Your parents might say it's safer to walk than bike, but is it really? According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration there was a total of 4,654 pedestrian fatalities and 698 pedal cyclist fatalities in 2007. California has the highest rate of traffic fatalities out of all the states in the USA with 3,974 fatalities in 2007. 109 of these fatalities were bikers. That is about 16% of all the crashes in the USA! On the other hand on average every 111 minutes a pedestrian dies. $5,200,000,000 is spent on kids under 14 (worldwide). Which is safer? You be the judge.
Sources:
1. http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/809-456.PDF
2. http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:9AbdBTXYfJ0J:www.nhtsa.dot.gov/portal/nhtsa_static_file_downloader.jsp%3Ffile%3D/staticfiles/DOT/NHTSA/NCSA/Content/TSF/2007/810986.pdf+NHTA+bicycle+fatalities+in+2001&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a
3. http://www.walkinginfo.org/facts/facts.cfm
Posts
I'm shocked! The data is quite counter-intuitive. Why is this? Do pedestrians assume that they have the right of way and carelessly walk? Or do bikers ride their bikes carefully because they share the same road with cars that are coming from behind? Are bikes more visible than pedestrians due to bike’s size and extra gear the biker wears? Anyway, it opened my eyes. Let’s bike when we can. If we can’t bike and need to walk, let’s be extra cautious!
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