In a typical year, car drivers cause the deaths of about 32,000 Americans. I can’t find statistics on how many deaths are caused by cyclists, but I know it’s very low. Maybe just a handful nationwide each year, if that. I saw a report from New York State about traffic deaths. Over a 4-year period, cyclists caused fewer than 1 death a year. Given that NYS is a very populous state and that it contains both densely-populated urban areas as well as rural areas, I think it’s reasonable to extrapolate those statistics to the U.S. as a whole.
Cyclists cause so few deaths that bike haters can probably name each single incident (such as “the one in San Francisco!”). Any death is a tragedy, but can anyone actually recite all the driver-caused deaths from last year? No, because there are too many of them. I remember how incensed many commenters were (over on ARLnow) when a cyclist inadvertently killed an older woman last year in Arlington. Cries of “scofflaw cyclists” and “Lycra-clad Lance wannabes” abounded, until it was revealed that the cyclist was himself elderly and lost control on a downhill section of the trail. But later on, after it was pointed out that car drivers kill 30,000-32,000 Americans a year, the “off-with-their-heads” crew quieted down about cyclists somehow being the ultimate menace on American roads and trails. Hopefully at least a few bike haters now understand how irrational their views are about cyclists. Cyclists are far from perfect, but they certainly aren’t the biggest threat on local and national roads.
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