Re: Excuses, excuses

On 4/10/2024 2:54 AM, John B. wrote:

On Wed, 10 Apr 2024 02:18:54 -0400, Catrike Ryder
<Soloman@old.bikers.org> wrote:
 

On Mon, 8 Apr 2024 21:51:02 -0400, Frank Krygowski
<frkrygow@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>

Last I checked, there were
still over ten million miles bicycled between fatalities, and cycling
was much safer per mile than walking.

>
>
<LOL> Safer per mile is a ridiculously stupid statistic.  I'll wager
that cycling is much safer *per mile* than mountain climbing, too.
>

But it justifies his arguments so perfectly.
 But evening things up perhaps hour of use would be more accurate.

It always puzzles me that some avid cyclists are SO determined to pretend that simply riding a bike is terribly dangerous! Why would that be?
Some possibilities:
1) Those afraid to ride anywhere but on segregated facilities use the fiction to excuse their own timidity.
2) Those who have invested in expensive, or extreme, or conspicuous "safety" gear use the fiction to justify their purchases.
3) Some may bolster their dwindling feelings of masculinity by saying "Yeah, ya gotta be a _real_ man to ride a bike! I'm that tough!" (As some lady rides past on a step-through 3 speed with flowers in the front basket.)
And of course it could be all three. Meanwhile, some data. I've got plenty!
================================================================
Risk relative to cycling based on fatality rates per participant (UK)
    
Relative risk per participant
Airsports 450
Climbing 137
Motor sports 81
Fishing 41
Horse riding 29
Swimming 7.0
Athletics 5.7
Football 4.9
Tennis 4.2
Cycling 1.0
Golf 0.83
Rambling 0.06
Figures relate to 1986 and are derived from OPAS Monitors from the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys, UK.
The number of fatalities are taken from Coroner's Court records and information on participation rates from the General Household Survey.
Risk by time (US)
.......................................................
    
Fatalities per million hours
Sky diving 128.71
General aviation 15.58
On-road motorcycling 8.80
Scuba diving 1.98
Living (all causes of death) 1.53
Swimming 1.07
Snowmobiling 0.88
Passenger cars 0.47
Water skiing 0.28
Bicycling 0.26
Flying (scheduled domestic airlines) 0.15
Hunting 0.08
Cosmic radiation from transcontinental flights 0.035
Home living (active) 0.027
Traveling in a school bus 0.022
Passenger car post-collision fire 0.017
Home living (including sleeping) 0.014
Residential fire 0.003
Data from Failure Analysis Associates, Inc (now Exponent Inc), Design News, 10 April 1993.
=========================================================
And let's recall that in at least five studies, bicycling has been found to be safer than _not_ bicycling. That is, its benefits have been shown to greatly outweigh its tiny risks.
--
- Frank Krygowski