Worth of a cyclist.

I spent about 20min on the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration and frankly I am now more frightened at the thought of
how truly un-valued cyclists are.

Check this out: The National Highway Safety Administration uses a
nation-wide census system called.....drum role please....FARS, which
stands for Fatality Analysis Reporting System.

Fitting name, don't you think?

FARS is supposedly a "cooperative agreement with an agency in each State
government to provide specific information in a standard format on fatal
crashes occurring in the State."

There appears to be no consistency between which agency is used in each
state to collect fatality data...some use the police, some the highway
patrol, some have dedicated traffic accident investigators, etc. It's
basically a hoj-poj of folks who, based on available budget, get
"trained" to "investigate" fatalities based on a "standard protocol."

Okay, not a problem as we'll put our faith in the hands of the training
system used to educate these civil servants to do their job properly and
consistently.... However, we'll keep in mind that garbage in, garbage
out...meaning the value of the the FARS data is only as good as the data
collected and inputed by FARS agents, which also makes us put faith in
the computer systems and software to properly collect, store and report
the data. Diddy, there is business in there for you!!!

Adding insult to injury: "The State employees who gather, translate, and
transmit the data are called *FARS Analysts*."
These are the dudes and dudettes that showed up at the scene when Don
and Bob licked the pavement.....and, to my
anal-retentive-influenced-highly-protective-of-my-fellow-cyclists
personality, they were good at a lot of things and missed the boat on a
lot of other things. Reflecting back, I am not convinced that they were
thorough with their data gathering activities and certainly not
objective with their analysis of the probable cause of the crash. Don't
get me wrong...an army of them showed up but I'm not sure if they were
all objective with their work.

Further, FARS has an online query system that can be used to access
historical accident and fatality reports dating back to 1994 here:
http://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov Except, there is no query option to pull
up "Pedacycle" (as they like to call cyclists) reports. well, none that
I found for historical queries. they have query options for every kind
of vehicle you can imagine (see below list if interested), 99 all in
all...but no option for cyclists....which makes me wonder where they get
this data from, how the data on cycling-related accidents is collected,
etc. and, ultimately, how much faith can be put into this data.

The REPORTS tab has information on Pedacycle incidents and accidents. A
quick review of these makes you realize how generalized the accidents
reports are and how subjective the data is based on the objective and
subjective nature of the person investigating each accident involving a
cyclist.

Finally, either way, I believe we need legislation that entices, nay,
forces motorists to be more aware of cyclists on the roads.
Unfortunately, the way our culture works, legislation should slap
violators with heftier penalties with grosser violations. Same formula
that has been adopted for driving under the influence, same formula for
non-hands-free-cell-use, same formula for texting while driving.

If you injure, hurt, kill a cyclist using your car, you will be punished
accordingly and legislation will scare motorists enough that hopefully
more attention will be paid next time the sudden need for a right turn
arises.

My old finance prof at USD used to tell us that if you hit a bicyclist
with your car, put it in reverse and finish the job.

That's what it is really...it comes down to us fighting for the
attention and awareness of motorists.

Man, I'm all fired up.... I should run for city assembly or something....

List of vehicles used by FARS to track traffic accidents:

-1 Blank
1 Convertible(excludes Sun-roof,t-bar)
2 2-door Sedan,hardtop,coupe
3 3-door/2-door Hatchback
4 4-door Sedan, Hardtop
5 5-door/4-door Hatchback
6 Station Wagon (excluding Van And Truck Based)
7 Hatchback, Number Of Doors Unknown
8 Sedan/Hardtop, Number Of Doors Unknown
9 Other Or Unknown Automobile Type
10 Auto-based Pickup (includes E1 Camino, Caballero, Ranchero, Subaru
Brat,Rabbit Pickup)
11 Auto-based Panel (cargo Station Wagon, Auto-based Ambulance Or Hearse)
12 Large Limousine-more Than Four Side Doors Or Stretched Chassis
13 Three-wheel Automobile Or Automobile Derivative
14 Compact Utility (Jeep CJ-2-CJ-7, Scrambler, Golden Eagle, Renegade,
Laredo, Wrangler, .....)
15 Large Utility (includes Jeep Cherokee [83 And Before], Ramcharger,
Trailduster, Bronco-fullsize ..)
16 Utility Station Wagon (includes Suburban Limousines, Suburban,
Travellall, Grand Wagoneer)
19 Utility, Unknown Body Type
20 Minivan (Chrysler Town And Country, Caravan, Grand Caravan, Voyager,
Grand Voyager, Mini-Ram, ...)
21 Large Van (B150-B350, Sportsman, Royal Maxiwagon, Ram, Tradesman,
Voyager [83 And Before], .....)
22 Step Van Or Walk-in Van
28 Other Van Type (Hi-Cube Van, Kary)
29 Unknown Van Type
30 Compact Pickup (GVWR <4,500 Lbs.) (D50,Colt P/U, Ram 50, Dakota,
Arrow Pickup [foreign], Ranger, ..)
31 Standard Pickup (GVWR 4,500 To 10,00 Lbs.)(Jeep Pickup, Comanche,
Ram Pickup, D100-D350, ......)
32 Pickup With Slide-in Camper
33 Convertible Pickup
39 Unknown (pickup Style) Light Conventional Truck Type
40 Cab Chassis Based (includes Light Stake, Light Dump, Light Tow,
Rescue Vehicles)
41 Truck Based Panel
42 Light Truck (van-based Or Pickup-based) Motorhome
45 Other Light Conventional Truck Type (includes Stretched Suburban
Limousine)
48 Unknown Light Truck Type (not A Pickup)
49 Unknown Light Vehicle Type (automobile, Van, Or Light Truck)
50 School Bus
51 Cross Country/Intercity Bus (i.e., Greyhound)
52 Transit Bus (City Bus)
58 Other Bus Type
59 Unknown Bus Type
60 Step Van
61 Single Unit Straight Truck (10,000 Lbs < GVWR < Or= 19,500 Lbs)
62 Single Unit Straight Truck (19,500 Lbs < GVWR < Or= 26,000 Lbs.)
63 Single Unit Straight Truck (GVWR > 26,000 Lbs.)
64 Single Unit Straight Truck (GVWR Unknown)
65 Medium/heavy Truck Based Motorhome
66 Truck-tractor (Cab Only, Or With Any Number Of Trailing Unit; Any
Weight)
67 Medium/Heavy Pickup
71 Unknown If Single Unit Or Combination Unit Medium Truck (10,000 <
GVWR < 26,000)
72 Unknown If Single Unit Or Combination Unit Heavy Truck (GVWR > 26,000)
73 Camper Or Motorhome, Unknown Truck Type
78 Unknown Medium/heavy Truck Type
79 Unknown Truck Type (light/medium/heavy)
80 Motorcycle
81 Moped (motorized Bicycle)
82 Three-wheel Motorcycle Or Moped - Not All-Terrain Vehicle
83 Off-road Motorcycle (2-wheel)
88 Other Motored Cycle Type(minibikes, Motorscooters)
89 Unknown Motored Cycle Type
90 ATV (All-Terrain Vehicle; Includes Dune/swamp Buggy - 3 Or 4 Wheels)
91 Snowmobile
92 Farm Equipment Other Than Trucks
93 Construction Equipment Other Than Trucks (includes Graders)
97 Other Vehicle Type (includes Go-cart, Fork-lift, City Street Seeeper)
99 Unknown Body Type

Pedacyclist should be in this list.