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From: bill@utastro.UUCP (William H. Jefferys)
Newsgroups: net.bicycle
Subject: Re: Goodbye SR 130.
Message-ID: <95@utastro.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 23-Nov-85 11:05:47 EST
Article-I.D.: utastro.95
Posted: Sat Nov 23 11:05:47 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 27-Nov-85 05:53:27 EST
References: <4200032@uiucdcsp>
Organization: U. Texas, Astronomy, Austin, TX
Lines: 23

> 
> 
> 
> I have always ridden on larger county roads and smaller state highways,
> thinking that it was better to live with the traffic than to dodge pot-holes
> and dogs.  I saw a statistic once that said that accidents in which
> a bicycle is struck from behind by a car are extrememly rare, and I had
> patterned my riding accordingly.
> 
It depends on where you are and what the conditions are.  John Forester
gives the following table [*Effective Cycling*, MIT Press 1984, p. 160]:

			       Urban	       Rural
			_________________________________
Turning and Crossing		89%		60%
Motorist Overtaking		 7%		30%
Other Parallel Path		 4%		10%

Out in the country, therefore, the kind of accident you described is
substantially more frequent than in the city, although they are still
a minority of all accidents.  So I would say that your experience
and that of your friends are not in contradiction to what the
statistics say.  30% is a *substantial* minority!