Cycling accidents are up
There’s been a rise in cycling accidents during the pandemic. La Presse’s piece says it’s because cycling became more popular due to a lack of other physical activities, but I’d argue that people who took up cycling between April 2020 and April 2021 were more likely trying to avoid public transit.
Radio-Canada digs more into the growing safety of cycling routes and other statistics.
mare 09:25 on 2022-08-03 Permalink
Grrrr. They’re still comparing cycling to ‘other sports’ like golf. Why? Those comparisons are nonsense. For many people cycling is a mode of transport, not a sport.
They don’t compare driving to other sports like deep sea diving. There are people who drive cars are a sport, but most just use it as a mode of transport.
The information hidden in the last paragraph is also strange: in the rest of the country (I assume they mean Canada) the number of cycling accidents went up with 25%, compared to the 20% in Quebec. That seems like a significant difference, and I would like to know why. Is it because outside Quebec more cyclists are hit by drivers who are on their way to the golf course?
Also: using the word accident suggests these injuries are inevitable, that there is no blame. A lot of traffic collisions do have blame, like the way roads are designed, the difference in the size of vehicles or the bad actions of drivers.
blork 10:19 on 2022-08-03 Permalink
Mare, I totally get your frustration with journalists always equating cycling with “sports” but in this case it’s somewhat legit. The La Presse article talks about a 10-fold increase in cycling during that time, and it posits that this is partly because sports-oriented people (in particular, people who play team sports) had fewer options, so they turned to cycling. I think it’s a legit hypothesis. Certainly the number of lycra-clad Tour-de-France-wannabees on the south shore bike paths has gone way up in the past couple of years.
But that’s not the only explanation. (As Kate points out, a lot of people just wanted to avoid public transit.)
However, in this particular case, I think the sports angle is legit, although it’s not the full story. That doesn’t mean all cyclists do it for sport, but a case can be made that many sporty people turned to cycling.
Also: “accident” doesn’t necessarily suggest inevitability or lack of responsibility. It primarily suggests lack of INTENTION. In some contexts it might suggest inevitability (like in the phrase “happy accidents”) but in the context of traffic collisions and whatnot, the suggestion is only towards lack of intent, in order to separate the thing from something that was intentionally done. (E.g., a speeding driver who loses control and mows down a pedestrian did not INTEND to do that, and they are most certainly held responsible, vs. that incel guy in Toronto to INTENTIONALLY mowed down pedestrians a few years ago.)
You’re not the only one who makes that argument, and I WILL FIGHT YOU ALL OVER IT!
Ephraim 10:23 on 2022-08-03 Permalink
Is the difference between 20% and 25% statistically significant? I doubt it. It’s likely within the margin of error.
They use the word accident to mean “non-intentional” or “happenchance”.
mare 13:24 on 2022-08-03 Permalink
@blork You can fight me any time. I’ve learned the hard way I should run. (Actually Kate used the word accidents, not the article; I should have pointed that out.)
You’re right the sports angle might be a bit more apt in this case, because a lot of people had no reason to use the bike for transport when everything was closed. I’m curious how much the number of ‘car-only accidents’ went down.
@ephraim, You can’t say if the difference is statistically significant, because they are two different datasets. Quebec did their own research.
Kate 14:51 on 2022-08-03 Permalink
I don’t want to be the cause of a fight between you two! Yes, I rather rashly used the word “accident” because the original article is in French and I was interpreting on the fly.
blork 15:38 on 2022-08-03 Permalink
Thing is, I think “accident” is the right word, because we’re talking about unintentional collisions and other crashes (not all crashes are collisions).
Any fight between mare and I would be along the lines of a pie-throwing fight or “who can stare at a turd the longest.”
But this interpretation of unintentional collisions as not being “accidents” because there’s some other factor (drunk driving, bad signage, the mere presence of a human being behind the wheel of a motor vehicle, etc.) is popping up more and more these days, and it is spurious, especially when linked to the idea that because it’s an “accident” that no one is held responsible.
That’s just false. A drunk driver can cause an “accident” and be held fully responsible. It’s an accident because it was unintentional; it’s not “not an accident” just because it was preventable or occurred because of some kind of neglect or irresponsibility (note “irresponsibility” not “un-responsibility”).
Tim S. 16:31 on 2022-08-03 Permalink
Yeah, I don’t think that’s how the word is commonly used. Otherwise, why would every kid ever claim “it’s just an accident?”
Kevin 21:11 on 2022-08-03 Permalink
I lean on mare’s side because I’ve never seen the SAAQ or other agencies distinguishing between deliberate actions and unintentional actions in their data charts.
There’s no measurement in crash data indicating XX% are suicides, or caused by drivers with homicidal intent. Age, severity of injury, vehicle type (both in the hitter and hittee), region, sobriety… but nothing about intent.
https://saaq.gouv.qc.ca/en/saaq/documents/road-safety-record
blork 11:16 on 2022-08-04 Permalink
I don’t rely on the SAAQ for the semantic and lexical meaning of words in the English language.
Kevin 15:35 on 2022-08-04 Permalink
Blork
The other reason I side with mare is because the term “accident” is imprecise. Instead of describing what happened, the word accident is a euphemism that ascribes motive, or lack thereof.
An accident covers everything from spilt milk to pregnancy to killing a person with a vehicle, which offends my sensibilities.
Call it a crash or a collision, but don’t call it an accident.