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Well, for those worried about how we are going to fund the pensions and pay social security to the aging boomers, the bicycle may provide the answer. The stat below is for New York City, but the report it is from on bicycle safety, death and injury is said to pretty much mirror the national average
Most bicyclists who died were male (91%), and men aged 45–54 had the highest death rate (8.3 per million) per
age group.
By the way, the next highest percent of death as percent of total is children.
We recently lost 2 more small children in Hardin County when they were struck riding on one bike with an older sister in a driving rain. The scene was about as gruesome as they come, and now a young mother who did noting wrong except not be able to see the bike in the driving rain will have to live with it the rest of her life....{of course, in a perfect world, no one ever rides in driving rain and bitter cold do they? Well, except for a young woman I work with who cannot afford a car. I have seen her wet and cold to a level that would be considered inhumane punishment if it were inflicted on her by another human, from having to ride about 7 miles to work in rain and sleet (that's gotta' be safe, right?
As folks who read my posts know, I try to be open minded....but allow me one brief rant: I am so sick of this idiotic bicyle fantasy I could barf. If you like them, they are fun (I have always loved riding for recreation), but as useful transportation they are almost entirely useless for anyone except the granola bar set who can pick and choose when and where they work, and whether or not they want to go to work that day or not. This is NOT the world that most of us live in.
RC
Remember, we are only one cubic mile from freedom
The irony of your tag line, in total contradiction with your post, is priceless.
I don't like bicycle accidents any more than you do. Don't like the much more frequent motorcycle accidents much either. I'd be willing to bet that, unlike motorcyclists, cyclists prolong their life more than they shorten it, i.e. the health benefits of cycling vs. no exercise greatly outweigh the accident risk.
I don't like getting wet, but I'm prepared to wear a raincoat when the weather demands it. People are so soft! The slightest discomfort becomes a show-stopper. The future demands greater efforts.
Hi Thatsit,
I agree with your comment:
but I wouldn't mind living in this guy's world:
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/
To paraphrase'
Remember freedom is only one mental quirk away.
No doubt, it is very dangerous to ride a bike in most locales. My experience, however, in Germany, and in Boulder, Colorado is that it is easy to get around safely if cities have taken the steps to provide bicycle lanes separate from the roadway.
For that matter, automobiles aren't all that safe either based on national highway traffic fatality data.
Whether or not bicycles are useless depends on where you live.
Ultimately, we need to largely eliminate the auto from cities. Yes, that is a fantasy, but the health and well being of everyone would be much improved if this action were taken.
If you are a Male, aged 45-54, and if you can't see your toes when you are standing up straight, then you are staring straight down at your greatest risk factor; your metabolically-active internal abdominal fat! Also known as paunch, gut, barriga...
"Got Diabetes?" "Got Stroke?" "Got Infarction?"
And yet, bicycling to work usually takes care of that quite nicely and painlessly. Over a period of time, you automatically get trim.
About 700 people a year die in cycling accidents. Subtract children, drunks, incompetents, people riding illegally or recklessly, and the absolute number of accidents for good adult riders is small... a hundred or two hundred for the whole USA?
700 people die in household falls each year, are we going to ban gravity?
And you get chronic disease reduction for free. And it costs about $0.05 cents per mile, worst-case.
I've ridden 75 miles per week to and from work for years, and I live in bike-unfriendly Houston.
Dismissing bicycle useage out-of-hand is just irrational.
Sincerely,
Peter Wang
Texas Registered Professional Geophysicist
That's exactly right and completely wrong RC.
What you've got right is that we don't live in bike friendly world.... although Portland Oregon isn't bad.
But just about everything else is completely wrong.
Slow movement requires changing everything.... including the relationship between where you work and where you live. Part of why the world isn't friendly to bikes is because of where you chose to live, in relationship to where you chose to work.... and part of that problem is that you may not have a good choice to live and work in the same area.
Don't know details about the accident but sounds like the killer was driving outside of the appropriate speed visibility envelope to me.... I almost never let my children ride in the street. As others have said, balance the risks of biking with the health benefits and who will say you don't come out ahead... and frankly it's so much fun that I'm not that concerned if I knock a few statistical days off my estimated lifespan anyway. If I stay inside the house wrapped in foam rubber, I could avoid all sorts of risks, but that wouldn't be much of a life would it?
My sympathies to your cold coworker... perhaps you haven't heard the saying "There is no such thing as bad biking weather, just bad biking clothing..." All weather gear costs money... but it still costs a lot less than a car.
