We don't need no stinking studies

We all know there is a certain amount of risk involved in getting on a bicycle but is it inevitable we will all have a serious accident at some time in our riding career? Until it happens to you, you might feel that the 9-1-1 call and ambulance ride only happen to others. But many avid cyclists are convinced that it's not if you crash but when. (I've had mine.) I'm guessing an equal amount of cyclists don't agree with that. While recognizing the inherent danger of riding on two one-inch-wide wheels, many find cycling to be a pretty safe sport. If you try to research the safety of cycling relative to other sports or other forms of transportation, you will come away with your head spinning from contradictory study results and opinions. Most studies do not differentiate between urban commuters and rural riders. Many studies are based on emergency room visits but many cyclists go home or directly to their own doctor. Police reports? If the accident doesn't involve a serious injury and a car, fuggedaboutit. I have read articles estimating the number of serious and non-serious injuries at two to three times what is reported. There are no studies on crashes per mile, broken out by type of rider, albeit such a thing could be done on a small scale by almost any bike club. Bike riding in urban areas is different from riding in suburban areas, which is in turn different from rural riding. Placer County riders are seldom subjected to sharing a three-lane city street with bumper-to-bumper traffic and double-parked delivery trucks, dodging pedestrians while negotiating light-rail tracks that cross the street at a 45-degree angle. Lincoln, Rocklin, Roseville, Auburn, Folsom. These towns all have bike lanes on major thoroughfares and the American River and Miners Ravine bike trails and their tributaries are wonderful places to enjoy safe riding. However, getting to Rocklin, Roseville, Auburn and Folsom on a bike usually means riding on narrow, rural roads with no bike lane and minimal shoulder. While many don't even have white lines down the middle, there is usually a minimum of traffic and they remain pleasurable places to ride, although I have all but given up trying to make a left turn on to English Colony from Sierra College. What all this means is we don't really know how safe cycling is or if it has become safer over the last few years. There is a consensus that the more bikes on the road, the safer it is for cyclists. Bike lanes, "sharrows" (a symbol painted on the street indicating a bike can use the entire traffic lane) and awareness of cycling laws (for both driver and cyclist) have all shown promise in making cycling safer. One study found that of those cyclists involved in car/bike accidents, 89 percent were traveling in a safe and legal manner. Drivers were found to be at fault (although not necessarily by a court) 87 percent of the time. Fifty-seven percent of the most common car/bike accidents, described as "not looking carefully," are caused by drivers. I have coined a phrase, "legitimate inattention," to describe the cause of nearly all "bike only" accidents. By legitimate inattention, I mean those seconds a rider looks away from the road to look at his speedometer, check his mirror or turn to the side to monitor the car approaching from the right or left. In that short time, we hit a gravel patch in the road, touch the rider's wheel in front of us or allow our front wheel to slip off the pavement. The majority of cycling casualties are with adults but children ages 10 to 15 are the most at-risk age group, that is, until age 60. That's me and my riding group. We don't need no stinking studies to tell us that while cars are potentially deadly, inattention or any distraction is more likely to cause an accident. Tom Frady is a Lincoln resident and avid cyclist and driver.