How Dangerous Are Different Modes Of Transport?
It depends partly how the answer is calculated. In terms of danger for distance travelled, going by air wins out by a big margin. It’s much safer (deaths per billions of passenger km) than rail, which is a bit safer than going on water. Both rail and by boat are much safer than car travel, which is about 16 times safer than walking or cycling. And both walking and cycling are more than twice as safe as going on a 2-wheel motor vehicle. However, you could consider what’s risky about each mode. Deaths from walking on country paths are exceedingly rare. The most dangerous moments of flying are take off and landing. So a 15 day walk on quiet foothpaths might be a lot safer than a few hours of being in a plane practising take-offs and landings. Or you could consider time spent travelling. Assume a cyclist typically travels 20 kmph, and a car travels (on average) 60 kmph. In 1000 hours, the motorist has a 0.017% chance of dying, while the cyclist has a 0.098% chance of death. That makes cycl
