people rarely post any comments here, as you know, but last night i wrote about my newfound BURNING DESIRE TO MOVE TO THE NETHERLANDS, because i watched this fantastic video of swarms of people peacefully and happily riding their bikes everywhere there, because that’s what they do in the Netherlands.\u00a0 kevin, being slightly less rash than me, looked into bike statistics online and is convinced that there are MORE bike accidents there than here.<\/p>\n
this is what he wrote:<\/p>\n
By Kev<\/strong> on Feb 20, 2011<\/a> | Here is some comparative info\u2026..<\/em>In 2008, a total of 27 bicycle riders were killed and 3,385 seriously injured in Illinois bicycle accidents.<\/em><\/p>\n In 2007, 189 people died in bike accidents in the Netherlands, about half of them hit by cars. Another 7,240 were injured badly enough to merit a trip to a hospital. Those numbers are from traffic ministry data released in April 2008.<\/em><\/p>\n But I had to say to this, hmmm, this doesn’t sound right to me.\u00a0 i replied:<\/p>\n By grace<\/strong> on Feb 20, 2011<\/a> | hmm, i don\u2019t buy it. maybe it\u2019s cause there are many many MANY more people riding bikes there. plus maybe somebody made up these statistics. i\u2019m pretty sure they did. why would that website make it seem so good, then? idyllic. perfect in every way. <\/em><\/p>\n And then, this morning, there was a REPLY from the guy who made the video, a man from the Netherlands named Mark.\u00a0 i was delighted to find that he had statistics of his own!<\/p>\n By Mark<\/a><\/strong> on Feb 21, 2011<\/a> | @Kev are you implying cycling is more dangerous in the Netherlands by those numbers?Y ou seem to forget that in the Netherlands people make one million trips per HOUR.<\/em>If you compare the figures as you should the story is like this:<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n \u201cCycling in the Netherlands is much safer than in the USA. The Netherlands has the lowest non-fatal injury rate as well as the lowest fatality rate, while the USA has the highest non-fatal injury rate as well as the highest fatality rate. Indeed, the non-fatal injury rate for the USA is about 30 times higher than for the Netherlands.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n
\n@Grace, great you liked my video!<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n