When to call it a day?

[Pat "5mph"]

I got attacked by dogs twice on segregated/shared user paths.
Yesterday a Deliveroo passed me so close at high speed (on a reserved, segregated cycle lane) that if they had had a wing mirror they would have hit me.
You could give up cycling, then a car runs you over.

 

[Oldhippy]

I have had many more idiots causing near accidents and close calls whilst driving in honesty.

 

[mikeIow]

I never really worry about trouble when cycling, although I tend to be a fair weather cyclist now, and certainly not frequently out.

I also use road position to signal intent. If I’m coming up to a blind bend or summit, I will pull out to make an overtake impossible. Smile and wave and I’ve not had any problems.
I also use a Garmin Varia - radar light. Links to my Wahoo Roam, & warns very accurately of approaching vehicles. Again, if it tells me a car is approaching fast, I might pull out a bit and even wobble a bit: drivers will spot that and slow down, in my experience. Of course it is fairly hopeless around town when there is too much traffic.
If it is a big ride, I will use cycle.travel to plan routes and get to my Wahoo: it always comes up with fabulous back roads, tracks etc.

Big city cycling would perhaps worry me if I had to commute….but being retired, that’s less of an issue!

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Best give up showers as well

 

[teeonethousand]

You can only control what you do...I ride for leisure & live in the country. I seek out small or off-road routes and try to ride very defensively around traffic.

It's a risk...but so is everything you just have to manage it the best you can.

I do gym stuff too - I quite like it but you can't beat fresh air.

 

[Rusty Nails]

I might give up for health or age issues but not over the risk of being hit by a car.

I took up cycling sixteen years ago just before I retired to escape the monotony of the gym and have never regretted it.

 

[Rusty Nails]

A few stats.

1,300,000 bicycle journeys made in 2024 in the UK.

111 deaths and 4000 reported injuries.

If you take a hard look at your own cycling style, experience, health benefits, attitude to risk, and environment it's not too difficult to draw a reasonable conclusion about whether to continue or not.

In my case the scales are firmly on the 'continue' side. If I started having near misses, or feeling scared that might change

Where did you get that number from? I have read that there are 1.5 million cycle journeys a day in London alone.

If there were the likelihood of one death every 12000 miles then I would definitely give up cycling.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

There were 3.5 billion miles cycled in 2024. Risk of death once in every 31.5 million miles.

 

[wafter]

No. Without the wealth of benefits I get from cycling I might as well give up.

The day I can no longer cycle will be the day I book a one-way ticket to Switzerland..