Reply #7: Considering the amount of bicycle miles/capita

[kristopher]

I'd think that tends to confirm my observations. The website quoted below gives US deaths in 1999 (pre gas price inflation) as 750 and further down (not quoted) it shows a decline by 2002 to 660 deaths. Considering that most people in Japan ride a bicycle in traffic daily, I don't think there can be much doubt that it is safer there. I included some other information for reference.

The Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center
Funded by the US Department of Transportation, this program of the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center in cooperation with the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals says:

In 1999, there were 750 bicycling fatalities and 51,000 bicycling injuries resulting from traffic crashes in the United States. While these numbers continue to decrease from year to year, bicyclist fatalities still account for 2 percent of all traffic fatalities as well as 2 percent of all traffic injuries.

They summarize their findings on this page, and have a nice table of accident types and their relative frequency.

Their summary of crash causes
Here is a summary of what is illustrated on this page:

* When the motorist and bicyclist were on initial parallel paths, either in the same direction or opposing directions, the three most frequent categories of crashes were:
o Motorist turning or merging into the path of a bicyclist (12.1 percent of all crashes). Almost half (48.8 percent) of these crashes involved a motorist making a left turn in front of a bicyclist approaching from the opposite direction.
o Motorist overtaking a bicyclist (8.6 percent of all crashes). Of these crashes, 23 percent appeared to involve a motorist who misjudged the space required to safely pass the bicyclist.
o Bicyclist turning or merging into the path of a motorist (7.3 percent of all crashes). Within this category, 60 percent involved a bicyclist making a left turn in front of a motorist traveling in the same direction.

* When the motorist and bicyclist were on initial crossing paths, the three most frequent categories of crashes were:
o Motorist failed to yield right-of-way at a junction (21.7 percent of all crashes). Of these crashes, more than a third (37.3 percent) involved a motorist violating the sign or signal and drove into the crosswalk or intersection and struck the bicyclist.
o Bicyclist failed to yield right-of-way at an intersection (16.8 percent of all crashes). Within this category, 38 percent involved a bicyclist who had stopped for a sign or flashing signal and then drove into the intersection and was struck by the motor vehicle.
o Bicyclist failed to yield right-of-way at a midblock location (11.7 percent of all crashes). Almost half of these crashes (43.4 percent) involved a bicyclist riding out into the roadway from a residential driveway.

http://www.massbike.org/info/statistics.htm