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[–] 3 points 7 months ago (6 children)

Surely motorcycling, free climbing, BASE jumping, hang gliding, and skiing are deadlier?

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  • [–] 13 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    People’s intuition on risk is wildly off here.

    Skydiving sounds insane, but in the U.S. it’s ~9–10 deaths a year out of millions of jumps (roughly 1 in a few hundred thousand per jump).

    Driving feels normal, but it kills ~40,000+ people every single year.

    So yeah—both involve “transportation,” but the one everyone does casually every day is orders of magnitude deadlier than the one that sounds extreme.

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  • [–] 6 points 7 months ago

    driving is the deadliest method of transportation per kilometre?

    Driving is not the deadliest method of transportation per kilometre which it seems you missed.

    Motorcycling is deadlier, horse riding is even worse and jet skis are the worst that I’m aware of.

    Base jumping would probably be the deadliest but I’m not familiar with the statistics on it.

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  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago (3 children)

    Hmm. Motorcycling might be higher or counted together with driving a car. I forget the stats.

    The others generally aren't used as methods of transportation, but instead are generally recreational activities.

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  • [–] 3 points 7 months ago* (2 children)

    Motorcycling is orders of magnitude more deadly on a person-mile basis. It varies a lot by motorcycle type, experience level, helmet. DUI also statistically has a heavier correlation with fatality in motorcycling (I'm not 100% but my understanding is that motorcycles are significantly harder to operate in such a way that dui effects are multiplied).

    I'm not sure if this is actually relevant to your discussion, I just like to discuss the reality of motorcycling (as a person who rides).

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  • [–] 3 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 child)

    On the flip side if you’re a trained rider, licensed, sober and not riding like you have a death wish the stats aren’t anywhere near as bad.

    And those are all factors you as a motorcyclist have control over. I’m also a motorcyclist and I used to spend a lot of time crunching numbers on the stats.

    I’ve recently been debunking claims that motorcycle fatalities have skyrocketed in Australia. They haven’t, we just have more riders and the stats are being misrepresented following sharp reductions during the covid lockdowns.

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