Danger perspective: is driving a car safer than cycling?

Many people claim the world would be a safer place if motorists swapped their cars for bicycles. However, research shows that might not be the case, and so this article will set the record straight. There is no getting away from the fact that there are many fatal collisions on the roads today. Would the number of people who die each year decrease if 50% of road users chose to cycle instead? Do we need to devolve the transportation industry to save lives and keep everyone safe? The information below should help readers to come to a conclusion.

Fewer people die when using bicycles compared to cars

The main argument people make is that there are fewer deaths every year associated with bikes than cars. However, they fail to take the number of road users into consideration. Research indicates that cyclists have a much higher chance of being involved in a fatal collision. The numbers are only small because there are fewer bike users on the road today. As a percentage, the figures are much higher. So, that myth is busted. As a percentage, people are far more likely to die on a bicycle than they are in a modern automobile. That is the case, even with the latest safety gadgets and protective clothing.

Bicycles don’t move as fast, and so they’re safer

Now we come to another misconception. Lots of folks believe that bikes are safer because they won’t travel at anywhere near the speed of a car. Wrong again! Speed has little to do with fatalities in this instance. Bicycles are much more dangerous because they don’t provide any protection for the rider. Someone might survive a car crash at thirty miles per hour because the cabin helped to cushion the impact. Bikers could die from an accident that happens at ten miles per hour because they have no protection. So, it’s vital that people don’t make presumptions about safety.

Cars are heavier, and so they’re more dangerous

The weight of the vehicle is used as an argument to highlight the dangers of automobiles. Even so, it’s not necessarily a bad thing. As mentioned in the previous section, cars provide a lot of protection for passengers. They are designed to crumple and distribute impacts around the entire vehicle. The same isn’t true for bikes. Their weight is often a negative point because they have no staying power. A bicycle will take the full impact of any collision, and that’s why so many riders lose their lives. Readers who want to know more about the dangers can learn from Page Law and other legal specialists. Believe it or not, the number of cyclist fatalities on US roads has increased during the last few years.

To answer the question posed in the title of this post, yes, cars are much safer than bicycles. So, the next time someone uses those arguments, drivers shouldn’t have too much trouble shooting them down. At the end of the day, everyone wants to avoid injury while getting from A to B. However; it’s still important to consider the facts and refrain from listening to scaremongering. Cars are much safer than most people realise.

** This is a collaborative post