Now if you compare the number of bikes multiply per miles you end up seeing that cars are not more dangerous than bikes.

There are simply more of them, running way more miles.

UK government made a study about it

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/...

> And, as you state, you can only think a bike being dangerous for a pedestrian

Not only.

Directly and indirectly they can cause very dangerous accidents.

Bikers have the tendency to think that everybody is out to kill them.

But if you think about it, everybody else, even bikers when they are not on a bike, think that bikers (or _other_ bikers in case of bikers) are out to kill themselves.

Why?

Because they don't follow the same rules they try to enforce on others.

One example among many, that is easy to spot just looking around: bikers (rightfully) campaign a lot around the concept of safe distance

Here is an example

https://s23705.pcdn.co/wp-content/webp-express/webp-images/d...

But his is how they usually ride in traffic or around pedestrians

https://st.focusedcollection.com/14026668/i/650/focused_1815...

https://www.cyc-lok.ie/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Dublin-cyc...

Do we waanna talk about how they "park"their bikes on the sidewalk so impaired pedestrians (like my mother in law who is legally blind) have a hard time going around alone?

Am I the only one that have seen this?

https://www.repstatic.it/content/localirep/img/rep-firenze/2...

https://nuovavenezia.gelocal.it/image/contentid/policy:1.137...

https://radionbc.it/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/bici-tre-320x...

https://radionbc.it/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/bici-due-320x...

Not that cars are better in this regard, of course!

It's just a different way of being an asshole.

> they account for ... 0.002% of road deaths?

There have been only 8 cyclists dead in Rome in 2018 in over 27 thousands accidents.

it's not even sure they died in an accident with a car, the stats don't say it.

It means one dead every 3,375 accidents.

And yet bikes are the most dangerous way to go around in Italy (statistically, it means that rarely you will have an accident, but if you do, there are much more chances that it will be bad).

> I sometimes feel compelled to break some rules, at my own risk, either to increase my safety, or to make my bike trip reasonable

That sounds about right, but it's simply justification for misbehaviour.

I too feel compelled to break rules, at my own risk, either to increase my safety, or to make my trip reasonable .

But it is wrong and most of the times I don't do it (yes, I'm not perfect, sometimes I break rules too).

When I do it, I don't try to rationalize it, I know I'm simply being a jerk.

> because some roads are impossible to use when on a bike

Then don't use them

Some roads are impossible to walk, I don't walk on them.

I'm not saying I like it or that cyclists are to blame, I'm trying to say that cyclists are human like the rest of us and they break the rules on a bike as much as they do it when they drive.

But it is also true that most bikers and drivers don't, they are only trying to get trough the day, go to work or back home because they have to, not because they are on a mission to kill.

They simply make mistakes, on both sides.

Safety is about being proactive, not passively waiting that someone else fix things for us.

I don't ride with a bike in Rome not because it's too dangerous, but because there are better options for me.

Biking solves none of my mobility problems.

It's too slow when I'm in a hurry.

It's too heavy when I need to travel afar.

It's too weather sensitive, it's almost always either too hot or too cold or too rainy or too windy.

If I'm going to a meeting, I can't be there sweating like a marathoner.

If I wanna do some sport, I go running on Colle Oppio, where I can see the Colosseum.

Not that I despise biking, it's not an efficient mean of transport in my opinion.

> But, let's put things in perspective. Cyclists pay for their mistake

Drivers finance road safety though, directly through taxes (there are a lot of taxes on cars and driving and also on gasoline)

In Italy, for example, money collected from fines for road traffic offense in general must be used by the municipality to enhance or deploy road safety, they can't be used for anything else.

If road safety programs had to be paid with the money taken from cyclists, we wouldn't be doing much.