A few days in the past, fellow blogger Tony posted this: Most types of train are overwhelmingly secure – however don’t ignore the risks. Thanks, Tony. It’s based mostly on an attention-grabbing examine just lately revealed within the journal Harm Prevention [1]. By analyzing accident statistics in England and Wales within the interval 2012-2017, they got here up with damage charges for varied exercise-related actions. Biking had an damage price of two.8 per 100,000 outings, whereas strolling had 0.03 per 100,000, and health actions (e.g. gymnasium participation) had 0.21 per 100,000. All of those are comparatively low, I’m solely more likely to get injured about as soon as each 33,000 rides, and it may be argued that the well being advantages of the exercise outweigh the damage threat. However notice that biking had 100 instances the damage price of strolling. So it is sensible to do no matter attainable to attenuate the dangers. That is very true in my case, as within the few years I’ve been penning this log, I’ve accrued the train advantages of many hours of exercise. However I’ve additionally: damaged a collarbone in a motorcycle crash, ripped my rotator cuff in a mountain climbing fall, and needed to go to the hospital for a head trauma (fortunately not too extreme).

For biking, listed here are some apparent security measures:

1. Accident threat larger at night time than through the day, so if attainable keep away from driving at night time, in any other case have good lighting and vivid reflective clothes.
2. Accident threat is larger at busy roads on rush hour. Driving at these instances could also be unavoidable for bike commuting, but it surely helps to seek out alternate routes on quieter roads. Again within the late Seventies I used to be commuting from Mountain View Ca to Palo Alto. Palo Alto is now thought of a bike-friendly metropolis however was significantly much less so again then. I keep in mind my route went midway on Central Expressway, which had a pleasant bike lane, however then was Alma Ave, a busy road with no bike lane and a slim shoulder. I rapidly mapped out a route that averted Alma Ave through the use of quieter streets, in any other case I won’t be right here to put in writing this weblog.

I used to be already doing measures like these and others like preserving my bike well-maintained. My current accident brought about me to rethink what I might need accomplished in another way, and I got here up with: Use fatter tires. The bike I crashed on is taken into account a “gravel bike” and may have been sure-footed on the street I used to be on. It got here with 32 mm large tires, and once they wore out I changed them with 25 mm to be sooner. Security first! I’ll be placing 32s again on the bike quickly. I’ve additionally all the time prided myself on being a “fearless descender”. Because the crash occurred on a downhill flip, I feel it’s time to reasonably take delight in being a “cautious descender”.

References

1. Davies M, Lawrence T, Edwards A, et al, “Sport-related main trauma incidence in younger folks and adults in England and Wales: a nationwide registry-based examine”, Harm Prevention Revealed On-line First: 24 October 2023. doi: 10.1136/ip-2023-044887.