6 ms·

Statistically, it's the other way around.

by znull 7y ago

butteroverflow 7y ago
Greatly depends on the drivers around you. Here it'll definitely shorten your life expectancy if you're lucky, and will leave you with a nice whole-body paralysis, if you're not. You know how motorists sarcastically refer to cyclists over here? "Crunchies", or something like that.
- crispinb 7y ago
  Also depends on the type of infrastructure available. I lived in the city until about 5 years ago and cycled everywhere. Out in the bush where I am now, with only narrow windy unshouldered roads (& many stoned drivers), I'd be dead in a week.
- fsloth 7y ago
  I don't have to drive on the road. My work trip is 5 km and all the way is bike roads and pedestrian paths. One of the advantages of living in the nordics, I suppose. I don't even wear a helmet in the summer - I just pedal intentionally slow.
  - dorgo 7y ago
    > I just pedal intentionally slow Anecdote: I was with a group of tourists and we were about to rent bikes for a guided tour. We were offered helmets, but only some were taken. Before we even departed, a girl managed to fall of her bike and injur herself. A second offer to use helmets was met with much more acceptance.
    - fsloth 7y ago
      I cycle through the year. I put on my downhill skiing helmet at the first sign of autumns freeze. Statistically speaking, dutch don't wear helmets and they don't get much injuries. It's as much about how you cycle and what the routes are like than having or not having a helmet.
threeseed 7y ago
Statistically, it depends. In some cities it can be quite dangerous to ride around.
jcaprani 7y ago
Depends on the place. I happily biked for years in London (considered a dangerous cycling city). I gave up in fear of my life in Fiji (tiny and sparsely populated). I wouldn't even consider it in Dublin (which has a lot of cycle lanes).
- circlefavshape 7y ago
  FWIW I cycled for 10+ years in Dublin without incident
Aromasin 7y ago
Strongly disagree, depending how your commute is. In my office and on the factory floor we've had 3 major cycling accidents just in the last year - the latest guy was put into a coma for 2 weeks. I cycled for 6 months before I could afford a car, and counted 11 separate incidents that could have ended with me hospitalized if it weren't for some adrenalin fuelled swerves. Had one accident where someone failed to indicate left as I was crossing the road of a roundabout, and I ended up on her bonnet. No amount of apologies make up for a broken rib unfortunately. How that was my only "major" injury still baffles me. Had another where someone failed to check their mirrors as they randomly swerved out and forced me into oncoming traffic. Never tried to overtake from that point onwards. I had 4 instances where people tried to overtake me way too close and forced me to bail onto the pavement (not fun with clip-on pedals). As soon as that bank balance hit the magic number I went and invested in driving lessons, insurance and a car. Unless my future commutes have bike paths from beginning to end, there's no chance I will ever cycle to work again. It was the most miserable part of my day. I'll stick to my morning spin class and get to work early to avoid the traffic instead.
- lostlogin 7y ago
  Where in the world is this and how many people at your workplace cycle? That’s a very depressing story.
  - Aromasin 7y ago
    South of England. The town is also known as the worst place for cycle commutes outside London, which probably will single it out. We've probably got about 2k people across design, HR, head office and the factory floor, but of that I don't see more than maybe 50 people cycle, and of that only 20 or so regulars (mainly because it's just too dangerous). I bet you can imagine how fun that is with everyone trying to get out of work. The local council (local government in the UK) have had a massive drive to get new cycle lanes in place - problem is, they're also completely inept so have put them in places where nobody cycles anyway. I've been told they are where they are purely to fulfil a quota so they don't look so statistically bad when compared to other municipalities, which honestly wouldn't surprise me. They painted road markings for nigh-on 10km of unused road, whereas all of the roads leading to the major industrial and office estates where people travel to daily have been completely neglected. It's beyond infuriating.
rukuu001 7y ago
N00bs go through a period of being extremely prone to crashes. Folks need time (year or two) to swap their 'driving eyes' for their 'cycling eyes'.
C4stor 7y ago
Maybe because people actively avoid biking on dangerous roads ? It's easy to say that bike is safer than car when being safe is the number one concern for a vast majority of people cycling, while it's pretty obvious it isn't for automobilists. It's _because_ people like quickthrower2 don't go on dangerous roads that bike is safe.
clooless 7y ago
Depends where. Some routes in NYC are downright suicidal. I was knocked off my bike on one occasion in a roundabout. Injured my knee and swore off cycling to work. There are unfortunately plenty of jerks driving out there.
ryanmercer 7y ago
It's going to depend entirely on the city, and even the location of an office. For ANYONE to get to my office, at minimum you have to cross at least one highway, and likely travel down the narrow shoulder of it for several miles, to get to our building. For most you have to cross under interstate as well on said highway. There are virtually no bike lanes in Indy outside of a handful of neighborhoods. Never mind we had it rain nearly every day for like a month and that this week it's in the 90Fs with air quality alerts and 60%+ humidity every day and just walking to your car gets you sweating and NO ONE wants to smell you all day because you biked to work... and then come winter it'll get below 0F many days with varying amounts of snow and ice. I think we had -35F windchill this past winter on a day or two it was -12F.

