Bradley Wiggins calls for safer cycling laws and compulsory helmets

[Boris Bajic]

For a start your numbers are wrong. The number of cyclists in the UK is estimated at 13 million, not 3 million.
http://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/news/archives/2011/08/cycling.aspx

Which makes it 265 cycling deaths not 1150, a 68% decrease.

And then you forgot the safety in numbers factor. If the number of cyclists increased ten fold as you thought, the number of deaths would only go up by 2.5 times to 280, not ten fold. With the actual increase of 2.4 times in the number of cyclists the number of cyclist deaths would go up 1.4 times to 157, an 81% decrease.

So wrong yet again from facts which are very simply checked.

The figure of 13 million cyclists in the UK seems unusual.

The figures are broken down briefly in the provided link, as follows:

3.5 million (41%) are Frequent Cyclists (those who cycle once a week or more)

• 4.3 million (33%) are Regular Cyclists (those who cycled 12 or more times in the past year)
• 3.5 million (27%) are Occasional Cyclists

On the basis of thses data, I am a regular surfer. That sounds quite cool, but is in truth quite misleading. This falls into the sense of regular: "I bathe regularly. Once a decade whether I need to or not".

Also on the basis of these definitions, I occasionally have sex...

If an argument is being made on the basis of a UK cyclist population of 13 million, then it might be bunkum.

But back to the thread: Who's winning?

 

[Linford]

Well you know what they say about men with large boots, their feet tend to be loose inside them.

Levity at last - Bravo

 

[Red Light]

http://beta.ctc.org.uk/ctc-cycling-statistics

Plenty get sold, but not so many get regularly used. What do you class as a 'regular cyclist' as there are a damned sight more than 750k of cars being commuted every day in the UK

So where are the matching numbers for the numbers of people that use a car three or more times a week?

 

[Red Light]

The figure of 13 million cyclists in the UK seems unusual.

The figures are broken down briefly in the provided link, as follows:

3.5 million (41%) are Frequent Cyclists (those who cycle once a week or more)

• 4.3 million (33%) are Regular Cyclists (those who cycled 12 or more times in the past year)
• 3.5 million (27%) are Occasional Cyclists

On the basis of thses data, I am a regular surfer. That sounds quite cool, but is in truth quite misleading. This falls into the sense of regular: "I bathe regularly. Once a decade whether I need to or not".

Also on the basis of these definitions, I occasionally have sex...

If an argument is being made on the basis of a UK cyclist population of 13 million, then it might be bunkum.

But back to the thread: Who's winning?

Is this also banter intended to carry no weight but giving you a bit of a giggle?

 

[Linford]

So where are the matching numbers for the numbers of people that use a car three or more times a week?

As many as 71% of British workers travel to work by car, a study by the RAC Foundation suggests.
Just 14% of commuters go to the office by bus or train, while 11% walk, the motoring group found.
The foundation urged the government and employers to take urgent action to encourage people to use cars less.0

from 2007, but the numbers won't have shifted that much

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7009776.stm

 

[Linford]

A survey by a motoring lobbying organisation. Anything a tad less partial?

The foundation urged the government and employers to take urgent action to encourage people to use cars less

Can you get anything less biased in that statement ?

 

[Boris Bajic]

Is this also banter intended to carry no weight but giving you a bit of a giggle?

Yes. Although Mrs. Bajic tells me I carry some weight I don't need.

 

[ufkacbln]

You just made that up didn't you

Don't judge me by your standards.

You are the one who makes extremely dubious claims such that all head injuries in cars are caused by failure to wear seatbelts. This one still awaits substantiation, although I suspect that your failure (inability) to provide any support at all is hardly a surprise.

Figures are from the Bike Industry itself, and make your claims laughable. More bikes were in fact sold in 2010 (3.7 million) than you claim actually exist.

In this case the figures were taken from "A Cycle Plan for East Hampshire" published by HAmpshire County Council.


Now having referenced the figure that show your claimed increase in head injuris of 37% would in reality be a decrease of 75%, please explain the point you were trying to make?

 

[ufkacbln]

Or do they not matter to you?

I have been asking that for quite a while, but Linford has squirmed like a very squirmy thing winning a Gold medal for squirming in an Olympic squirming contest in avoiding the question

 

[Linford]

Don't judge me by your standards.

You are the one who makes extremely dubious claims such that all head injuries in cars are caused by failure to wear seatbelts. This one still awaits substantiation, although I suspect that your failure (inability) to provide any support at all is hardly a surprise.

Figures are from the Bike Industry itself, and make your claims laughable. More bikes were in fact sold in 2010 (3.7 million) than you claim actually exist.

In this case the figures were taken from "A Cycle Plan for East Hampshire" published by HAmpshire County Council.


Now having referenced the figure that show your claimed increase in head injuris of 37% would in reality be a decrease of 75%, please explain the point you were trying to make?

I didn't claim that they didn't exist, but that they were in regular use. I would imagine that the whole number covers everything from a balance bike for a 3 year old up to a full carbon roadie. I would also expect that most cycles are bought for youngsters, but no numbers to back this suspicion

 

[ufkacbln]

I didn't claim that they didn't exist, but that they were in regular use. I would imagine that the whole number covers everything from a balance bike for a 3 year old up to a full carbon roadie. I would also expect that most cycles are bought for youngsters, but no numbers to back this suspicion

Why not make something up like you usually do?



Your figure of 31 million made no distinction as to whether they were in regular use or not, the age of the driver, or any other restriction, it was the number of cars owned in the UK, yet you now don't seem to want that to compare that with the fair comparison of the number of cycles owned in the UK.

If you feel the need to fudge the figures and exclude some of the cycle owners to make your obfuscation work then please feel free, but you ain't fooling anyone.

 

[Red Light]

Yes. Although Mrs. Bajic tells me I carry some weight I don't need.

Avoirdupois not personality weight

 

[Red Light]

As many as 71% of British workers travel to work by car, a study by the RAC Foundation suggests.
Just 14% of commuters go to the office by bus or train, while 11% walk, the motoring group found.
The foundation urged the government and employers to take urgent action to encourage people to use cars less.0

from 2007, but the numbers won't have shifted that much

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7009776.stm

Nope, that not the number of people using a vehicle more than three times a week. Try again

 

[Boris Bajic]

In my family of five, we have 12 bicycles including one for use by au pairs who have long since ceased to be so. That's the au pairs, not the bicycles.

This suggests that we cover up to and as much as 7000 miles a year, per annum, excluding VAT. Perhaps more.

Of these 7000 miles, I ride the most (4000), my elder son is next (3000) and the rest of the family cover perhaps 2500 between them with the exception of my wife who rarely rides further than half the square of the distance totalled by the eldest and youngest between them. This figure will tend towards zero as the sum of the reaminder of the sub-totalled mileages tends towards five.

Two of us regularly wear a helmet and one of us dislikes mushrooms but likes asparagas. Seared lamb with tomatoes on a bed of rocket is popular with us all.

We have three cars and drive 25,000 miles a year. Not all at once.

We wish we'd gone for the option of under-floor heating when we had our house renovated 15 years ago.

If our family were significantly bigger there would be 13 million of us and we'd all be cyclists.

Do I win?

 

[Boris Bajic]

Avoirdupois not personality weight

No. She's telling me I'm fat. Which in a way I am. But I fear we have wandered off topic.