@VikingMariner 194258 wrote:
https://www.bicycling.com/culture/a29762318/why-more-cyclists-are-dying/
What a disturbing, depressing, fascinating article. Thanks for posting, VikingMariner. The author talks about the huge spike in fatality rates among bicycle riders over the past decade. He shows how the increase is in sync with the enormous increase in SUVs (far more lethal than sedans when hitting bicycle riders and pedestrians…victims go underneath rather than onto the hood); the use of smartphones (using apps, watching videos, and texting while driving), and the large increase in car trips (and resulting congestion and road rage). Based on the fatality statistics, he questions whether Sneed’s Law of bicyclist-safety-in-numbers may be outweighed and invalidated when you add SUVs, smartphones and road rage to the equation.
Before we lose all hope, here is last week’s delightful NYT piece about biking in Copenhagen, where 49 percent of trips to school or work are by bike.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/09/world/europe/biking-copenhagen.html
And here is an older piece on Denmark’s bicycle-powered hearse (referenced in the above NYT story):
https://www.pri.org/stories/2014-07-15/how-get-one-final-bicycle-powered-ride-copenhagen
.
