I feel like measuring this data based on miles is bad. This data would be much more relevant if it was measured in passenger travel hours instead.
A plane can travel like 500 miles in an hour. I feel that this skews the data significantly since its being compared to vehicles that should not typically be covering over 100 miles per hour.
I was thinking the same thing, but if the goal is to get from point a to point b then the real question is what gets you there the safest.
For example, if you wanted to know what the safest way to get from Los Angeles to San Francisco was or what the relative danger of each travel method was, this would be the right way to frame the data. The fact that it takes longer to travel with a car than a plane doesn’t factor into the safety of the travel. You still go the same distance.
Given the difference between the first and other places, I don’t believe that switching to time instead of length would actually change the significance of the top placement.
Any other reorder on the list is just shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic.
RIP my co worker and friend. It was 2001. You were the OG Bay Area techie. Empty pepsi cans and pizza delivery stacked sloppily on your desk. Smart AF and hard working, always laughing. Earning money loving living .
Riding your slim machine between lanes of SF traffic. Someone opened his car door for Lord knows what reason.
Your girlfriend was inconsolable at your funeral
There’s a reason lane-splitting is illegal in many jurisdictions. It’s still a tragic loss, but your friend made the active decision to operate a vehicle that was already more dangerous in an even more dangerous way.
I was in a bike accident once. I walked away with cartilage inflammation but the driver ended up breaking a different bone in 3 out of 4 limbs, he spent a month in the hospital. I told myself I was too old for that shit and definitely too young to die from it.
Scariest moment of my life and I’m never ever getting on a motorcycle again. Fact is I got very very lucky. Wasn’t even our fault, an other motorcycle came into our lane and hit us. They were drunk but if it would have been a car or if we were going faster, we would be dead.
Not saying bikes aren’t the most dangerous, but comparing against the distance skews this. A plane trip is usually quite a bit longer than any other.
Not sure how else to measure it though, maybe against number of trips traveled?
Number of trips sounds more reasonable. It will show the odds of completing a trip for different means of transport
Hours of travel time would likely be a good fit too.
My thought exactly, walking per distance is probably the most deadly mode of transport
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[X] Doubt
Walking is what we evolved to do. While being a pedestrian in certain parts of cities is dangerous, tons of walking is done away from vehicles.
Maybe depends on where you are living, but you quite probably have the wrong impression.
In my country (Germany), less than 3000 people die each year in traffic overall, while already an estimated 4000 pedestrians die while simply using stairs.
So, “Stairway to Heaven” gains a whole different layer of meaning, as it seems… :-)
I don’t think people commonly refer to people using the stairs as being pedestrians.
What about death of people other than passengers?
Didn’t realise deaths were so frequent on ferries.
My guess is part of what’s throwing that statistic off is the relatively short journeys of most ferries.
Maybe per hours of travel would be better? It would also make airplanes less of an outlier.
Airplanes should then be split to “general aviation” and “commercial aviation” to assuage people’s fears. General aviation is a lot riskier than flying commercial.
The ferries in the Mediterranean are know for their insecurity.
bruh
If you’ve seen Steven Spielberg’s ‘War of the Worlds’, you’ll know ferries can be quite perilous.
They would have been safer with Spiderman around!
probably ppl falling off or cars on board catching fire
It would be interesting to see different motorcycle stats. Those 100+ horsepower beasts are probably in another ballpark than regular commuter bikes (e.g. 125cc).
Other vehicles on the roads and not wearing helmets are the two biggest dangers for motorcyclists.
How essential wearing a helmet is to these bikes is one of the only thing that keeps me from using it. I’ll wear a lightweight road bicycle helmet reluctantly but the kind of helmet you need to ride a motorcycle is so uncomfortable to me, and represents the danger, that I’d rather just drive.
If you cannot stand a helmet then not riding is certainly a good choice.
Modern motorcycle helmets are way more comfortable than they were a couple decades ago though.
I’d recommend to try a few helmets. I once bought the cheapest helmet the store had to offer … only to return it next day.
Please … don’t buy a helmet on Amazon. Try it out, find one that fits, take it for a test drive.
