Why Bikes Are Much Less Likely to Hurt a Pedestrian

If, like me, you sometimes hear people complain about scofflaw bike-riders whenever scofflaw car-drivers are being discussed, here are some facts to remember about why the latter matters a whole lot more than the former. These are courtesy of a Twitter account currently called Pedestrian Streets for Summer, permanently called @The_Albatross. Filing them away for future reference:

Why bikes are much less likely to kill or seriously injure a pedestrian: sight, hearing, distractions, attention, commutes, and the physics of mass, acceleration and speed.

Sight: Sitting on a bike I see over passenger cars.  My eye level is at minivan roof height, higher standing.  Higher sees further, over or through vehicles in front of me.  There are no posts, hood, doors or trunk blocking my vision & my slower speed increases visual awareness.

Hearing: On a bike I can hear better than a car with the windows open or a convertible because bikes make less road noise.

Attention: Biking near cars is extremely dangerous.  Many cars don't use turn signals at or only when there are other cars.  They don't signal for bikes or pedestrians.  In the fresh air and exercising, I'm more alert on a bike.

Distractions: In a car the air conditioning, GPS, radio, dashboard, phone are all separate devices that might all automatically turn on even for a regular commute or trip to the grocery store. On a bike, especially a regular manual bike, the only "systems" are on your phone and you ordinarily don't turn all of them on at once for a commute or trip to the grocery store. My phone is on my crossbar, out of my field of vision.

Finally, physics: Bikes are lighter, narrower, accelerate more slowly and have a lower top speed than cars. Furthermore, most people don't bike at top speed on their daily commute or trips to the grocery store.

For all these reasons a person on a bike is more likely to notice a pedestrian at a greater distance, have more time to stop, need less braking, can more easily avoid pedestrians and do less damage when they do crash.

Does a bike-rider ever crash into a pedestrian? Of course, it happens occasionally. Is anyone seriously hurt, or killed? Much more infrequently. But it's a big country, so when this man-bites-dog situation happens, you're more likely to hear about it if, it's anywhere nearby or it happens to anyone semi-famous.

How many times do people get hit by cars every week, every day? 

That is not part of the natural order, though many in our country seem to act as though it is.