General Category > On The Road

Is it still safe to cycle?

(1/5) > >>

Jethro:
Sorry for this guys but.......

Not a week appears to go by without someone either getting killed or seriously injured whilst out cycling and i'm sure you all know of someone that has at least had a very near miss.

I cant ride my bike at the moment because of a broken left hand and subsequent problems with the healing, and although i'm itching to get back out there on my bike, is it really going to be safe?

More sad news just this weekend under Audax here https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=81177.25

mcshroom:
Compare and contrast that seven of us rode from Penrith to Lancaster yesterday without incident, and probably many others the same. You don't tend to hear about the uneventful rides as they aren't news in the same way.

That incident sounds scary, but it would be similar if you were driving past it, or walking down the street. I'm only aware of one fatality on an audax that involved a vehicle and that was a few years ago. Compare that to the number of kms ridden by audaxers and it puts into context just how infrequent these events are.

pcolbeck:
Its safer than it used to be actually. Its just that with the Internet and forums you get to hear about every single death whereas years ago if you lived in Penrith you wouldn’t hear about a cycling fatality in Birmingham or London.



I would however like to see specific figures for London as there do seem to be a lot of deaths there at the moment. If the London average is higher than the national one then there is something going on that’s specific to London (bad traffic engineering or London drivers just being more aggressive or something).

Kim:
Cycling KSIs are national news *because* they're relatively rare.  We only usually hear about the motoring KSIs in the context of traffic disruption.

Is it safe?  No.  It is safer than sitting on your arse (or countless other day to day activities)?  Absolutely.

Fab Foodie:
I know how it feels, but this is very worth reading for a sense of perspective ....

http://www.gicentre.net/blog/2013/11/24/risk-cycling-and-denominator-neglect

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page