Cars vs. bikes

A quarter of Canadians think it’s unsafe to cycle on city streets, a State Farm Canada poll found. That’s hardly surprising, since of the 20 per cent of respondents who bike on busy streets, more than half have been in or know someone who has been in a cycling accident.

According to Statistics Canada, nearly 7,500 cyclists are seriously injured every year. And the danger to a cyclist increases significantly if someone bikes while impaired or texting—something that 36 per cent of city cyclists admit to, according to the State Farm poll.

The survey also found cyclists and drivers are equally likely to find the other annoying on the road.

“Motorists and cyclists have had a contentious relationship for years…” says John Bordignon, a State Farm spokesperson. “Small things to drivers, like drainage grates and potholes, are major dangers to cyclists. Cyclists that disobey traffic laws or take up lane space en masse can have motorists seeing red.”

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Copyright © 2016 Transcontinental Media G.P. This article first appeared in the August 2016 edition of Canadian Insurance Top Broker magazine

This story was originally published by Canadian Insurance Top Broker.