Biking Safety

[Hamish]

I'm wanting to get a road bike soon but so far my main stumbling block is the missus. She's convinced that I'm signing my life away and that if i get on a bike i'm a gonner.
Does anyone know of any links that show that biking responsibly, with proper training is comparable in safety to a car? I'll only be using it for commuting into London so if there are statistics that show that urban, slow speed riding is safe it would be awesome!

Currently I'm riding a dirt bike in the desert which she doesn't have a problem with as 'it's only sand' and there's no cars to hit into! Yeah right, my mate broke both his arms last month landing in a hole in the sand!

 

[Hamish]

Thanks for the info! I'm hoping to turn her around by giving her the mental image of me as an suited guy on a scooter rather than a weekend warrior on a sportbike!

 

[Hamish]

Having second thoughts about getting a bike now. On the dirtbikes out here a lot of my friends have broken bones in the last year, off the top of my head 3xcollarbones, 3xwrists, 1xfinger. That doesn't bother me, you can heal up.
The thing that really hit me was a friend of mine was riding in December with his mate behind him, riding along a road in the desert and crossing to get to the dunes on the other side. Mate looked and crossed, his mate didnt look. Got hit from behind by a landcruiser at ~120kph. From what I heard it wasn't pretty, he got tangled up in the wheelarch and twisted up pretty bad, killed almost instantly.
I know it was his own fault but I keep thinking that one little lack of judgement by you or someone else and that's it. I know anything could kill you and it probably won't happen to you, but when you're flying through the air into oncoming traffic at 50mph because someone pulled out on you, you're not going to be thinking that, just wishing you could turn back time.