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Do you drive a car? I am asking because statistically speaking, it's the number one killer of people from age 21-65. Very few drivers go their whole life withou

Do you drive a car? I am asking because statistically speaking, it's the number one killer of people from age 21-65. Very few drivers go their whole life without getting in an accident. Statistically, on any given day, the odds of being in an accident are quite low. However, if you drive for 30-60 minutes every day, you are exposing yourself to a low amount of risk consistently over time, which inevitably means that one day, your number will come up. Most people don't have a background in probability or they haven't taken the time to look at driving, but for those who consider themselves normally "rational", they're often very surprised to see just how dangerous driving a car really is, but they just weren't aware of the amount of risk. Analyzing the risk of driving every day is an exercise worth doing. That being said, I have a fairly high level of risk tolerance, so I drive to work every day because I live just a little too far to reasonably walk, and riding a bike would be a higher risk than driving because of lack of adequate road shoulders for much of the route between my workplace and home.

kqr 4y ago
> riding a bike would be a higher risk than driving because of lack of adequate road shoulders for much of the route between my workplace and home. Is this an empirical statement or based on the same gut feeling that makes people feel safe in a car? I'm asking because when you actually run the numbers, in most cases I've been involved in, you get to be very surprised to see just how safe cycling really is. I don't know what the culture and road type is around your neck of the woods, but I would prefer a road without a proper shoulder most of the time -- simply because the existence of the shoulder provides very little actual safety, but it does give a sense of safety that makes drivers behave more dangerously near cyclists. Not to mention lower quality road surface, collected debris, etc.

kqr 4y ago

> riding a bike would be a higher risk than driving because of lack of adequate road shoulders for much of the route between my workplace and home. Is this an empirical statement or based on the same gut feeling that makes people feel safe in a car? I'm asking because when you actually run the numbers, in most cases I've been involved in, you get to be very surprised to see just how safe cycling really is. I don't know what the culture and road type is around your neck of the woods, but I would prefer a road without a proper shoulder most of the time -- simply because the existence of the shoulder provides very little actual safety, but it does give a sense of safety that makes drivers behave more dangerously near cyclists. Not to mention lower quality road surface, collected debris, etc.