Silverado running a red light smears both equally
And this is why I will never get on one. I love biking, and I love going fast, so a motorcycle seems like a great choice… until I watch around me. I’ve seen countless accidents involving motorcycles, the majority caused by inattentive drivers of cars and trucks. Then there’s the asshole motorcyclists who do dangerous maneuvers that make up the rest. I value my life more than thrills.
On a separate note: do we know why the “train” category is bolded?
Interestly, its not really inattentive car drivers that make motorcycling so dangerous.
Because of their small size, single headlight and rapidly changing speed, the human brain can’t accurate identify, and track them. Especially at night or in adverse weather conditions. So drivers cut them off all the time because the brain does not process the information correctly.
Combine that with the average aggressive driving, speeding, tailgating, and other dumbass dangerous behaviors that I see motorcyclist do daily and the death rate is shockingly low in my opinion.
I spend a lot of time driving and have seen around 20 motorcycle accidents happen over the years. Only one was another drivers fault and not caused by the absolute stupidity of the motorcyclist.
the majority caused by inattentive drivers of cars and trucks.
Are there statistics to back this up? Anecdotally, I see 10 motorcycles racing, illegally riding side-by-side in one lane, not signaling, speeding, and swerving around vehicles across multiple lanes for every 1 that I see driving safely.
I should have stated that my comment was definitely anecdotal. I’m only speaking on accidents I’ve witnessed involving motorcyclists. While yes, the majority of motorcyclists I’ve seen drive like complete assholes, the majority of accidents I’ve seen have been caused by inattentive drivers. When I say majority it’s probably 60/40. Every time I’ve had the opportunity to see the car driver involved where I’d say(in my completely unqualified opinion; I’m no cop or insurance adjuster) that the car was at fault, they’ve been on or looking at a phone.
On the other hand, when I’ve seen accidents where I’d say the motorcyclist is at fault they’ve ALWAYS been doing that wild shit that you mentioned.
I used to work at an office complex that was on a very high-traffic main road at a very busy intersection, one block from the freeway on-ramp with a crystal clear view of about 4 blocks of the main roadway and a bit of the freeway from my desk. So almost all of my anecdotal evidence is from one area in one city. I didn’t intend to make it sound like I have statistics to back up what I’m saying and should probably have been more clear about my lack of actual data.
Good stuff, thanks for the info.
They sure are fun though. Sometimes the risk is worth it.
How is a bus less than a train?
Suicides?
Train crashes into train, everyone dies. Bus crashes into car, car occupant dies, bus passengers survive (mostly).
Haven’t you seen Murder of the Orient Express?
Murder mysteries are the #1 cause of railway-relsted deaths.
Just guessing, the lower speed might help.
Edit: found a statistic that says otherwise. Translated from german. Original source
-
Car: 1.57
→ 2.53 per billion miles -
Bus: 0.13
→ 0.21 per billion miles -
Train: 0.03
→ 0.048 per billion miles -
Airplane: 0.01
→ 0.016 per billion miles -
Bicycle: 9.8
→ 15.77 per billion miles -
Ship: 0.1
→ 0.16 per billion miles -
Tram: 0.19
→ 0.31 per billion miles -
Motorcycle: 46.5
→ 74.83 per billion miles
Edit 2: Interesting how my german statistic shows way lower numbers than the original statistic.
That and busses also carry fewer people. Train accidents are rare but when they happen they’re horrific because of speed and the sheer number of people involved.
-
What about pedestrians, wankblog?
I don’t think miles is a fair measure.
Airplanes often do 5000 miles in one trip.
Would be curious to see how safe walking is per mile. Probably the most deadly
I seriously doubt walking would be the most deadly with this metric. Just anecdotally in my city, there are way more fatalities due to motor vehicle collisions than due to MV-pedestrian collisions, and a ton of people walk around every day
i think per trip would be best, but it won’t account for trip length.
Motorcycles are dangerous AF. You are actually less likely to die driving drunk in a car than fully sober on motorcycle. I’m pretty sure most folks here consider drunk driving pretty irresponsible. There’s a reason ER docs call those things “donorcycles”
