Maybe, "Just stay off your cell phone while you drive and I'll be fine."

If it's a stranger, I would ask them something like "what kind of exercise do you do?" If they don't exercise, I say "If you have a family that needs you, don't you need to exercise instead of sitting most of the time".
If they think that's a stupid question, I respond with " I'm just responding to a stupid comment.".

?? How do you figure that?

Once in a while I hear similar concerns to the OP, and I'm happy to talk about the width of the bike lanes and zebra striping on my route, and how I'm riding the same roads at pretty much the same time every day with the same car-commuters, so they are used to seeing me, and how the real danger points are when bike lanes jump from the curb to the inside of right-turn lanes, but how I watch cars in my helmet mirror and very rarely see cars that race ahead of me to beat me into the right-turn lane, but almost always hang back and let me through, and, and, and

and they usually get tired before I do.

I just say "It's not as dangerous as it looks from the outside".

Just like on Bike Forums, just pick a number you like and run with it. Suitable for dazzling the gullible, be they on BF or inquisitive strangers.

Studies show that 73.4% of all statistics are made up on the spot

Please send me a text before you get in your car!

No one ever loved me enough to tell me that.

I just explain that my #1 priority every day is to make it home alive and all my riding decisions are based on that. If they want more I might go in to detail about my route and explain how I keep safe in the parts that involve automobile traffic.

Various reports and links have been posted in BF in past years all indicating the annual road fatalities in the US are about 36,000. And that includes about 8000 for pedestrians and bicyclists combined.

Here's one I just found:

https://www.consumerreports.org/tran...ay-fatalities/

37,000 total for 2017
6000 pedestrians
840 bicycles

And various reports from Copenhagen and Toronto show similar ratios.

These ratios are meaningless unless they are adjusted for distance travelled, like an reputable analysis would perform.

Also, there's no way that CPH has similar numbers, so post your source.

edit: this is what you should've posted

There are less than 100 deaths per year worldwide in free-climbing. Does that mean it’s safer than cycling?

Depends on the distance travelled. It could be safer, in actuality.

I've now got the perfect comeback -- although I don't recommend anyone else "qualify." According to my cardiologist, I'd be dead by now if it weren't for all the cycling (including commuting) I did over the previous 19 years. If a drunk kills me on my home today, I'll have lived two years and a bit longer after my heart attack than if I never got back on a bicycle.

Plus, I enjoyed my commute in today. Did you?

Another good response!

Also number of participants, although I guess if you mean total man-miles instead of per-trip average, that's accounted for.

There was an interesting thread a while back discussing the most meaningful way to statistically compare car and bike safety -- by distance or by time is I think the biggest question. Different metrics answer different questions.

Add, "How was that rush hour traffic?" at the end of that and you have the best possible response to the OP's question

That last really says it all, IMO. And although they mostly won't believe it - what about the effort, what about the rain, what about ... every other excuse - regardless, it conveys that it's your choice, for your reasons, and you don't feel the need to justify it for their concerns.

Stay Off My Sidewalk & I'm good ..

Flying in space is the safest form of travel based on the number of deaths per mile. How does adding distance help? The Space Shuttle had a rate of 1 death in 38.7 million miles, but it is not considered particularly safe.

"so far, so good"

Fine. Substitute Base Jumping (9 deaths in 10 yrs).

I see the same crazy people every day. I'm sure they say the same about me.

Dat fookin geezer on da yello pushbike.

Good enough for me! I'll take a space shuttle ride...or a soyez ride....whatever. I'm not picky. I just wanna go on a spaceship.

Start saving your shekels. A flight to the ISS may be in your future. It has traveled 2.6 billion miles without a single death. Those are actual miles, not some phony “passenger miles.”