Riding bikes is super dangerous. I always slow down and give bikes a lot of space. I also think bike riders should ride on slower, non-busy roads whenever possible, but I'm not at all blaming bike riders.
When you're driving a car you are in charge of a multi-thousand pound hunk of metal with more momentum than most people can even comprehend, and the slightest jerk of a wheel can send it careening off in a completely different direction in milliseconds.
On a bike or walking with your own two feet, you're always in danger when the operator of a car isn't performing their due responsibilities.
To Sivers, I'm sorry for your loss. This article is an inspiration, and a remarkably poignant commentary on how to best make use of our fleeting time.
Without some pretty sophisticated data, I'm not sure this is true. About 30,000 people die in car accidents every year, which I wrote more about here: http://blog.seliger.com/2013/11/10/foundations-give-away-fiv... . I don't know how many died on bikes or how many miles people bike versus how many they drive.
But car accidents are so common that even deaths often don't register on the news.
There's also an interesting question about the effects of biking and other exercise on health; riding may have salutary health benefits that driving doesn't. I don't know of any studies that examine such effects but would be happy to see any studies on the issue.
Bicycle: .039 fatalities per million miles Car: .016 fatalities per million miles
http://www.bellboycott.com/cached/www.kenkifer.com/bikepages...
I think the biggest problem is the lack of control. If someone makes a mistake, has a seizure, loses control etc, and crashes into a cyclist, the cyclist has less 'protection' around them.
According to [0], 22 people were killed on bicycles in 2012. Compare that to 81 for an ordinary car, 31 pedestrians and 11 on a motorcycle.
Accoring to [1], bike rides make up 16% of all trips in Denmark, but only 3.6% of the actual number of kilometers travelled (which isn't really surprising). According to [2], car rides make up 46% of all trips.
So even though the number of car rides are only almost 3 times bigger than the number of bike rides, the number of fatal accidents are actually almost 4 times bigger.
Edit: Oh, passengers aren't included in the 46%. They make up 12% according to [2]. So my last point isn't completely valid, its more like they're equally fatal.
[1]: http://www.modelcenter.transport.dtu.dk/Transportvaneunderso...
[2]: http://www.modelcenter.transport.dtu.dk/Transportvaneunderso...
Edit: And it's not 3.6% of car kilometers, it's 3.6% of the total distance traveled, whether by car (as driver and passenger), bike, public transport, walking, motorbike and so on.
2nd edit: And for clarity, accoring to [2] above, car rides (driver + passenger) made up about 75% of kilometers traveled in 2012 in Denmark
Part of getting drivers to behave better is to provide disparagement of driving aggressively from within their own car. You'd be surprised how many drivers are completely non-chalant to actively dismissive of the care and attention they should pay to others on the road not protected by a 6000 lb metal shell. That metal shell fosters road rage and road carelessness by disconnecting the drivers from the world around them. However, that metal shell won't protect them from being judged by their passengers.
I found the account of the accident shocking. Of course being from the Netherlands I'm extremely biased, but from my perspective these kind of American "driver kills cyclist" accidents I keep reading are as insane as "accidentally" killing someone whilst "accidentally" pointing a loaded gun at their heads. Even with a car it's hard to kill a cyclist by accident, unless the accident results in a very unlucky fall.
And it's not that Dutch skulls happen to be tougher.
1) Under low light conditions
2) When trucks are around
3) When said trucks turn left and you are going straight (for people cycling/driving on the left)
No surprises there.
This was a cyclist doing, by all accounts, everything absolutely and completely right. Speculation is absolutely useless if not crass right now given this terrible, unnecessary loss, but historic odds favor the driver (an officer) being distracted in some manner, which is a growing concern that everyone in this industry needs to keep in mind.