Ron talks about the Ride of Silence, a ride honoring those who have been killed while riding a bicycle. We interview Adina Giannelli, the executive director of Bike Walk Connecticut about various events during Bicycle Month, which is May! There’s Bike to Work Day, Slow Roll in Hartford sponsored by Bici Co., and much more! Also, an update on the Giro d’Italia, Tour de California, and the Expo Wheelmen Time Trial.
I disagree with your cavalier insistence in this episode’s rant, that cycling is obviously much safer than driving or riding in motor vehicles. I am sitting on my own anecdote, in the form of a set of pelvic fractures. I was recently hit by a pickup truck that swerved into me, far on the shoulder of a wide and straight 45 mph road in broad daylight.
My anecdote aside, you did not really cite specific statistics. However, it is not, as I believe you suggested, meaningful to compare the bare numbers of fatalities/injuries of cyclists versus the numbers of fatalities/injuries for motor vehicle operators and passengers. For one thing, the numbers of motor vehicle miles traveled must far exceed the number of miles cycled in the US. So, a meaningful statistics has to be something like number of fatalities/injuries per-miles-cycled versus number of fatalities/injuries per-miles-driven. Do such statistics even exist?
Another obvious problem is that many of the dangers TO cyclists are quite entangled with the dangers OF motor vehicles, unless you limit your cycling to protected or grade-separated cycle-paths. For road cyclists, it seems inescapable to conclude that you are getting a lot of the dangers of motor vehicles. You are riding among those dangerous machines. And drivers often seem to have little understanding of how to deal with bicycles. And you lack many of the protections that benefit motorist, such as air-bags, safety belts, and crumple zones.
I very much wish it were as you suggest, but I am not at all convinced.