Man rides bike with child in trailer down dual carriage way

[Dick Turpin]

It's a bit like suggesting that Britain is better at protecting against deadly spider bites than Australia.

[lostkiwi]

Dick Turpin said:

It's a bit like suggesting that Britain is better at protecting against deadly spider bites than Australia.

How do you figure that out? There are no deadly spiders in the UK but there are plenty of cyclists even if the average number of miles covered per UK cyclist is lower than than the European cyclists.

[Dick Turpin]

lostkiwi said:

Dick Turpin said:

It's a bit like suggesting that Britain is better at protecting against deadly spider bites than Australia.

How do you figure that out? There are no deadly spiders in the UK but there are plenty of cyclists even if the average number of miles covered per UK cyclist is lower than than the European cyclists.

OK, how about shark attacks?

The point is that in the link above, Norman Baker said that Britain was safer than the Netherlands, because the casualty rate was 0.84/100,000 pop. in NL, vs 0.71/100,000 pop. in the UK.

This is clearly drivel, as it takes no account as to how much cycling is done in each country.

Similarly, I'm sure more people are killed by snakes in Australia than the UK, but that doesn't mean that the UK has lessons it can give Australia in preventing snake bites!

[lostkiwi]

If you look at the rest of the articles they both go on to compare fatality rates per billion miles. The UK doesn't fare so well. The initial section of the first article is there to show how politicians have selectively used statistics to deny there is an issue and the article then goes on to look at the correct way to measure which is mileage based.

Interestingly in the Netherlands you have more chance of being murdered than being killed on a bike (apparently).

[jimreed]

Apparently you are almost five times more likely to be murdered in the U.K. than to be killed whilst cycling.

http://www.citizensreportuk.org/reports/murders-fa...

Statistics from this page for murders in 2014 = 537.

http://www.rospa.com/road-safety/advice/pedal-cycl...

Statistics from RoSPA for road cycling deaths in 2013 = 109.

The RoSPA figures apparently only include deaths on the road, total must be higher.
Interestingly the RoSPA article also says this:

"In collisions involving a bicycle and another vehicle, the most common key contributory factor recorded by the police is 'failed to look properly' by either the driver or rider, especially at junctions. 'Failed to look properly' was attributed to the car driver in 57% of serious collisions and to the cyclist in 43% of serious collisions at junctions.".

[anonymous-user]

Mr2Mike said:

yonex said:

And the last time you cycled in the Netherlands was?

And the relevance of that question is?

This will probably surprise you, but having experience of cycling in a particular country doesn't magically change the accident statistics.

Same old story, people like you commenting on things you know fk all about.