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Old 06-05-2013, 03:19 PM
jcyuhn jcyuhn is online now
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Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: Plano, TX
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Skippy View Post
Commercial aviation (SWA, Alaska Airlines, etc) deaths per 100 million passenger miles traveled (2009): 0.0077

Total motor vehicle (Mercedes, BMW, Porsche, Audi, etc) crash deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled (2010): 1.1

Pedestrian (Belleville, Bates, Nike, etc) deaths per 100 million miles walked (2008): 1.43

Bicyclist (Specialized, Schwinn, Huffy, etc) deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled (2001 estimate) between 3.7 and 12.6

General aviation (Cessna, Piper, Gulfstream, etc) deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled (2004 estimate): 13.1

Motorcyclist (Suzuki, Kawasaki, Ducati, Harley, etc) crash deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled (2010): 24.4

So flying commercial is the safest way to travel. Driving is vastly more dangerous, but still second best. Walking is a little worse. Cycling is considerably worse. General aviation is worse still, and a motorcycle is the most dangerous popular way to get around. Still, at 24.4 deaths per 100 million miles traveled, riding 15,000 miles a year for 60 years would still only give you a 22% chance of getting killed on your bike.

Sources:
- Health Indicators Warehouse

By the Numbers, Flying is a lot Safer than Driving or Taking the Train | Airline Reporter | Blogging on the airline business

http://bicycleuniverse.info/transpo/almanac-safety.html

http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pubs/810968.pdf

Note: All data lazily gathered on Google whilst drinking Heineken in front of the computer after a long night at work.
Kinda depressing that cycling/walking are more dangerous per mile travelled than driving. I suspect the a significant percentage of cyclist/pedestrian deaths are caused by automobiles. A quick perusal of your sources seems to confirm this.

I like to look at risk per hour, i.e. is an hour of driving more or less risky than an hour of cycling. On that axis the gap between cycling and driving substantially closes and walking an hour becomes safer than driving an hour. As well, the drive to the airport is more risky than the flight itself.
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