Why does cycling have a 'high' risk rating? or does it?

[musa]

As the title suggest, just wanted to shed light on why we seem to assoicate cycling as a whole (not including individual additions that can be mentioned) with being high risk? Most certainly everything, every action has some risks attached to it regardless. Reason why I ask because I've come across posts on CC where its like is that how bad it has got? Course, we want safety but are we over-doing it ? Are we too cautious? I read a post just today, where the OP had an accident and their OH as usual didn't want him to ride again, likewise I've read people in the workplace (colleagues) asking 'Are you still going to continue riding to work'? after an accident.

Now the media doesn't help as we can agree that it never gives the full pictures as that won't sell, are they more concern with profits or relaying the 'truth'? Study/Case studies will always habve its pros and cons, but aren't we, as individuals able to think for ourselves? We've all complained about how the media portrayed stuff, yet we continue to follow.

Now, as cyclists, we certainly don't have an agenda to go get ourselves hurt, and put our lives in danger. We have the majority of riders who do a b and c, but what really, has caused us as a society to obtain cycling as 'dangerous'?

Discuss not debate...hope I got all I wanted to say across bit sketchy.

 

[slowmotion]

Cycling is dangerous as you perceive it to be. I wouldn't try this in a million years..

[media]
]View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eTMDkbS0fc[/media]


I know a few people who wouldn't see that stunt as totally stupid, yet would see riding round Hammersmith Broadway as a certain death wish, an adventure that I quite enjoy. It's just personal, and totally irrational.

 

[caimg]

Cycling is dangerous as you perceive it to be. I wouldn't try this in a million years..

[media]
]View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eTMDkbS0fc[/media]


I know a few people who wouldn't see that stunt as totally stupid, yet would see riding round Hammersmith Broadway as a certain death wish, an adventure that I quite enjoy. It's just personal, and totally irrational.

I went round Hammersmith roundabout for the first time in Feb when I started riding again...despite being a confident rider, it scared the sh*t out of me and had so many close passes and honking that it actually made me pull over and walk on the pavement - still, each to his own

 

[slowmotion]

Hammersmith? Easy, like this...

[media]
]View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2vkwy2vdP4[[media]

 

[Red Light]

Its one of those perception over reality things like fear of flying. Objectively cycling is very very safe - as safe as walking - yet many peoples perceptions are it is very very dangerous. Its not helped with all the focus on dubious safety equipment and its not helped by the cycling forums which tend to report every accident and injury. You don't find the motoring forums reporting every time something goes wrong and if they did there would be five to ten posts a day reporting motoring fatalities and if you did it would probably put you off driving if you were a forum member.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

On the basis of injuries sustained requiring a trip to A&E/NHS intervention since I returned to cycling in 1995 the lovely Helen, my OH, should be pleading with me to

stop taking showers (broken ankle)
stop using stairs (one broken ankle, one dislocated ankle)
stop cutting bread (knife wound to right hand)
stop refereeing rugby union (broken knee - I have since retired)
stop exploring castles (lacerated head)
etc.,
etc..

as in that time cycling on the road has only had me in A&E once, very recently, albeit I have accompanied a few MTB-ers to hospital in that time and have concussed myself and broken a couple of bones riding too fast off-road.

Real life is far more dangerous than cycling.

 

[PK99]

. Objectively cycling is very very safe - as safe as walking -

I really don't think we as cyclist do ourselves any favours by parroting this idea. It is only the overall "total walking vs total cycling" stats that support the statement. Strip out the children, drunks and elderly and look at (say) the 25-50 age group and the picture looks rather different. Not that cycling is unsafe but that the risks are greater than for walking. I can run through quite a long list of people i know who have been hospitalised because of a transport accident over the last few years - all of them cyclists injured in cycling accidents on the road, none of them pedestrians.

 

[Boris Bajic]

I find this topic an interesting one. My children mountainboard, leap off cliffs from great heights into the sea and cycle just about anywhere. One of them plays rugby, which can be a brutal game. All have ridden horses; one still does. They shoot too.

But... the only time adults and other parents wince or offer 'safety advice' is when we mention cycling. It's water off a duck to me, but it is interesting that that's perceived as the dangerous one. Not cycling off-road.... Just cycling on blacktop.

The safety advice, of course, is that they should be helmetted. When I confess that after the age of 12 I no longer ask them to wear one, some look at me as if I'm asking my kids to clean a chainsaw while it's running. It's not a debate I'd ever want to have with someone absolutely convinced that they're right.

The knee-jerk response by many to cycling on the roads does seem eccentric to me in many ways.

However... I do find that cycling can scare me. In my younger days I was relatively fearless, but not now. I still love to ride and I sometimes enjoy a little extra adrenalin when passing traffic becomes more intimate, but I am getting nervy in middle age.

I've decided to change a regular commute to avoid the descent from British Camp towards Great Malvern. I've been doing it in the wet lately and the way drivers sit on my rear wheel approaching big, sharp, fast downhill bends on broken Shellgrip scares me. It really scares me. It feels.... dangerous.

So... I'll happily sit at the dinner table and tell guests that cycling is simply not dangerous... and the next day I'll be scared out of my skin on a wet descent.

As to perception and media coverage, I am sometimes perplexed to see that 50 deaths in an aircrash in S E Asia make the headlines, but 20k+ SKI annually on British roads do not. It's not just cyclists in those data, but somehow cycling seems tarred with the 'danger' brush.

