Comment 26355

By Frank (registered) | Posted August 13, 2008 at 08:32:35

Finally finished reading all those fun comments. Of all of them, I agree with Jason's the most - all 3 modes of transportation don't follow rules occasionally. However, I take issue with statements about cycling having less potential to cause damage. Sure, if I get hit by a bike, it will most like cause less damage however, pure laws of physics mean that if an area half the size of a car bumper or less impacts me at half the speed it can cause the same amount of damage because the force is distributed over a smaller area. Having said this, because it's half the size it's also half as likely to hit me. Now, statements about the number of car accidents versus cycle accidents are erroneous based on this: there are many more vehicle kms driven per day than cyclist kms. What I mean is that if you add up all the kms that every car in the city drives through this city on a roadway, it will FAR exceed that of cyclists kms on the roadway. I'm pretty sure that's not something anyone can argue. It's because of this that there are "more" accidents related to cars than cyclists however, it's quite possible that if cyclist kms driven were taken into account this number would be nearly equal.

Having said that, I'm a proponent of neither...I'd rather say home. Unfortunately I can't. I'm also unwilling to cycle to work after nearly getting taken out by a snack truck on Barton and the bus doesn't have a bus stopping anywhere near here at the time I start work not to mention that it's only sporadic service....so I have to drive to work. Aside from that, I run my own renovation business and there's something about pulling my mitre saw behind my bike that makes it seem unattractive ;) WHy can't everyone learn to obey the rules of the road and why can't city planners build with a perspective looking forward with considerations made to accomodate greener modes of transport?

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