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A few days in the past, fellow blogger Tony posted this: Most forms of exercise are overwhelmingly safe – but don’t ignore the dangers. Thanks, Tony. It’s based mostly on an fascinating study lately printed within the journal Harm Prevention [1]. By analyzing accident statistics in England and Wales within the interval 2012-2017, they got here up with damage charges for varied exercise-related actions. Biking had an damage fee of two.8 per 100,000 outings, whereas strolling had 0.03 per 100,000, and health actions (e.g. fitness center participation) had 0.21 per 100,000. All of those are comparatively low, I’m solely prone to get injured about as soon as each 33,000 rides, and it may be argued that the well being advantages of the exercise outweigh the damage threat. However observe that biking had 100 occasions the damage fee of strolling. So it is smart to do no matter potential to reduce the dangers. That is very true in my case, as within the few years I’ve been penning this log, I’ve accrued the train advantages of many hours of exercise. However I’ve additionally: damaged a collarbone in a motorbike crash, ripped my rotator cuff in a mountaineering fall, and needed to go to the hospital for a head trauma (fortunately not too extreme).
For biking, listed here are some apparent security measures:
- Accident threat larger at night time than in the course of the day, so if potential keep away from using at night time, in any other case have good lighting and brilliant reflective clothes.
- Accident threat is larger at busy roads on rush hour. Driving at these occasions could also be unavoidable for bike commuting, nevertheless it helps to seek out alternate routes on quieter roads. Again within the late Seventies I used to be commuting from Mountain View Ca to Palo Alto. Palo Alto is now thought-about a bike-friendly metropolis however was significantly much less so again then. I keep in mind my route went midway on Central Expressway, which had a pleasant bike lane, however then changed into Alma Ave, a busy road with no bike lane and a slender shoulder. I rapidly mapped out a route that prevented Alma Ave through the use of quieter streets, in any other case I won’t be right here to put in writing this weblog.
I used to be already doing measures like these and others like protecting my bike well-maintained. My current accident induced me to rethink what I might need achieved in a different way, and I got here up with: Use fatter tires. The bike I crashed on is taken into account a “gravel bike” and will have been sure-footed on the street I used to be on. It got here with 32 mm vast tires, and once they wore out I changed them with 25 mm to be sooner. Security first! I’ll be placing 32s again on the bike quickly. I’ve additionally at all times prided myself on being a “fearless descender”. For the reason that crash occurred on a downhill flip, I feel it’s time to reasonably take pleasure in being a “cautious descender”.
References
- Davies M, Lawrence T, Edwards A, et al, “Sport-related main trauma incidence in younger folks and adults in England and Wales: a nationwide registry-based examine”, Harm Prevention Revealed On-line First: 24 October 2023. doi: 10.1136/ip-2023-044887.
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