Statistically, it's the other way around.

by znull 7y ago

Statistically, it's the other way around.

Greatly depends on the drivers around you. Here it'll definitely shorten your life expectancy if you're lucky, and will leave you with a nice whole-body paralysis, if you're not. You know how motorists sarcastically refer to cyclists over here? "Crunchies", or something like that.

crispinb 7y ago
Also depends on the type of infrastructure available. I lived in the city until about 5 years ago and cycled everywhere. Out in the bush where I am now, with only narrow windy unshouldered roads (& many stoned drivers), I'd be dead in a week.
fsloth 7y ago
I don't have to drive on the road. My work trip is 5 km and all the way is bike roads and pedestrian paths. One of the advantages of living in the nordics, I suppose. I don't even wear a helmet in the summer - I just pedal intentionally slow.
- dorgo 7y ago
  > I just pedal intentionally slow Anecdote: I was with a group of tourists and we were about to rent bikes for a guided tour. We were offered helmets, but only some were taken. Before we even departed, a girl managed to fall of her bike and injur herself. A second offer to use helmets was met with much more acceptance.
  - fsloth 7y ago
    I cycle through the year. I put on my downhill skiing helmet at the first sign of autumns freeze. Statistically speaking, dutch don't wear helmets and they don't get much injuries. It's as much about how you cycle and what the routes are like than having or not having a helmet.

threeseed 7y ago

Statistically, it depends. In some cities it can be quite dangerous to ride around.

jcaprani 7y ago

Depends on the place. I happily biked for years in London (considered a dangerous cycling city). I gave up in fear of my life in Fiji (tiny and sparsely populated). I wouldn't even consider it in Dublin (which has a lot of cycle lanes).

circlefavshape 7y ago
FWIW I cycled for 10+ years in Dublin without incident

Aromasin 7y ago

Strongly disagree, depending how your commute is. In my office and on the factory floor we've had 3 major cycling accidents just in the last year - the latest guy was put into a coma for 2 weeks. I cycled for 6 months before I could afford a car, and counted 11 separate incidents that could have ended with me hospitalized if it weren't for some adrenalin fuelled swerves. Had one accident where someone failed to indicate left as I was crossing the road of a roundabout, and I ended up on her bonnet. No amount of apologies make up for a broken rib unfortunately. How that was my only "major" injury still baffles me. Had another where someone failed to check their mirrors as they randomly swerved out and forced me into oncoming traffic. Never tried to overtake from that point onwards. I had 4 instances where people tried to overtake me way too close and forced me to bail onto the pavement (not fun with clip-on pedals). As soon as that bank balance hit the magic number I went and invested in driving lessons, insurance and a car. Unless my future commutes have bike paths from beginning to end, there's no chance I will ever cycle to work again. It was the most miserable part of my day. I'll stick to my morning spin class and get to work early to avoid the traffic instead.

lostlogin 7y ago
Where in the world is this and how many people at your workplace cycle? That’s a very depressing story.
- Aromasin 7y ago
  South of England. The town is also known as the worst place for cycle commutes outside London, which probably will single it out. We've probably got about 2k people across design, HR, head office and the factory floor, but of that I don't see more than maybe 50 people cycle, and of that only 20 or so regulars (mainly because it's just too dangerous). I bet you can imagine how fun that is with everyone trying to get out of work. The local council (local government in the UK) have had a massive drive to get new cycle lanes in place - problem is, they're also completely inept so have put them in places where nobody cycles anyway. I've been told they are where they are purely to fulfil a quota so they don't look so statistically bad when compared to other municipalities, which honestly wouldn't surprise me. They painted road markings for nigh-on 10km of unused road, whereas all of the roads leading to the major industrial and office estates where people travel to daily have been completely neglected. It's beyond infuriating.

rukuu001 7y ago

N00bs go through a period of being extremely prone to crashes. Folks need time (year or two) to swap their 'driving eyes' for their 'cycling eyes'.

C4stor 7y ago

Maybe because people actively avoid biking on dangerous roads ? It's easy to say that bike is safer than car when being safe is the number one concern for a vast majority of people cycling, while it's pretty obvious it isn't for automobilists. It's _because_ people like quickthrower2 don't go on dangerous roads that bike is safe.

clooless 7y ago

Depends where. Some routes in NYC are downright suicidal. I was knocked off my bike on one occasion in a roundabout. Injured my knee and swore off cycling to work. There are unfortunately plenty of jerks driving out there.

ryanmercer 7y ago

It's going to depend entirely on the city, and even the location of an office. For ANYONE to get to my office, at minimum you have to cross at least one highway, and likely travel down the narrow shoulder of it for several miles, to get to our building. For most you have to cross under interstate as well on said highway. There are virtually no bike lanes in Indy outside of a handful of neighborhoods. Never mind we had it rain nearly every day for like a month and that this week it's in the 90Fs with air quality alerts and 60%+ humidity every day and just walking to your car gets you sweating and NO ONE wants to smell you all day because you biked to work... and then come winter it'll get below 0F many days with varying amounts of snow and ice. I think we had -35F windchill this past winter on a day or two it was -12F.