Bicycle safety[edit]
Further information: Bicycle safety
A statue, covered with flowers.
Virgin Mary venerated as the holy protector of bicyclists on the roads of the mountainous Basque Country
Cycling suffers from a perception that it is unsafe.[33] [34] In the UK, fatality rates per mile or kilometre are slightly less than those for walking.[35] In the US, bicycling fatality rates are less than 2/3 of those walking the same distance.[36][37] However, in the UK for example the fatality and serious injury rates per hour of travel are just over double for cycling than those for walking.[35] Thus if a person is, for example, about to undertake a ten kilometre journey to a given destination it may on average be safer to undertake this journey by bicycle than on foot. However, if a person is intending, for example, to undertake an hour's exercise it is likely to be considerably more dangerous to take that exercise by cycling rather than by walking.
(It should be noted that calculated fatality rates based on distance for bicycling (as well as for walking) can have an exceptionally large margin of error, since there are generally no annual registrations or odometers required for bicycles, and this means the distance traveled must be estimated).
Despite the risk factors associated with bicycling, cyclists have a lower overall mortality rate when compared to other groups. A Danish study in 2000 found that even after adjustment for other risk factors, including leisure time physical activity, those who did not cycle to work experienced a 39% higher mortality rate than those who did.[38]
Injuries (to cyclists, from cycling) can be divided into two types:
Physical trauma (extrinsic)
Overuse (intrinsic).