As a culture, we are nearly innumerate (the math equivalent of illiterate) to begin with. Pile innumeracy on top of spotty data and you have a public whose irrational fear of riding in traffic is so great that the real monsters (e.g. obesity, type 2 diabetes and coronary artery disease etc etc) kill them in their recliners. We all need good data.
On Tue, May 27, 2014 at 11:06 AM, Robbie Webber <[email protected]>wrote: > I looked a this report when it came out (last week nationally.) I sort of > see the report as "good news/bad news" with regard to the actual data. > > Good news: They are actually bringing up the issue, which is sorely > under-studied and under-reported. As the narrative says, we need much > better data about how, why, when, and where bicycle crashes happen. As > well, this is one of the few studies that have been done nationally in the > last decade or so. (Try Googling "bicycle crash type," and there isn't > much. > Here's<http://katana.hsrc.unc.edu/cms/downloads/PedBikeCrashTypes.pdf>sort of > the gold standard, and it's from 1996.) There were comprehensive > analyses of bicycle crashes previously, but none that have happened since > the transportation-bicycling boom in the last decade. > > Bad news: The data is very, very spotty. FARS is far from reliable for > things like traffic injuries and fatalities, for reasons I won't go into. > The report acknowledges this. There really is no good source for bicycle > crash statistics that will give an accurate picture of how, when, why, and > where these crashes happen. As we probably all know from personal > experience, we may not know immediately that we are hurt. We show up at > urgent care or the emergency room hours later, and the injury information > is often not reported as part of a bike crash. Even if it is reported as > part of a bike crash, the medical personnel are less interested in > documenting the conditions under which the crash occurred than treating our > injuries. > > My other concern about this report is that the media has consistently > reported that the NUMBER of fatal crashes from urban, rear-end crashes is > very high. That might give casual readers the idea that getting hit from > behind in an urban area is a common crash type. The truth is that > hit-from-the-rear crashes are fairly rare in urban areas., They are far > more common in rural area with much less traffic. But there are a lot of > people in urban areas, and that means a lot of exposure. The RATE of > crashes -- based on number of miles traveled, number of hours on road, or > even number of people biking that type of roadway -- for urban area, > hit-from-behind crashes is very low. > > Also, being hit from behind is responsible for a large number of FATAL > crashes. One reason for this is that when this type of crash happens, the > car is often going very fast. I would guess, although I don't think it is > in the report, that the majority of the fatalities resulting from being hit > from behind were on high-speed roadways, not the typical low-speed urban > street that many bicyclists use. > > I'm just worried that the casual reader might conclude that being hit from > behind is a common occurrence on urban roadways, which is not the case. The > most common crash type for adult cyclists remains a failure to yield by a > motorist at an intersection. Fortunately, most of these crashes, as with > most bicycle crashes of all types, are not fatal or even incapacitating. > > I'm glad they wrote the report. I'm glad that the media is picking it up > across the country. I'm hopeful that this will lead to more and better > analysis of what we can do to prevent bicycle crashes. I'm just worried > that bad data might lead to incorrect conclusions on the part of the > general public. > > Robbie Webber > Transportation Policy Analyst > 608-263-9984 (o) > 608-225-0002 (c) > [email protected] > All opinions expressed are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of > my employer or any other group with which I am affiliated. > > > On Tue, May 27, 2014 at 7:52 AM, Meiers, Steve > <[email protected]>wrote: > >> >> >> >> http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/writers/steven_elbow/report-looks-at-how-and-why-bicyclists-die/article_c511e8d2-b8a1-5eb2-89a0-c9fca2554435.htmlbicycli >> >> Steve Meiers >> >> Safety educator >> >> (608) 267-1102 >> >> Box 2986 >> >> Madison WI 53701 >> >> [email protected] >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Bikies mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org >> >> > > _______________________________________________ > Bikies mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org > > -- Mark __o _ \<,_ (_)/ (_) velo ergo sum
_______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org
