Exercise but be safe

[James Marusek 5,244]

When I was young I thought I would try and lose a little weight by bicycling to and from work. After a few months, I gave that up because it was way too unsafe. On the way home people would pass me in cars going around 50 or 60 miles per hour, get within a razor thin distance from my bike and then honk their horns. Even the slightest knee jerk reaction would have caused a serious accident. And it would be me, the bicyclist, that would be on the way to the hospital. This didn't happen once or twice but was almost a daily occurrence. So I retired the bike.

After weight loss surgery, many take to the roads in bicycles for exercise.

Are the steep rise in accidents, and the billions of dollars in annual medical expenses and costs associated with them, worth this push towards expanded two-wheeled transportation?

This observation comes to the fore in the wake of a recent study of a 17-year period published in the journal Injury Prevention which stated that, "Each year, the total costs associated with non-fatal adult bicycle trauma increased by an average of $789 million," and that "Medical costs increased by 137% from $885 million in 1997 to $2.1 billion in 2013."

Meanwhile, the "number of adult cycling injuries increased by approximately 6,500 annually," and the authors added, "Over the last 15 years in the USA, the incidence of hospital admissions due to bicycle crashes increased by 120%."

http://www.acsh.org/news/2017/06/05/more-bike-commuting-more-crashes-skyrocketing-medical-bills-11383

Exercise is good. But it is not worth your life if you have an major accident. Seek a route that has minimal threats, such as a bike trail. Analyze each close call and stay safe.