Subject: safety in cars, speed limits, and motorcycles

From: [email-masked] (Jon Simon)
Date: Sun, 16 Apr 1995 09:44:14 GMT

The problem with speeding is not that there are more accidents, there
may actually be less, however, the higher the speed, the more likely
there will be a death if there is an accident.

With motorcycles, though there is less chance of getting in an accident
(there are less accidents/cycle vs accidents/car), accidents are much
much more severe.

So what it comes down to is are you willing to have more severe crashes
though less of them in order to gain other things?  Personally, i am.
I view it like this.  Call me a fatalist (which i am) but i feel we're
all going to get it someday, sooner or later, we might as well not
inconvenince ourselves too much in order to keep out time back.  I mean,
seatbelts are a no-problem thing, and they do save lives, however,
getting to your destination an hour earlier is a major inconvenience
that i'd take the extra risk to get.  That doesn't mean i'm suicidal, i
wouldn't do 200 on the freeway, even if i had a car that could do it,
but you know what i mean.  Motorcycles also have similar advantages.
You can ride between lanes in traffic.  That can make an hour trip take
10 minutes (california traffic).

Guess its all up to your philosophy.

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From: [email-masked] (Joel Upchurch)
Date: 20 Apr 1995 20:14:08 GMT

> (there are less accidents/cycle vs accidents/car), accidents are much

I don't think this is quite correct. When you compare the accident rates
on a vehicle mile basis, motorcycle have several times as many accidents
as automobiles. Here are some stats I computed a few years ago.

Cycle		83	84	85	86	87	Average
Veh Miles 10^6	8760	8784	9086	9397	9855	
Fatalities	4045	4378	4342	4209	3781	
Per 10^8 Miles	46.18	49.84	47.79	44.79	38.37	45.39
Total Accidents	530,000	570,000	480,000	440,000	380,000	
acc/fatal	131.03	130.20	110.55	104.54	100.50	115
miles/acc	16,528	15,411	18,929	21,357	25,934	19632
						
Mot Veh Ac 10^6 18.3	18.8	19.3	17.7	20.8	
Veh Miles 10^6	1.65E+6	1.72E+6	1.77E+6	1.84E+6	1.92E+06	
miles/acc	90,328	91,489	91,917	103,842	92,500	94015
Fatal Acc	37,976	39,631	39,168	41,062	41,434	
acc/fatal	481.88	474.38	492.75	431.06	502.00	476
Per 10^8 Miles	2.30	2.30	2.21	2.23	2.15	2.24
							20.27

Now this table is a bit obscure, but you can see that automobiles
were driven about 94k miles per accident and motorcycles about 19.	
The fatality rate per mile driven was 20 times higher for 
motorcycles (45per 10^8 miles versus 2.24 for cars).

This doesn't necessarily contradict what Mr. Simon was saying, since
motorcycles tend to driven a lot less miles per years on the average.
--
Joel Upchurch @ Upchurch Computer Consulting [email-masked]
718 Galsworthy Ave. Orlando, FL 32809-6429  phone (407) 859-0982

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From: [email-masked] (Teddy Wang)
Date: 21 Apr 1995 11:21:18 GMT

20.27

>motorcycles tend to driven a lot less miles per years on the average.
   
What did Walt Whitman say? :) Lies/damn lies/statistics

Teddy Wang
CSC Consulting