I wonder how the bike injury accidents per passenger-mile compare to cars?

I'll bet it is several times higher!

Sheesh!! - no cars around and they still hurt themselves!!

Thanks
JK

The accidents noted were from 2008. I was in this year's ride (for the 11th time overall, including that infamous 2008 ride). No doubt in my mind that this year's crop of accidents were brought on by the same Zoo-Bomber wanna-be's who can't resist downhill free-wheeling despite the numerous volunteers and signs that remind people to slow down. We were often reminded "this is a ride, not a race" and some people just don't want see it that way. Sadly, one or two got to see the pavement up close. For most of the other 15K 'riders,' it was another great event.

Earlier, I had erroneously linked to some 2008 carnage reports. But all the links up now (and for the last couple of hours) are from today.

Did the 10 Bridge ride this morning. Only saw one spill in Produce Row neighborhood.

Started at 6:30 am, and was home by 10:15. Good times with good people.

The evening report says three people were hospitalized, out of 18,000. Pretty good odds, I suppose.

Here are some numbers:
from: http://oregon.gov/DAS/OPB/docs/APPR08/Agency_Links/45_ODOT_pm2.pdf (page 2, page 16 of 95)
Oregon’s traffic injury rate is 80 per 100 million vehicle miles.
National traffic injury rate is 83 per 100 million vehicle miles.

From The Oregonian, http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2010/08/more_than_18000_bicyclists_con.html

More than 18,000 people rode, distance packages: 11.5, 23, 36 miles.
Assuming most took the middle option, that is 23 x 18,000 miles = 414,000 vehicle -miles

There were three injuries requiring hospitalization. That is a rate of one per 138,000 vehicle-miles. Or 724 per 100 million vehicle miles.

This is about 10 times the automobile injury rate. It is also consistent with sketchy Europan data I have seen.

Thanks
JK

Correction:
It is nine times higher than automobiles.

Thanks
JK

compare the accident rates with sports, as this has nothing to do with transportation.
I am amazed more about how the community embraces this event, paying between $25 and $45 for the privlege of riding the bridges. Undoubtedly there are big costs making this happen, and there is a little money funneled to the BTA, but this is mostly a Rick Baughman financial venture that has payed out well over the years.

I would contend that the BTA has a bit too much money being "funneled" to them; but that has nothing to do with this particular event, and everything to do with City Hall.

Bikes rule! Let's confine auto use to a few heavily tolled thoroughfares and close all other streets to motor vehicles. Today.

And the Interstates 5 and 205 are too noisy anyway, so let's shut them down, too.

You want to ride the bus? Start walking to the nearest stop. And remember to savor the fresh air and exercise you're getting on the way.

And don't let anyone tell you this is a bad idea. They're just troglodytes lacking the vision some of us have been blessed with. If you're not on two wheels, you don't matter, anyway.

(jk, JK)

It's good that we have a few people that examine statistical numbers, and then to reexamine them in the several ways they can be interpreted. Thanks Jack and JK.

Who cares?
Much ado about nothing.

It's always nice to see our buddy JK, who wants to make sure we keep on driving our gas guzzlers to support his friends in Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Venezuela, along with heating up the planet and fouling our air so that we can all get fun respiratory diseases sooner rather than later, shedding his crocodile tears over the injuries at the bridge pedal.

As for the ride itself, I was on the 10-bridge ride and I agree to some extent with Mark Mason that the zoobomber wannabes were definitely an annoyance. I'm not sure if they actually caused the serious accidents. I was right behind the two riders who crashed going downhill on the Sellwood Bridge, and it appeared to be a random accident, not caused by recklessness on either rider's part.

I think a lot of the problem is due to the reluctance of road authorities, particularly ODOT, to close even half of the roadways on the bridges. Two years ago the Ross Island Bridge was the disaster - this year the St. Johns Bridge won the booby prize, as ODOT closed only one of the four lanes on the roadway. The amount of road traffic on a Sunday morning could easily have been accommodated with two lanes, one in each direction, rather than three.

Only one lane was open on the Sellwood Bridge, but that bridge should be entirely shut down (and replaced) for many other reasons. I was appalled to see a big Multnomah County PR sign above the bridge telling everyone to "help us plan this bridge," or some such nonsense. With all the dithering that's going on the thing is going to collapse some day and kill a bunch of people.

It also didn't help that the Broadway Bridge was off-limits this year, due to the ridiculous streetcar tracks eastside extension project. The made the Fremont Bridge into a giant u-turn, definitely NOT an improvement.

But, as always, it was fun - I'm glad I went.

It is too bad that some of you that make disparaging remarks about JK, first do not know his ethos. It is quite different than what your remarks indicate in how he lives or who he doesn't represent.

Gordon: It's always nice to see our buddy JK, who wants to make sure we keep on driving our gas guzzlers
JK: Cars are the fastest, cheapest, most energy efficient means of travel - that is why they are so popular. (Before you tout bikes, note that bikes are slow and dangerous compared to cars.) People who think we should give up cars are too economically illiterate to understand that they are advocating we take a big reduction in our standard of living because the efficiency of cars are a significant contributor to our standard of living.

