One Got Fat

Quote from a New York Times article "Will bicycling to work get you killed?":

"Per kilometer, cyclists are 12 times more likely than car drivers to suffer a fatal accident, according to Rutgers University urban planner John Pucher and Lewis Dijkstra of the European Commission (the same study found traveling by foot to be 23 times more dangerous than driving, per kilometer).

"On the other hand, a Danish study found that people who do not bike to work suffer a 39 percent higher mortality rate than those who do. So, assuming you can avoid a fatal accident on the road, biking to work may actually help you live longer.

"The risks associated with cycling decrease dramatically when more cyclists are on the road, and especially when those cyclists obey traffic laws. This second point is hammered home in this bizarre but brilliant 1963 bike safety film, “One Got Fat”"

A note on the statistics. The harm is greater per kilometer for pedestrians and cyclists because even though accidents may occur at a similar frequency for each mode of transport, a typical commute by car is much farther than one either by foot or bike (possibly 12 to 23 times?)... Food for thought