Whenever media, politicians, people or even the police complain about dangerous cyclists, with their reckless driving, without a helmet, without a light, please remember it is a distraction. They don’t want you to know the truth, because they love their cars more than the neighbors children.

I kindly ask you to remind them of this table whenever the topic comes up. For example: ‘yes, cyclists should have a light to reduce danger, but remember that the car is the bigger danger by far. Always. And whenever we ignore that, we accept the loss of lives.’ This is not whataboutism, because regarding safety, the numbers clearly show which culprit to urgently address first.

Even if the car was more dangerous in the past and safety regulations have helped: these numbers are from 2022. If you feel safer driving in a car, instead of walking or cycling: look for the deaths for car-on-car collisions.

There is no way around this: if we have that many cars driving fast, we will have that many deaths.

Thank you!

Sources:

similar matrix but for cities only

entire study

[academic] [image]

  • Knot@lemmy.zipEnglish
    71·
    5 hours ago

    I’m not an enemy of the cause, but this graphic is not very convincing. These are absolute numbers, not adjusted for the fact there are significantly more cars around than bikes.

      • klay1@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
        3·
        4 hours ago

        But then obviously pedestrians or cyclists don’t compare in distance by far. Cars drive autobahns and whatnot. There should be a statistic for daily use instead. Like: ride the bike to work versus drive the car to work versus take the train to work, etc. How many people die?

    • klay1@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      5·
      5 hours ago

      there are significantly more cars around than bikes.

      I see what you mean and agree, that relative numbers would be nice. But what would the counter argument be? That if there were more bikes, then bike-related deaths would rise more than car-related deaths would shrink? It would be hard to prove that.

      Also, the matrix for cities still shows cars as a much bigger problem, while European cities have plenty of cyclists. Again, relative numbers would be nice. Or a comparison between a dutch city and a polish city, for example. But if i compare both tables (overall vs cities), i am certain the argument holds.