SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES
Dori: Driving is safer than cycling and here are the stats to back it up
Mar 30, 2015, 1:02 PM | Updated: Mar 31, 2015, 6:19 am
Dori found that cycling can be up to almost 20 times more dangerous than riding in a vehicle. (AP)
(AP)
Taken from Monday’s edition of The Dori Monson Show.
I had Seattle Department of Transportation Director Scott Kubly on the show last Thursday. We talked about an op-ed piece in The Seattle Times where he said bicyclists and pedestrians make up 3 percent of accidents, but 50 percent of fatalities.
Related: SDOT director on SR 99 jam and more
I talked to Kubly about how bicycling and walking is more dangerous than riding in a car.
On Friday, I heard on our morning news KIRO Radio’s Dave Ross disputing my statements.
Related: With apologies to Dori, walking and biking safer than driving
“So lets take this one step at a time … we were concentrating on 50 percent fatalities,” Dave said. “If walkers are involved in 3 percent [of accidents], that means motorists are involved in the other 97 percent.
“Your chances of dying while biking: 1 in 4,974; Dying while walking: 1 in 723; Chances of dying in a car: 1 in 112.”
That was presented as reason for it being safer to walk or bike.
But collectively, as Americans, we put more miles in our cars than walking and bicycling. If you don’t factor that in, then the stats are absolutely meaningless.
That’s what I talked to Kubly about, too.
“There are many different kinds of stats,” Dave said. “But, with apologies to Dori, arguing that more bikes would increase fatalities just isn’t supported by anything I could find.”
Because they decided to call me out, I decided to back my statement up.
According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, there are 0.77 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled in Washington.
A bicycle advocacy website provides stats that proves my case. According to bicycleuniverse.info, 784 cyclists died in 2005, which would make the death rate .37 to 1.26 deaths per 10 million miles; 33,041 motorists/passengers died from 3 trillion miles traveled, making the death rate 0.11 per 10 million miles traveled.
And, according to the www.rita.dot.gov, there are 12.6 deaths for every 100 million miles ridden.
So cyclists are between three times to as much as 16.4 times as likely to die as motorists per mile.
Taken from Monday’s edition of The Dori Monson Show.
KR
