Dan_Ashley
New member
I am a retired cop, college professor, and statistics prof by trade. You cannot compare motorcycle crashes with three wheel vehicle crashes because the data is completely unreliable. So, in an effort to quantify how much safer a trike is than a two wheeler I decided to use fatality data. Motorcycle fatalities are very well researched and fairly well reported. I think that the difference in fatalities would represent differences in overall safety. Clearly my study would need to be normalized for age, sex, years of riding, etc. So I got started.
What I found out was surprising. I expected three wheel motorcycles to be safer...but not by the margin I found. According to the National Transportation Safety Agency, there were a little over 4,600 deaths on two wheelers in 2011. In 2011, on three wheel motorcycles there were four (4). Not fourteen, not four hundred, FOUR. I can't do meaningful statistics on a population of four--nobody can.
So, to answer the question: there is no doubt the Spyder is safer than any two wheeler. However, it cannot be quantified.
What I found out was surprising. I expected three wheel motorcycles to be safer...but not by the margin I found. According to the National Transportation Safety Agency, there were a little over 4,600 deaths on two wheelers in 2011. In 2011, on three wheel motorcycles there were four (4). Not fourteen, not four hundred, FOUR. I can't do meaningful statistics on a population of four--nobody can.
So, to answer the question: there is no doubt the Spyder is safer than any two wheeler. However, it cannot be quantified.
