Overcoming the Fear of Cycling with Defensive Habits and Practice
By Andrea Laltoo
As an avid bicycle commuter, I often hear those 4 little words: “But isn’t it dangerous?”
The truth is: yes.
Indeed, the Danger Factor weighs on the minds of many cyclists. Canada’s 2004 National Transportation Survey reported that safety in traffic was a major deterrent for up to 17% of potential bicycle commuters. It’s easy to understand how this could be, considering that most motor vehicle drivers are swaddled in seatbelts, airbags, and tons of metal, plastic, and tempered glass… while cyclists may have only a thin layer of cotton or polyester to protect them.
Let me repeat that cycling is inherently dangerous, even when practiced in your own driveway while wearing a helmet, using training wheels, and completely enrobed in bubble wrap. Cycling can even result in death (then again, so can eating a sandwich, if you choke). But is cycling along with traffic really as dangerous as our imaginations tell us…or is the Fear of Cycling an irrational phobia of stepping outside of our comfort zones?
City Transportation Coordinator Stéphane Thibodeau believes that an individual’s comfort level is a huge factor. “We have no statistical data showing that a bicyclist was killed or injured by a vehicle in the same lane, in Moncton,” he says. “Many [bicycling] accidents are due to a cyclist making a bad decision.”
Studies of bicycle safety have come up with a variety of answers for the Danger Factor. Statistics Canada has some figures that don’t really tell us much – only that about 2% of motor vehicle accident deaths recorded were cyclists. How many people ride a bike vs. travel in a motor vehicle, though? And how much do they travel? Without this information, these statistics lack context. Our province also has figures, which mostly show that moose are a more serious concern for local motorists than are cyclists (New Brunswick only averaged 1 cyclist death per year from 2005 to 2007).
On the other hand, cycling advocate Ken Kifer has compiled numerous comparisons of cycling and various other activities on his website (kenkifer.com/bikepages). Kifer extrapolates data to compare everything from odds of death vs. injury in the event of a collision, to rates of motor vehicle vs. bicycle related injuries and fatalities by population, by hour, by distance, and by trip.
Kifer’s stats are interesting to look at, since they remind us that activities we take for granted as being “safe” (like driving) are actually not. For example, most people are aware that flying is statistically safer than driving (when analyzing risk of fatality per passenger and per distance). Why, then, do we drive without giving a second thought to our safety and yet flinch at flying?
Nancy S. Blum, a social worker with University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, cites lack of control over the situation as the number one reason her patients fear flying. If something happens on the plane, there is little we can do about it, since we’re not the ones controlling it. Similarly, when we cycle with traffic, we can’t control other vehicles. Will motorists doze off at the wheel, make turns without looking, or otherwise jeopardize our lives? Will we be able to see them doing so, and if so, are we even capable of reacting? Are we comfortable manoeuvering our bikes?
In our cars, we’ve been trained to drive properly. We’re in control, and confident that our airbags will keep us safe from danger. We practice daily. Driving is so comfortable that we can still do it while texting, eating, and searching an iPod, right?
The good news for cyclists is that according to John Forester (founder of the Effective Cycling program) 50% of cycling injuries and deaths were caused by cyclist error, compared with only 8% caused by motorist error. His findings (the product of detailed analysis of accidents) remind us that cyclists are essentially left to their own devices to learn skills that Forester has himself turned into a ten-week course (on par with Young Drivers). Our culture puts little value on practicing safe cycling skills until we are competent – instead, we teach them over a period of a few hours, if at all. If we fear flying with a pilot who has had many hours of experience in the air, it is little wonder that we feel unsafe cycling down the road with the kind of underdeveloped skills we might have.
Is bicycling dangerous? Yes, it still is. But with awareness and defensive skills, commuter cycling can be safer than we realize – and when the Fear of Cycling is overcome, it’s also lots of fun.
