Safe Speed Forums

A study just published from University College London purports to show that young men are five times safer cycling than driving cars. The study is published in the journal PLoS One.

However, the metric which they use is accident rate per the amount of time spent using a particular mode of transport. IMO this is a very peculiar measure and may even have been chosen to force a particular outcome.

Do many people go out for a time limited ride in the car or on their bike? Most journeys have the purpose of reaching some geographical objective rather than time expended. If people have, for example, to get 10 miles to work then the risk of doing this by different modes of transport would be a valid comparison.

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Malcolm W.
The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not represent the views of Safespeed.

Agreed, given that the purpose of transport is to get from A to B it's an abuse of statistics.

Sitting in your armchair watching the telly is probably even safer

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"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed

Link to paper:

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Ad ... ne.0050606

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Malcolm W.
The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not represent the views of Safespeed.

Yes, I've always felt that "per passenger journey" is a much more reasonable metric. Clearly "per passenger mile" is going to be skewed (unless you're Bradley Wiggins!) in the same way that planes look fantastically safe because nobody gets in a plane to make their weekly trip to the supermarket - they're all long distances compared to car journeys.

For YOUNG FOLKS. YES. But for us older ones, there's stiffing of the limbs, hip problems etc.

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lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on