Again, blurring the distinctions between risks that are 1,2 or 3+ order of magnitudes different is inadvisable. There’s a table here with the risks of various activities: it turns out that masturbation is 10 million times safer than Russian Roulette.
But it’s still inappropriate to blur the distinctions between running and swimming on the one hand (very low risk: 1/1 million) and Recreational Climbing or Hang Gliding on the other (Quite High risk: 1/1000).
Again, I’m not seeking to ban activities in the latter category. I’m just saying that it’s fatuous to justify the parachuting on the basis that even swimming entails some risk. That’s true, but not especially relevant.
Nobodies trying to do that. Just saying that something being dangerous isn’t enough of an argument, and isn’t a reason to say that someone who does something dangerous is dumb or insecure.
Well, it can be. When I worked security at a cowboy bar in Texas I once arrested a fellow for masturbating at the bar. Had I not gotten to him before the crowd did, I would say his chances of survival would have been considerably less than if he had been play Russian Roulette.
Just goes to show that most of us don’t have a really good grasp of overall things type risk management system. We are all very affected by our past, taught, personality, age, etc., and since ‘tolerance’ seems to be very lacking in most folks, we get to read stuff like, “If you do that you are stupid.”
My dad had an accident on the way home last night. He is now in the hospital with broken ribs and a collapsed lung. This time it was all on him, there were no other vehicles involved. He just lost it around a turn.
Oh, by the way, he’s been riding for 30 years.
I’m really not interested in getting a motorcycle now.
In which case your claim that bike lanes aren’t safe is a tautology. It’s also completely non-predictive.
I think the burden of proof is on the guy who claimed with authority that bike lanes were more dangerous than biking in car lanes. shrug
Per-mile is an exceptionally apt way if you’re trying to figure out what’s the safer way to get to point X - point X is a constant number of miles away, even though I’ll bike longer to get there than drive there. In other words, what’s the safest way to get to the grocery store - bike or drive? Per-hour is relevant if you’re ‘joy riding.’ First of all, that’s a lot less common than trying to get to point X. Secondly, if you’re joy riding, you’ve already decided whether you’re biking or driving.
Shayna, your use of an anecdotal comparison of knowing people who died in cars, but not on motorcycles appears to be an attempt to imply cars are more dangerous. That why i said “imply” in my statement. But, if you can offer the reason why you included that phrase I will happily withdrawal my one statement. It was not meant to be insulting so I hope you don’t take it that way, but I have been contemplating the meaning of your statement, and I have been unable to come up with another reason for it’s use in this thread especially since it emerged during a discussion that skewed towards the relative safety of motorcycles and cars.