-You want data, you could always learn how to use google?
Author: BOB2
Date: 02-25-2015 - 00:40
Excellent bike and other traffic safety data is available from NHTSA.
In 2012 726 bicyclists were killed and 49,000 were injured per police reports (which are estimated to only account for about 10% of bicycle injuries reported to police). A peer reviewed paper by Pucher has estimated that bikes are about 11 times more dangerous on a per mile basis, than travel by auto. Bikes accounted for 2% of all road deaths, but only accounted for about 1% of all trips, so it is at least twice as dangerous on a per trip basis, as well. According to the 2012 NHTSA data 88 percent of dead cyclists were male, and 24% were legally drunk when they were killed.
I admit my earlier total was for both bike and pedestrian, and it appears that it may be safer to ride a bike than the estimated 36 times greater risk per mile from riding a motorcycle. And, per registered vehicle, motorcyclist's are also about 6 times more likely to die annually than motorists. So I admit bicycle may not be the most dangerous on a per mile basis.... that honor still appears to go to motorcycles.
Pedestrians also are at much more risk both on a per trip and per mile basis, accounting for 14% of all fatalities, but only about 10% of all trips, and by some estimates only about 1% plus of all "miles" travelled.
I have found no data source on bike accidents on dedicated bikeways or those in proximity to those evil railroads.
Railroad crossing accidents, by contrast, only killed 250 and injured around a 1000 in the most recent year I found (2011). Railroad trespassing accounts for about another 400+ deaths annually, and about a quarter of those are believed to be suicides.
Ian Savage at Northwestern has also done extensive work on various transportation risks, and in the 90's his data showed and average of 7 passenger fatalities per year on railroads. According to data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics the 11 years between 2000 and 2010 averaged 6.6 fatalities per year (which included Chatsworth and Glendale).
It's called traffic safety data, and you can actually look it up much of that data with that new fangled internet thing.......
So, of course, that Evil Thomas and the evil SMART bike trail must be stopped, right?