Is It O.K. to Kill Cyclists?

[hfojvt]

54. sigh, another day, another mountain out of a molehill

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times ..."

"The anecdotes mounted ..."

So I did not bother with any actual data. I read three stories, heard of two more and immediately ran out into the street yelling "the sky is falling, the sky is falling ..."

Here - try some data http://www.bicyclinginfo.org/facts/crash-facts.cfm

Cycling deaths are pretty rare.
In rural states/areas they are even rarer - a whopping TWO bicyclists were killed in Kansas in 2011.
more data http://floridacyclinglaw.com/images/uploads/blog/2011_NTSA_Traffic_Safety_Facts_-_Bicyclists_and_other_Cyclists.pdf

Even though that last link I got from an article that was screaming "the sky is falling". "Omigosh, cycling deaths are way up!!! It's a trend."

Yeah, uh huh. Way up, unless you look at the large picture where 677 in 2011 is NOT way up from 786 in 2005.

Really moronic and dishonest headline http://floridacyclinglaw.com/blog/archives/bicycle-death-rates

That said, from where this biker sits, some of those cyclists in urban areas seem to have a death wish. There are places and streets that I just will NOT ride on. That includes most of the country roads around where I live. Too busy and no shoulders. Also too hilly.

Which is a funny thing to say considering I am in Kansas and used to live in the "driftless region". But in Wisconsin, roads would often follow a valley, so they were quite flat for many miles. Here in Kansas it is just up and down and up and down.

Oh, and on this thread, I really have to roll my eyes at the finger wagging of "bicyclists need to stop for stop signs" and "need to wear helmets" and "reflective clothing".

Well, I am 0 for 3 on those, with 30,000+ miles on my bikes, a fair number of those miles at night.

The times I fear death are when MOTORISTS race up to stop signs and roll halfway into the intersection before stopping or when it looks like they want to make a quick perfunctory stop without looking in my direction. Then there are the rare morons who pass and then turn right, right in front of me.