BIKE: bicycling safety

[Patrick Goetz]

Michael Bluejay wrote:
> 
> Mile for mile, the only honest way to compare the two transit modes, 
> cycling is more dangerous than driving.
> 

My comment was more of an aside than anything else, but now I'm curious 
-- does anyone have access to the per mile accident and fatality 
statistics for bicycling vs. driving?  Having fewer people biking can 
work both ways, since fewer bicyclists could mean that the majority of 
bicyclists are competent, while almost everyone from dunce to imbecile 
drives.

While on the subject of safety, a number of engineers and transportation 
consultants have recently suggested to me that the cost of accidents 
should absolutely be factored into the cost of a transportation system. 
  I recently sat next to a transportation consultant from Santa Monica, 
CA, who told me that a couple of years ago an 86-year old motorist 
plowed into their local farmer's market, killing 10 people.  His point 
was that -- had Santa Monica had some kind of comprehensive 
transportation network, this person might and should have been on the 
train or bus instead, and that the total final cost of just this one 
accident would have already paid for at least a couple of miles of 
monorail track.  One of the many drawbacks of our car based system is 
that it discriminates against the young and the old, consequently 
affecting everyone, from soccer moms who have to drive their kids every 
place until they turn 16 to accidents like the one outlined above. 
Quick stat:  The total cost of automobile accidents in the state of 
Texas is around 10 billion dollars per year every year.  Even using the 
highest estimated costs, this amount of money would pay for 6 complete 
monorail systems like the one proposed for Austin *every* *year*.   In 
the first year, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio, Austin, and El 
Paso could get one; by the 5th year we'd be running monorail out to 
Taylor for lack of any place left to build one.  Food for thought for 
the chronic LRT whiners who say "costs too much, does to little".