As for seriously, have you ever seen a bike accident?
One such woman walking down Locust Walk (University of PA) suffered severe brain damage and no longer can move all of her limbs. I can't tell you how many times I was nearly clipped by bikes speeding past me (at car speeds) and missed me by a few inches. Luckily the campus police started to prevent bicyclists from using Locust Walk.
but its a stupid argument anyways. we aren't comparing cars to bikes in this conversation. Many people can't use bikes. I'm sure in your bigoted mind (everyone should do as I see fit) that you didn't consider disabled persons, elderly, or even people with say - broken legs, but needless to say bikes are not for everyone. Thats not even taking into account bikes cant satisfy the vast majority of traveling needs of Americans. We aren't Europe. Our cities are bigger and things are further apart. Nor is bikes the one size fits all solution in the EU.
If you observe the rush hour traffic for an hour, how many of those people have broken legs, severe disabilities or a debilitating case of elderly? The majority of people are not disabled, and the fact some people might need cars is no excuse for everyone driving a massive SUV
And yet I'll bet the average number of morning commuters in each vehicle is ~1.
- I know that most people I'm aware of all drive their car by themselves to their work, there was very little carpooling.
how many of those are suvs? and then we go bk to use case. there is a reason soccer moms exist. u focus on work commute and likely on metro areas only but fail to account for other activity types
[1] https://css.umich.edu/publications/factsheets/mobility/perso... [2] https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/indicators/occupancy...
[1] https://www.energy.gov/eere/vehicles/articles/fotw-1040-july...
And yes, I've seen accidents with bikes hitting pedestrians. Most of the time the people ended up fine with minor bruises and sometimes small cuts.
I've seen pedestrians hit by SUVs. Its been rare to see people walk away from that.
I've lost several friends and family members to car accidents.
Once again, if I'm going to be in an accident I'd probably take an accident between two bicycles at 12mph than two SUVs at 40mph.
These facts don't disprove the idea that one would 'rather' get hit by a bike vs a vehicle, but the fact that you keep saying that nonsense doesn't help your argument.
> I've lost several friends and family members to car accidents.
I'm not surprised, 76% of Americans require a car to get to work. that's a lot of car trips.
If you don't like cars, don't drive one. I don't. But stop pushing your views onto others.
I drive cars a lot. The way things are around me, I pretty much need to. I don't personally really dislike cars, I actually really like cars and enjoy driving them and riding my motorcycles. I just can't understand people arguing like bicycle accidents are practically as bad as car accidents or that having people trade their cars for bikes will make people overall less safe.
Your number of SUVs only being 8% of the market is way wrong. Try 80% in the US. It's been around 50% or so for years. The vast majority of cars around me are trucks and SUVs. The one that killed a cyclist near my kid's daycare recently was going over 50mph on a 40mph road. I'd like to see some actual statistics about "most pedestrians are hit by cars going under 40mph" statistic. It would surprise me either way.
EDIT: Some data about speeds here, and yeah under 40mph to pedestrians is definitely the majority.
https://one.nhtsa.gov/people/injury/research/pub/hs809012.ht...
https://jalopnik.com/trucks-and-suvs-are-now-over-80-percent...
If fewer people drove cars, our roads will be safer and we would have less traffic fatalities. Do you disagree?