Cycling 500 times safer than rugby

find the risk was very small. Taking injuries that led to claims to ACC, they found these occur roughly nine times in every 100,000 short urban bike trips.

In terms of risk, cycling on the road half an hour three times a week was similar to doing do-it-yourself activities at home twice a month, and five times safer than riding a horse for 1.5 hours twice a week, 140 times safer than skiing half a day four to five times a year and 530 times safer than playing rugby every three weeks.

So why did fear of injury deter so many people from biking?

“We suggest this is a consequence of living with a transport system that is dominated in every way by the motor car,” Woodward said.

“The bicycle has been pushed to the margins, where it is seen as unusual, different, not mainstream, and unfamiliar.”

In the past, a hostile environment on New Zealand roads had led to a “vicious spiral” — there had been fewer bikes, leading to greater fearfulness and increased resistance to Almost 20 per cent of household trips are less than 2km — and almost half are less than 6km — and could be covered by cycling. But cycling accounts for less than 2 per cent of total time spent travelling on roads mostly because people fear being injured. Despite recent growth in cycling, the annual number of fatalities reached a 25-year low of five deaths last year. road changes in favour of bikes.

“We need to turn this round. The most powerful way to bring bikes back from the margin is to provide safe spaces for cyclists of all abilities to get to where they want to ride.”

Separated cycle ways are part of