A few days in the past, fellow blogger Tony posted this: Most types of train are overwhelmingly secure – however don’t ignore the hazards. Thanks, Tony. It’s based mostly on an attention-grabbing research 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 harm charges for numerous exercise-related actions. Biking had an harm fee of two.8 per 100,000 outings, whereas strolling had 0.03 per 100,000, and health actions (e.g. health club 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 harm threat. However observe that biking had 100 occasions the harm fee 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 scripting this log, I’ve accrued the train advantages of many hours of exercise. However I’ve additionally: damaged a collarbone in a motorbike crash, ripped my rotator cuff in a climbing fall, and needed to go to the hospital for a head trauma (fortunately not too extreme).

For biking, listed below are some apparent security measures:

1. Accident threat increased at evening than through the day, so if attainable keep away from driving at evening, in any other case have good lighting and brilliant reflective clothes.
2. Accident threat is increased at busy roads on rush hour. Driving at these occasions 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-about 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 become Alma Ave, a busy road with no bike lane and a slender shoulder. I rapidly mapped out a route that prevented Alma Ave through the use of quieter streets, in any other case I won’t be right here to write down this weblog.

I used to be already doing measures like these and others like retaining my bike well-maintained. My latest accident brought about me to rethink what I may need performed otherwise, 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 highway I used to be on. It got here with 32 mm broad tires, and once they wore out I changed them with 25 mm to be quicker. 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”. For the reason that crash occurred on a downhill flip, I believe it’s time to moderately take satisfaction in being a “cautious descender”.

References

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