Gordon: to support his friends in Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Venezuela,
JK: It is the people like you in the green movement that are keeping us dependent on imported oil by putting vast oil resources off limits. If we were allowed to drill in all the off limits areas (yes including that frozen wasteland in the arctic) we would have a good chance of being import free. Especially if we were to start using the coal to oil process.

Gordon: along with heating up the planet and
JK: This is pure crap. You haven’t been paying attention. Even Phil Jones, IPCC lead author and CRU head admitted to the BBC that there has been no statistically significantly warming since 1995 and the earth has been cooling since 2002 and that the recent warming cycle was no faster than previous ones, before man’s CO2. See http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8511670.stm

And recent claims of warmest months ever are created by computer projections of a 5 deg rise in arctic temperature where there are no thermometers (or they decided to quit using them and do simulations instead - just another example of fraud by the warming alarmist movement. )

Gordon: fouling our air so that we can all get fun respiratory diseases sooner rather than later,
JK: Cars no longer foul the air. Its buses and that trucks still do. And coal power plants like those that power MAX because the greens won’t let us build nuclear - the only known, practical alternative to coal (wind doesn’t work, solar doesn’t- too expensive & to intermittant.)

Gordon: shedding his crocodile tears over the injuries at the bridge pedal.
JK: I note your lack of caring. So typical of Portland’s progressives. Would you still not care if we got 9 times as many people hurt & killed by banning cars and forcing people onto bikes?

Gordon: I think a lot of the problem is due to the reluctance of road authorities, particularly ODOT, to close even half of the roadways on the bridges.
JK: They should not close any road for bikers. If bikers want exclusive roads, let them contribute to paying for them with a bike tax.

Thanks
JK

To take apart just one of your distortions, JK:

JK: It is the people like you in the green movement that are keeping us dependent on imported oil by putting vast oil resources off limits. If we were allowed to drill in all the off limits areas (yes including that frozen wasteland in the arctic) we would have a good chance of being import free. Especially if we were to start using the coal to oil process.

America imports 12 million barrels a day, and Saudi Arabia only produces 9 million a day. Is there really more undiscovered oil here than in all of Saudi Arabia?

The U.S. has just three percent of known oil reserves; even drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would increase those reserves by less than one-third of one percent.

Coal-to-oil projects are extremely expensive. A single plant capable of producing about 80,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day -- less than 0.5 percent of America's daily oil diet -- would cost an estimated $6 billion or more to build. And then there's that whole greenhouse gas problem, but oh yeah, that's all a hoax, right JK? And burning fossil fuels doesn't cause pollution, apparently, in JK's parallel universe.

And I would think that it takes quite a lot of chutzpah and wishful thinking to still promote unfettered domestic oil production after recent events in the Gulf of Mexico. But chutzpah and wishful thinking seem to be two of JK's sterling qualities.

I always enjoy the drift the comment sections lead to. What started as a discussion of bridgepedal has evolved to a discussion of peak oil and the 'conservative vs liberal' tension.
I don't know that the daily realities we face, either as liberals or conservatives, are any differnt. A city exists as economic centers for the surrounding region, and a place where shipping and manufacturing exists because it makes more sense to do much of it there. That is not to say that rural or less developed parts of an area don't have manufacturing or shipping,etc, but cities succeed because it makes sense to do it there. Portlands, and any cities duties include providing structure and services to support that economic vitality. Another duty of cities is to provide that same structure and services for the benefit of the citizens.
That same road that provides a place for a freight truck, a car and a bicycle needs to be there for everyone. Streets are a major part of the commons, and to limit them to only one class of user flies in the face of reason. If you deny bikes or peds from use of the commons, why not just eliminate the auto too, to free up capacity for freight?
I agree with Gordon about the ever increasing cost and its impact on our daily lives. At the same time, the history of man is never to act responsibly as a whole, but to get mine while the gettings good. We won't ever produce enough oil to keep the whole world moving. We will kill and conquer until, like the end of Mad Max, we have that last drop of gasoline in our hands. Then we will leave it the the next generation to figure out the next steps.
Perhaps the better metaphor would be Scarlett O'haras " I'll worry about tomorrow, tomorrow."
Once I hit the post button, I exect a s***storm to ensue.
Have at it.

Joe, no storm from this direction. Unlike some, I think cars have a major, even dominant, place in our transportation hierarchy (they certainly are dominant in mine). I just don't think they have an exclusive place. To deny them any space on a single Sunday morning in August, as JK advocates in his last post, is truly insane.

Gordon: along with heating up the planet and
JK: This is pure crap. You haven’t been paying attention. Even Phil Jones, IPCC lead author and CRU head admitted to the BBC that there has been no statistically significantly warming since 1995 and the earth has been cooling since 2002 and that the recent warming cycle was no faster than previous ones, before man’s CO2. See http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8511670.stm

Nice massaging of Jones' answers, Jim! After all, you could have also written it this way: "Phil Jones, IPCC lead author and CRU head, admitted to the BBC that there has been no statistically significantly cooling since 2002 and the earth has been warming since 1995."

