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Re: Driving Pet Peeves



In article <DC0LIt.LD4@festival.ed.ac.uk>, cam@castle.ed.ac.uk (Chris
Malcolm) wrote:

> In article <royce-0707950729050001@qemac1.ug.eds.com> royce@ug.eds.com
(Royce Myers) writes:
> 
> >And Eddie, one last thing.  As a safety lecturer you should be able to
> >answer the following questions: 
> >- How many cyclists are struck from behind?  
> >- How many of these cyclists are riding side-by-side?  
> >- What percentage of overall injuries result from this kind of collision?  
> 
> >If you answer honestly, you'll realize that this is not a significant
> >problem compared to, say, cross traffic collisions, which can be reduced
> >in some situations by side-by-side riding.
> 
> Something wrong with the logic here. Statistics indicate that being
> hit by a car while riding on the wrong side of the road wearing a
> gorilla mask is a very rare kind of accident indeed. There is
> therefore no reason to advise someone to stop doing this?

The advice Eddie gave me, but which you chose to edit out, provided advice
which traded one set of risks for another.  The dangerss he suggested
avoiding are already very rare (which is why I asked him to quantify these
risks), so the result of following his advice could be a net increase in
overall risk.

It was comparable to telling cyclists that they are safer on the sidewalk.

-- 
Royce Myers          Royce@ug.eds.com