Monday 9 November 2009

Another flawed piece of analysis

Groups like the CTC are hopeful that the latest casualty figures will be just a blip. There is a well-accepted notion for cycling, known as safety in numbers, which decrees that in general, as the number of cyclists on the roads increases, each rider's chance of being hurt reduces. For example, the average cyclist in Denmark rides over 10 times further than his or her British peer every year but runs only 20% of the risk of being killed.

Danish cyclists are not safer because more Danes cycle than Brits. They are safer because their cycling environment is very much safer.