Dear m_srikanth-ga,
Bicycling is more dangerous then transportation in a vehicle.
Worldwide statistics prove this statement:
Britain's Transport and Road Research Laboratory (TRRL) estimates that
300,000 persons die and 10 million to 15 million persons are injured
each year in road crashes around the world (TRRL 1991).
In 1997, 814 bicyclists were killed and 58,000 were injured in traffic
crashes (USDOT NHTSA 1999).
Source:
INTERNATIONAL TRENDS IN ROAD SAFETY
http://www.bts.gov/transtu/tsar/tsar1999/chap4.htm#Anchor-INTERNATIONAL-11481
In the United States, I found the following statistics:
Bicycling has 0.26 fatalities per million hours - pretty low compared
to other activities which are normally considered safe, including
passenger cars at 0.47 and swimming at 1.07. A complete list can be
found at the Ontario Coalition for Better Cycling web site.
Why I Bike to Work and Why it's Safe
http://briandesousa.com/bicycling/commuting/ride2work.htm
I also found the following data for bicycle safety:
There are 85 million bicycle riders in the US
About 800 bicyclists die in the US every year
About 550,000 bicyclists visit emergency rooms with injuries ever year
Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute
http://www.helmets.org/stats.htm
TOTAL BICYCLE DEATHS
Year Male Female Total
1975 820 183 1,003
1976 751 163 914
1977 730 192 922
1978 714 178 892
1979 759 173 932
1980 782 183 965
1981 748 181 936
1982 720 144 864
1983 700 130 830
1984 684 153 838
1985 732 137 869
1986 789 140 929
1987 826 114 940
1988 773 128 901
1989 696 126 822
1990 732 121 853
1991 715 121 836
1992 627 90 717
1993 702 104 806
1994 687 109 796
1995 699 128 828
1996 654 107 761
1997 712 99 811
1998 658 99 757
1999 656 94 750
2000 605 76 687
We can compare this U. S. data to the vehicle statistics:
There were an estimated 6,356,000 car accidents in the US in 2000.
There were about 3.2 million injuries and 41,821 people were killed in
auto accidents in 2000 based on data collected by the Federal Highway
Administration.
Car Accidents
http://www.car-accidents.com/pages/stats.html
I also found the following information on Europe:
In 1995, according to the WHO statistics, there were two million
traffic accidents resulting in 120,000 deaths and 2.5 million injured
people in the whole European region. . . bicycling deaths reached
fewer percentages.
Statistics
http://www.who.int/inf-pr-1998/en/pr98-57.html
Search terms used:
biking fatalities
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF8&q=biking+fatalities&btnG=Google+Search
Car Accidents
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF8&q=+car+accidents&btnG=Google+Search
I have no time to continue my search at present. Please contact me if
you are not pleased with these statistics. Thank you for the question.
ukiguy |