We don't live in a world that makes it easy to bike... but we can make choices that make it possible to do so.
High energy prices will encourage people in that direction, but the built infrastructure and patterns of work/residence distance will cause many to resist.
First, thanks everyone for the replies to, as I said in the post, what was admittedly a bit of a rant..., and some good information, I saved one excellent link on bicycles, the Sheldon Brown one recommended
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/
...as I said, I like bicycles...But, unless we do somehow ban all automobile traffic or create a new infrastructure, I see them as marginal contributors to transportation, except in exceptional circumstances, but the contribution may be increased IF that is what they we strive for, as opposed to simply recreational/health riding. I noticed many took up the"health" aspect of bicycling, which of course is true, but on the other hand can also be achieved by various other forms of exercise, many of which are much safer.
Very quickly, let me show you what does interest me, but I don't know if it has a future in the U.S......
http://www.velomobiles.net/
http://www.velomobiles.net/
Obtaining a velomobile tab has some very interesting designs.
http://www.twike.ca/
http://www.aerorider.com/
http://www.wisil.recumbents.com/wisil/wianecki/leaning_trike.htm
http://www.hypertrike.org/
I think that peddle power or assisted peddle power has a possibility with
(a) Weather protection (b) recmbent design allowing for a more comfortable and aerodynamic seathing position (c) bodywork that gives the vehicle visible presence and some measure of slight protection in event of crash and (d) some provision for possible electric motor assist for those who are unable to navigate steep hills or become tired far from destination....(purely optional, and able to attached or removed easily)
Velomobiles....will the old fashioned upright bicycle crowd accept them?
They haven't yet, but they actually could be useful....
RC
Remember, we are only cubic mile from freedom
I'm not sure who you think the enemy is. Where is this "old fashioned upright bicycle crowd"?!
My town is full of people riding uprights, recumbents, electric assisted bikes, and more.
Some people even ride things like this:
http://www.portlandground.com/archives/2005/12/head_out_on_the_1.php
or like this:
http://www.portlandground.com/archives/2006/07/family_gets_ready_for_sun...
It's all good.
RC, you write as if people are going to have very much of a choice when the Peak is upon us. Gasoline at US$7 ? US$ 10 ? US$15 ? per gallon.
Many (like me) living in areas with little or no public transit, and those transit agencies will be cutting back routes due to inability to pay for diesel.
Severe economic contraction; people losing jobs; families going from two breadwinner to one in many cases, or going through periods of unemployment or underemployment. Kind of hard to make those $500 per month car payments. Family will have to ditch 1 of 2 cars maybe, or if the only car dies, to make do without a car.
People have negative savings rate already, and are overloaded in debt, and these are the good times! What's going to happen when oil is US$120 per barrel?
Safer forms of exercise? You mean a gym? Half of those are going to close, due to declining membership during the inevitable recession. People won't be able to pay. Running or walking? My observation is that being a runner or pedestrian in this town is as dangerous as being a cyclist. No uplift there. And people working long hours to make ends meet don't have extra time to run. But bicycling to work is multitasking: exercise + transport.
I would say increased bicycle useage is almost inevitable. It just depends on how high and swiftly the price of oil increases when peak hits.
I like the idea of velocars generally, but in my climate it won't work (too hot here).
When 2% - 5% of all vehicles on the road is a bicycle, out of necessity, you will see much more motorist awareness of bikes, and cyclist injuries will go down, especially as the populace re-learns how to bicycle (which it does not any longer; that knowledge has been lost). Lights, helmets, mirrors, bright reflective clothing, obeying traffic laws, better traffic tactics, these will go a long way to making bicycling an effective transportation mode once again, as it was 100 years ago, before we went to mono-mode transport (cars).
Plus, at US$120 per barrel for oil, there will be less and slower car traffic competing for road space.
Sincerely,
Peter Wang
I suppose increased bicycle utilization isn't inevitable, because sitting at home stranded is also an alternative. Some people may choose to drop out of circulation if they can't gas up their chariot. People do strange things; we have decades of reliance on internal combustion vehicles under our belts, and layers of learned helplessness and disconnection with our physical bodies. There's no telling what people will do or not do when a crisis hits. Especially if their health isn't good.
I just increased my bicycle utilization yesterday, probably by 100% over last week.
I really felt it today, but I'm hoping to do it again tomorrow.