Death is inches away and can created by a multitude of simple human actions; a sneeze, a glance to the side, dropped phone, simple inattention, a wild card event resulting in a weave or 12" or less into the legally designated bike lane. 2 tons vs 50 lbs. Who's the winner? Does it matter who had the right of way? NO. Unarguable. Dead is dead. Play the odds, take your chances.
Ya, but you’ll be in really good shape until then 🙂
Actually, I’m not seeking death, but at this point in my life there’s worse ways to go.
The biggest downside would be inflicting on someone else the burden of having killed me.
At 62, because of bicycles I can be athletic, every day. And at 62 I can ride a bicycle all the way across West Texas in summer, and then decide to turn right at the NM State Line and go up the Plains instead.
So for me it’s worth the risk.
I have read studies that showed that cycling can extend your life expectancy even when you factor in accidental deaths.
About 900 cyclists a year get killed in the US. Many of those are cyclists who are not allowed to have a driver's license. Many are those who are riding on the wrong side of the road. Many of those are killed at night while riding with no lights. Many of those are impaired. Eliminate those risks and the raw number of cyclists killed probably amounts to one a day.
Identify the other ways that cyclists are killed. Develop mitigation strategies and you find yourself in a relatively safe situation. Unfortunately the mitigation strategies for avoiding certain types of accidents involve positioning yourself in the lane. We see from reading the rants here the issues that causes. Would I rather be alive or be the source of emotional distress for an overweight, angry, middle-aged white male?
