It's More Dangerous NOT To Ride a Bike

I missed a remarkable and lengthy article on bike safety by Alan During in Grist, which had some very interesting statistics. As Carectomy notes, skydivers might look for a different form of commute, but bicyling is just about the safest activity you can do.

photo from Biking Toronto

Carectomy notes that the chart is based per hour. If we look at the data per mile, cars in the U.S. start looking better. Ten drivers and passengers die per billion miles in a car; this number goes up to 100 for cyclists.

However Grist points out also that riding a bike is actually safer than doing nothing at all.

"Pedalling Health, an Australian study published in 1996, concluded that an hour of biking a day -- normal for a regular bike commuter -- prevents four times as much heart attack risk as it adds in collision risk. The iconoclastic British transport researcher Mayer Hillman did a study for the British Medical Association in 1992 reportedly showing that for every year of life lost to a bike crash, twenty years of life are gained from stress reduction, greater cardiovascular fitness, and improved mental health. As I've noted, the time you spend in moderate exercise is added to your life, with interest." ::Grist via ::Carectomy