happily peddling my arse about than slowly and depressingly from a preventable disease. And yet still driving a car is statistically the most dangerous thing we do on a daily basis. Most likely however, I will be cycling into old age as a healthy person.

HardyWeinberg

motorcycles too

alan s 

You are aware that "peddling" means selling. Perhaps you meant to say "pedaling?"

velocity

Advocacy

CliffordK

I'd have to also ask if they looked at all-cause mortality.

It is my theory that better exercise and fitness reduces both morbidity (chronic health problems) and all cause mortality (cardiac problems and etc).

I'd rather get out on my bike regularly than be stocking half a pharmacy worth of drugs at home to keep myself alive.

kickstart

Its no guarantee.
My father was very active, a daily cyclist and skied until his late 70s, then his health took a nose dive and his quality of life was terrible for his last 6 years.

CliffordK

Hard to knock 76.
Too many people have heart attacks before 50
Or type 2 diabetes or other severe health issues.

Matariki

As more and more people have smart phones, the number of "distracted driving" incidents is spiking.

E.S.

Yes, thank you lol

FRANK CANNON

If a bike wasn't a big part of your life as a child, and you pick it up as a 40 yo you are going to be a **** rider.

I'm saying 1,000 miles minimum risk before you try anything challenging.

jboivin

Not so fast. In many places, increased cycling - more bikes on the roads - actually reduces accidents. For example, here in Montreal, there have been a huge increase in cyclists, but the number of accidents is relatively the same over the years. So more cyclists, but no more accidents.

Seems that the more cyclists there are on the streets, the more careful the drivers are. They (most of them) get used to interact with bikes.

(Could've given stats and numbers, but it's late and I'm too lazy to look for them )

tjspiel

My dad smoked, carried a few extra pounds and never really exercised. He died when he was 47 of a heart attack. Not a great lifestyle but a good part of that was genetics. The men in his family all died young.

My mom was in excellent health until shortly after she turned 70. But she was fairly sedentary. Exercise was not something you set aside time for in that generation. It was either something you got in the normal course of your day, or you didn't get it.

Anyway, she blew out her back and was never the same. She had osteoporosis. She underwent a few surgeries but her bones were like swiss cheese and nothing really held. She grew more and more disabled and died shortly after her 80th birthday. Her mom had lived to be 86 and her dad 92. I honestly believe that had she been more active, she would have either not had the back injury or it would not have been so debilitating. By the time she was 71 or 72, she spent most of her life in bed.

Given what happened to my parents, I'd be very thankful to be active into my late seventies. I could do without the 6 years of bad health that came after but I think that's not uncommon. Our advanced medical care has extended our lives, but also extended that part of it at the end that's not so great.

I was talking to an older woman in our sailing club a couple of months ago. She lost a good friend over the winter. He drowned during some fluke sailing accident. He was in his 70s. She said that although she missed her friend, she was not sorry about the way it happened. Many of her friends had spent the last years of their lives in a lot of discomfort. He had enjoyed his right up until the end.

nightshade18

Unless...... those that have given up driving and are now cycling are the ones that were previously hitting cyclists!
See, a logical solution to every statistic

highrpm

I felt less safe on my motorcycle than I do on the bicycle. The motorcycle provided zero health benefits. At least on the bicycle I am getting a workout.

Bike Gremlin

That's strange. In traffic, I always feel that apart from swerving and braking, motorcycle gives the rider one more option that the bicycle doesn't: to run away, accelerate quickly. Sometimes that is the safest option, depending on the situation.

Also, motorcycle has stronger headlights (usually) and is a bit bigger, easier to spot.

tdreyer1

Yeah, snark aside increasing numbers of accidents with increasing numbers of bike riders is not a given, as your example illustrates. That's completely optimistic, though, to expect it everywhere and every time....sadly. I sure wouldn't complain if safety increased as we had more bicyclists on the roads, but I really don't expect it in general.

jboivin

Agreed. And it's not because things get better that they're finally good.

Ultimately, I was almost hit twice this week by cars who ignored me...

3speedslow

I got smacked wed, but I not dead, just bloody and sore.

alathIN

I suspect there will be a plateau effect.

Initially, as bikers and bike miles increase, but the infrastructure and motorist awareness hasn't caught up yet, I'd expect injuries and deaths to increase proportionately.

There is probably a tipping point out there, when riders/miles are high enough to drive changes in mindset and infrastructure, and the injuries+deaths/cyclists+miles ratio will improve.

Comparing across different communities or different countries, where bike riding is common, well-established, and well-supported, to the U.S. would probably be enlightening.

And ultimately I don't give a crap. My quality of life on a bike is so much better than my quality of life in a car. I heard someone bemoaning the death of an elderly bike tourist who died cycling in the mountains somewhere. Carve this in stone now: if I die in my 80s on a bike tour, that's a win.

furiousferret

When we have driverless cars that should help...but the problem is the people that should be driving driverless cars (drunks, teens) will not.