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Abu Dhabi Traffic Accidents Dropped 40% During the BlackBerry Outage

theatlanticwire.com

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Re: Abu Dhabi Traffic Accidents Dropped 40% During the BlackBerry Outage

#21

Post by brador »

mootothemax wrote: post #19
brador wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aside...but, why do you ride a bike on road? Yes, there are health benifits from the exercise and joy of riding a bike, but the negatives are pollution/lung issues and reasonably high likelihood of injury or death compared to other forms of transport. As the risk of injury/death rises along with driver carelessness, is there a point at which you would reduce or stop your on road bike usage?

Yes, there are health benifits from the exercise and joy of riding a bike, but the negatives are pollution/lung issues and reasonably high likelihood of injury or death compared to other forms of transport. Do you have anything to back that statement up with? Sounds like FUD to me.

Which part? seems commonsense that bike riding would be more dangerous than car driving...not everything needs a dataset when simple physics would suffice.

Re: Abu Dhabi Traffic Accidents Dropped 40% During the BlackBerry Outage

#22

Post by fhmalik »

brador wrote: post #18
dangrossman wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would be the value of his life if the expected chance of death while biking were 100%.

Over a lifetime, I'd say it gets pretty close.

Having lived in London, I would agree with you. Almost every week I witnessed at least one bike accident, most of the people were hit by double decker buses. Though I should add that London is one of those places that really should have bike lanes but doesn't.

Re: Abu Dhabi Traffic Accidents Dropped 40% During the BlackBerry Outage

#23

Post by xradionut »

This weekend I narrowly avoided accidents on multiple occasions with drivers that were more than deeply occupied in their smartphones. One driver blocked a major intersection against the light while another destroyed several cones in a road construction zone. Maybe the problem was worse than normal due to the release of a new popular model?

Re: Abu Dhabi Traffic Accidents Dropped 40% During the BlackBerry Outage

#25

Post by brador »

CJefferson wrote: post #20
brador wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Over a lifetime, I'd say it gets pretty close.

You think that most people who bike all their lives, end up getting killed that way? When I was a student there were over 100 cycles in common use, and in the 4 years I was there there was only one broken leg from a cycle accident. While that is a tiny sample, that certainly looks like a lot lower than you predict.

Relative to other forms of transport, yes.

People coming from, say, the netherlands just don't realise how dangerous it is to ride bikes on roads in non-biking countries (uk, us, etc.). Car drivers just don't bother looking or just don't care. "King of the road" mentality.

Re: Abu Dhabi Traffic Accidents Dropped 40% During the BlackBerry Outage

#26

Post by mootothemax »

brador wrote: post #21
mootothemax wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, there are health benifits from the exercise and joy of riding a bike, but the negatives are pollution/lung issues and reasonably high likelihood of injury or death compared to other forms of transport. Do you have anything to back that statement up with? Sounds like FUD to me.

Which part? seems commonsense that bike riding would be more dangerous than car driving...not everything needs a dataset when simple physics would suffice.

Which part? seems commonsense that bike riding would be more dangerous than car driving...not everything needs a dataset when simple physics would suffice.

This part: the negatives are pollution/lung issues

This part: reasonably high likelihood of injury or death

And this part: compared to other forms of transport

From your latest comment, this part: seems commonsense that bike riding would be more dangerous than car driving

And this part: simple physics

And also in the context of: not everything needs a dataset when simple physics would suffice

That would cover it for now.

Re: Abu Dhabi Traffic Accidents Dropped 40% During the BlackBerry Outage

#27

Post by fgm2r »

brador wrote: post #21
mootothemax wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, there are health benifits from the exercise and joy of riding a bike, but the negatives are pollution/lung issues and reasonably high likelihood of injury or death compared to other forms of transport. Do you have anything to back that statement up with? Sounds like FUD to me.

Which part? seems commonsense that bike riding would be more dangerous than car driving...not everything needs a dataset when simple physics would suffice.

For example "pollution/lung issues". After reading http://bicycles.stackexchange.com/questions/2170/is-pollutio... I didn't think that it would be problematic.

Re: Abu Dhabi Traffic Accidents Dropped 40% During the BlackBerry Outage

#28

Post by matwood »

mootothemax wrote: post #26
brador wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which part? seems commonsense that bike riding would be more dangerous than car driving...not everything needs a dataset when simple physics would suffice.

Which part? seems commonsense that bike riding would be more dangerous than car driving...not everything needs a dataset when simple physics would suffice. This part: the negatives are pollution/lung issues This part: reasonably high likelihood of injury or death And this part: compared to other forms of transport From your latest comment, this part: seems commonsense that bike riding would be more dangerous than car…

Most of the answers boil down to depends where you live. When I lived in Denver there were tons of bike only trails, the air was usually great, and lots of people biked. Biking there was a way of life for many people.

Where I live now, the air is great, but there are few if any bike lanes. Yet, I still see cyclists going down 2 lane roads with traffic going by them at 50MPH. An accident is bound to happen, and over the summer a cyclist was hit on one of the bridges. He flew off the bridge, and fell to his death. It is common sense that cycling on busy roads is more dangerous than driving a car on the same road.

Re: Abu Dhabi Traffic Accidents Dropped 40% During the BlackBerry Outage

#29

Post by brador »

fgm2r wrote: post #27
brador wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which part? seems commonsense that bike riding would be more dangerous than car driving...not everything needs a dataset when simple physics would suffice.

For example "pollution/lung issues". After reading http://bicycles.stackexchange.com/questions/2170/is-pollutio... I didn't think that it would be problematic.

The cited doc doesn't take into account the deep breathing that bicyclists do, leading the pollutants deeper into the lungs. So yes, there may be more in the car, but I'd argue it's doing far more damage to the cyclist. The regular coughing fits many suffer (Similar to smokers) attest to that.

Re: Abu Dhabi Traffic Accidents Dropped 40% During the BlackBerry Outage

#30

Post by ChrisLTD »

Over the past couple of years I've noticed that when I pass someone driving erratically or abnormally slow, they are more often than not futzing with their phone (texting or talking). This is the kind of driving that ten years ago I would have attributed to drunkenness.

It's a serious factor in my desire to move somewhere where I don't need a car to get around.

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