Re: Life expectancy of motorcyclists...
I've been considering getting a full motorbike license and a half decent bike (been riding a scooter around the city for a few years) and did some quick calculations as to the danger of driving a bike.
Motorcyclists deaths in UK due to accident:
2007 - 517, 2008 - 477, 2009 - 421, 2010 - 347
With around 1 million active motorcyclists in the UK, that's a 1 in 3000 chance of dying on your bike each year. With the UK death rate sitting around 500k, if everyone drove bikes, this would increase to 522k. The chance of the average person dying in the UK is 0.00798% in any given year (of course this changes with age). If we slap on the chance of dying from a motorbike accident to this, it's 0.00829% (a difference of 0.00036%). So a 1/126 chance changes to a 1/120. So for example, let's assume the average life expectancy for someone my age is 90 and I decided I was going to ride a motorbike for the next 10 years - going by these simple numbers, my life expectancy would be reduced to 89.6 years.
HOWEVER, I don't think the average motorcyclist (that only drives a motorbike) can be considered the same as the average UK resident. I am inclined to believe they are less likely prone to alcoholism and it's detrimental effects, live happier lives (happier people live longer), are better off financially (bikes are cheaper than cars in every way). So I am inclined to think that that 0.00798% that applies to your typical person is not valid for your typical motorcyclist - I feel the number will be less. And I wonder whether this difference is more than 0.00036%, because if it were it would mean getting a motorbike instead of a car would increase my life expectancy
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Opinions?