I don't think it's a perception that will ever be overturned. If my family and I all cycle 100 miles every day until dying natural deaths at the age of 103, there will be those who say "Oooh... Lucky not to have been killed out on the roads".

 

[Red Light]

I really don't think we as cyclist do ourselves any favours by parroting this idea. It is only the overall "total walking vs total cycling" stats that support the statement. Strip out the children, drunks and elderly and look at (say) the 25-50 age group and the picture looks rather different. Not that cycling is unsafe but that the risks are greater than for walking. I can run through quite a long list of people i know who have been hospitalised because of a transport accident over the last few years - all of them cyclists injured in cycling accidents on the road, none of them pedestrians.

Nice try but it doesn't work. Per km walking is much more dangerous than cycling. Strip out the preponderance of the over 60s in the walking figures and the preponderance of under 16s in the cycling figures and the core 16-64 age group still has a far higher risk walking than cycling. Your anecdotal experience is just that, anecdotal. And you certainly do cycling no favours by parroting the mantra that it is very dangerous.

 

[Red Light]

I've decided to change a regular commute to avoid the descent from British Camp towards Great Malvern. I've been doing it in the wet lately and the way drivers sit on my rear wheel approaching big, sharp, fast downhill bends on broken Shellgrip scares me. It really scares me. It feels.... dangerous.

My feeling is that much of this is akin to a fear of flying. Rationally you know its not dangerous but you still feel scared by it. I don't think those fears are helped by the general promotion of cycling as unsafe either. People with a fear of flying get more nervous after news of a plane crash just as people became fearful of travelling on the tube after 7/7 or on the train after Hatfield. The fact that cycle forums continually report their accidents just exacerbates the problem further. Stopping scaring ourselves in that way would help but it won't cure the underlying fear.

 

[PK99]

Are you comparing all cyclists with a selected group of pedestrians?

no. comparing like for like age groups and stripping out alcohol effects from both

 

[Boris Bajic]

My feeling is that much of this is akin to a fear of flying. Rationally you know its not dangerous but you still feel scared by it. I don't think those fears are helped by the general promotion of cycling as unsafe either. People with a fear of flying get more nervous after news of a plane crash just as people became fearful of travelling on the tube after 7/7 or on the train after Hatfield. The fact that cycle forums continually report their accidents just exacerbates the problem further. Stopping scaring ourselves in that way would help but it won't cure the underlying fear.

Much of the rational part of my mind finds that a convincing argument. I was on my 'kamikaze descent' yesterday with an M-B Vito right on my tail. It was wet in patches, dry in patches and had rivulets in places - because of patchy tree cover. I was seeking out drier, rougher tarmac; not easy at 25mph. I made a conscious decision to go easy on the front brake and kept pedalling to prevent a rear lock-up. I did allow (couldn't prevent) the worst-case scenarios to whizz through my brain. I accept that and that does bring the danger of 'building it up'. Nonetheless, I was in an extremely exposed position and the fear was based in part on the danger to which I was exposed and my realisation of same. Three times in the past couple of weeks I've left that descent in a state of some concern. I still have a real run at it in the dry or when there's no traffic. It's not 'fear of flying' (the novel or the notion).

I agree with you that the 'negative painting' is a big issue. That was part of my point in my original post. I disagree with your notion that rationally I know it is not dangerous. My assessment is based on four decades of cycling and a good part of that time being spent hurtling into bushes, tarmac or both with less than complete control of speed or bearing. I'm not arguing against your broader point at all.

 

[tyred]

I do wonder where the perception comes from. It's something I've been pondering for the past week or so. I had emailed my sister a few photographs taken by a friend at a recent VCC ride on old road bikes, including 1 or 2 of me riding. She phoned me up to object that 4 of us (including me) weren't wearing helmets and how stupid we are, etc, etc, etc. I was wondering where that had sprung from. This was a purely social ride at relatively slow speeds of about 30 miles in the middle of nowhere, we hardly seen a car at all, we are all old enough and have been cycling long enough not to take any silly risks. It was, I would say, a safe and enjoyable way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Yet to talk to my sister, you would think we were jumping of cliffs.

I know it's easy to get wound up by close passes and impatient drivers, but how often are we really put in genuine danger? Not very often in my case at least. And what would half an inch of plastic do for me if I were hit by a car at 60mph?

 

[totallyfixed]

I think if you were new to cycling, joined CC and only read the commuting thread, you would be forgiven for thinking cycling was very dangerous.
My thoughts are that there are probably two broadly differing views regarding the perception as to whether cycling is dangerous or not - those that cycle and those that don't. In a world that is becoming increasingly sedentary and as a consequence obese, coupled with ever increasing stringent laws on health and safety, is it any wonder that non cyclists think we are all mad? We must all have had comments from non cyclists at some time expressing disbelief at our exploits.
One of the unfortunate [for me] results of the above is to make cyclists [some] believe that cycling is dangerous, the most obvious manifestation of this is the proliferation of helmet wearing, more especially in the younger generation.
My personal view is that if you are a cyclist and you believe it is dangerous, you probably shouldn't be cycling, because by your very actions and attire you are reinforcing the myth that ours is a dangerous sport / pastime.
If in doubt see rule 5 in the Velominati.

 

[HLaB]

As said a lot of is perceived risk not actual risk, I'd take time to dig out the stats that support that but I'm away out cycling as the risk of becoming fat, developing heart disease or or other weight related health problems is more of a risk. Oh and unfortunately I am going to contribute to this perceived risk by wearing a helmet. Chucks a grenade and runs cycles.