I have come onto the forum to find lots of offended posters! Peasjam I am sorry (but a bit surprised) that you feel so offended. Actually I thought your response was quite rude but I am not offended by you as it is all part of being in a forum where nobody sees anybody face to face and stamps out three line answers (sometimes there is no time to do anything else like do a bit of research). I thought Mussels was rude too and his comments seemed like point scoring to me.
This thread seems to be divided into those who think deaths are inevitable, not much can be done and those who are outraged by them. I think there should be public outrage at the diverging of the accident rates between different groups. I think there are many factors that are causing death rates to go down in other groups but possibly causing more deaths in cyclists. Two things come to mind. The wholesale adoption of passive safety measures in cars - ABS, safety cells etc, (the improved comfort as well) isolates drivers from the real dangers on the road. Also road engineering does the same. Great for the pedestrian to have an island to cross to but not great to be overtaken by a truck at the same point. Some islands have no purpose other than to force the traffic to weave to slow down but take no account of what happens to cyclists.
I was talking to a non cyclist who was also outraged by the number of deaths (here in London at the beginning of the year, they were being reported at a rate of one or two a week). He wanted cycling discouraged rather than encouraged, especially here in London. Personally I would want more cycling as the more we have on the roads the more accepted we would be (if only the cyclist would be better behaved).
