I just fell a few weeks ago. Some ripped jeans and road rash but I'm ok. No doctor visit required. Low-speed accidents are far less injurious than the sort of high-speed ones you can get into with automobiles, and by far less fatal.

According to WSDOT, there were 2 bicycle-related fatalities in Washington state in all of 2023, vs. 218 automobile-related fatalities. So a 100x difference. The data is there if you care to look for it.

If you care, you'd extrapolate the 2 fatalities to how many would be if bikes were adopted in mass as a means of transport in the Washington state (comparably to cars).

The number of bike trips will not increase by 100x only, certainly by orders of magnitude more than that.

Now multiply the 2 fatalities considering 10,000x or even more bike trips...

OK, let's take a look at traffic fatalities in Denmark (where bicycles are the primary means of transport in most cities). 25 bicycle fatalities, compared to 64 auto fatalities. It's a much closer margin, but bicycles still win out. The statistics are similar in The Netherlands, where bicycles are equally popular.

Sources:

https://www.dst.dk/en/Statistik/emner/transport/trafikulykke...

https://swov.nl/en/fact-sheet/road-deaths-netherlands

How many kilometers cycled and driven?

I find it very dubious to assume that cars drive the same amount of kilometers as bikes in the Netherlands...

You can measure mixed risk like this in hours exposed, since the outcome of a car and bike trip in Denmark is the same (you get to work or whatever). That will also be fairer to cars, since I suspect there are more deaths per KM for cars.

I ride my bike just shy of 40kms per commute, the same amount I would drive.

I have been in one commuting accident, plenty of non-commuting accidents though (mountain biking etc.), but you can also fall down stairs while walking or slip up in the rain. We can't be shrinkwrapped everywhere we go. I just picked up my bike, said bummer that hurt, and kept going.

Compare that painful inconvenience to a car accident and it's just silly to call an e-bike dangerous.

I have been in 4 car accidents, and am lucky to be here. You step out from a totalled car, and see the carnage, distress and mess that everyone is now subject to. Traffic has to be redirected, cops show up to take down details of those still alive, EMTs try to find the ways you've been contorted, firemen have to disable the vehicle and clear any fuel and fire risk, the tow trucks scrape the husks of twisted metal off the street so people can use the road again. It's a whole ordeal, and regularly fatal.

Although there are exceptions, usually bike accidents are only fatal when a car was involved. Cars are not safe and never have been, we just accept the risk for the convenience.