You are safer in a car, when you're around other cars, than on a bike. I don't I need to explain the physics of why this is obviously true. The problem here i

You are safer in a car, when you're around other cars, than on a bike. I don't I need to explain the physics of why this is obviously true. The problem here is that there are cars around you when you're biking. If you didn't have to ride alongside cars, then cycling would be far safer, and your main worry would be things like gravel, snow, rain (anything that makes the road surface slippery), and probably pedestrians. There's a reason that places that put bike lanes next to car traffic, with no barrier, don't get much increase in cycling, and why places with physically divided biking lanes have far lower cyclist deaths and injuries. Cars are just too dangerous to be allowed around bikes. The fundamental problem here is the existence of cars, and the sheer dominance of cars as a transport method. It makes it almost impossible for anything else to be a viable alternative, for many different reasons including safety and sprawl (cycling isn't all that feasible if you have to ride 30 miles each way because the "city" is so sprawling).