To take apart just one of your distortions, Gordon:

Gordon: America imports 12 million barrels a day, and Saudi Arabia only produces 9 million a day. Is there really more undiscovered oil here than in all of Saudi Arabia?
JK: We don’t know because the greens prevent exploration of many areas that are known to contain some oil. Don’t forget improved extraction methods that have made areas like the Bakan formation a potential major resource.

Gordon: Coal-to-oil projects are extremely expensive. A single plant capable of producing about 80,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day -- less than 0.5 percent of America's daily oil diet -- would cost an estimated $6 billion or more to build.
JK: First google stasol. You will find the process, which you imply is impractical, used on a daily basis to produce oil from both coal and natural gas.

As to your numbers. $6 billion over 20 years (neglecting interest) is about $800,000 per day. But that 80,000 barrels of oil is worth $6-8 million per day. Sounds reasonable to me.

Gordon: And then there's that whole greenhouse gas problem, but oh yeah, that's all a hoax, right JK?
JK: Right. Al Gore has already made millions off of it. And he has stock in companies that rely on government mandated carbon reduction to make money. And he has even admitted to lying to get people into action. He plainly lied about CO2 & temperature in the ice cores. What more do you want? It is all a lie to make money. See SustainableOregon.com

Gordon: And burning fossil fuels doesn't cause pollution, apparently, in JK's parallel universe.
JK: And your alternative to fossil fuels is.....? Keep in mind that neither wind or solar are capable of replacing fossil fuels. That only leaves nuclear or a reduction in our standard of living, with millions dying because of the lower standard of living. Is that what you are advocating?

Gordon: And I would think that it takes quite a lot of chutzpah and wishful thinking to still promote unfettered domestic oil production after recent events in the Gulf of Mexico.
JK: You mean that oil spill that has now been almost completely cleaned up? Perhaps you missed the Daily Mail story: Disaster that never was: Why claims that BP created history's worst oil spill may be the most cynical spin campaign ever By David Jones, 6th August 2010.:
Strolling along the beach for an hour, I found just one, pea-sized tar-ball which crumbled to nothing between my fingers.

When, as a young boy, I played on Morecambe beach in Lancashire, worse things often washed up from the nearby ICI refinery.

Moreover, if the U.S. TV news crews had returned just three days after their original visit, they would have seen that the black morass had already been removed by some of the 20,000 clean-up workers hired by BP.

Gordon: But chutzpah and wishful thinking seem to be two of JK's sterling qualities.
JK: Look in the mirror. And quit being a sucker for every scare story that comes along.

Thanks
JK

Pete: Nice massaging of Jones' answers, Jim! After all, you could have also written it this way: "Phil Jones, IPCC lead author and CRU head, admitted to the BBC that there has been no statistically significantly cooling since 2002 and the earth has been warming since 1995."
JK: Can we agree that, either way, there is no case for rapid (ie: dangerous) warming and in fact the warming has mostly ceased. Especially after Jones verifying that the rate of warming is the same for the previous four warming cycles, the earliest of which were before much CO2 emission by man.

Of course the statement that more accurately reflects Jones’s answers is:
There has been no statistically significantly warming since 1995 and non-statistically significant cooling since 2002.
Or:
Nothing significant has happened for 15 years.

And after a period of unusually high solar activity, not seen for many decades, the sun has entered a state similar to that preceding the little ice age. I hope you are up enough on climate to be aware of the unusually long time without sunspots and what happened the last time.

BTW, did you know that the actual temperature data (before massaging) shows the 1930s quit a bit warmer than now?

Thanks
JK

Geez... You are forgetting to talk about the Gulf of Tonkin and how our insatiable desire for oil led us into a trumped up war (er police action) in Viet Nam. And you all are forgetting to talk about how the US propped up the evil Shah of Iran because he represented oil and look what abyss that turned into not just for the US but for the poor people of Iran.

Look, I think cars have a place, a big one as Tri-Met continues to be less of a reality for most of the metro area. But I think that alternative energy needs to be used to power cars. Bikes are impractical for a lot of people for a lot of reasons, age, infirmity, handicap, lack of safe places to ride/commute. We have the infrastructure for cars.

Big oil has a vested interest in capping the competition that tries to create new forms of energy. And it's exacerbated by a patent office that takes 3 years to process a patent filing and a system that allows big corporations to violate patents and then forcibly buy out the owner of the patent.

JK: Cars no longer foul the air. Its buses and that trucks still do.

Another "mis-statement." From this source:

http://www.epa.gov/reg5oair/mobile/auto_emis.html

Efforts by government and industry since 1970 have greatly reduced typical vehicle emissions. In those same years, however, the number of miles we drive has more than doubled. The increase in travel has offset much of the emission control progress.

The net result is a modest reduction in each automotive pollutant except lead, for which aggregate emissions have dropped by more than 95 percent.
With ozone continuing to present a persistent urban air pollution problem, future vehicle emission control programs will emphasize hydrocarbon and nitrogen oxide reductions. Carbon monoxide control will remain critical in many cities, and limits on vehicle-generated carbon dioxide may become important in the future.