Here in Michigan with gas prices above $3.50 currently, people are starting to notice more mopeds on the roads. This includes scooters too but with these many consider the dangers due to their low speed. So how credible is this thought?
First lets look at the overall numbers of mopeds registered in the state of Michigan, the 2010 statistics show that there are about 41,000 registered mopeds in MI, which is over double the number of registered moped a decade ago.* Since then I could only find crash statistics for mopeds in the years of 1992 thru 2009 off the Michigan State Police website, this should paint a pretty good picture.
Here are the crash numbers:
Year- Fatalities/Injuries/Property Damage
1992-4/256/78
1993-5/301/69
1994-6/278/92
1995-3/261/77
1996-1/219/76
1997-3/174/69
1998-2/202/67
1999-6/185/75
2000-6/190/89
2001-3/172/80
2002-3/141/85
2003-could not upload report
2004-1/202/83
2005-2/220/60
2006- 3/218/64
2007-could not upload report
2008- 3/315/78
2009- 5/249/68
Using years 2006, 2008, and 2009 and looking through the reports(the only reports with in-depth figures), most fatalities occurred due to a construction zone or due to alcohol. These accounted for 5 of the 11 fatalities with one being due to a bus accident, the rest were not categorized, there was no category for cars. As for injuries most were due to alcohol, construction zones, and deer. Surprisingly there hasn't been a recorded snowmobile/moped accident!
Just looking at the numbers there hasn't been any significant changes, the fatalities, injuries, and property damages seem to change inconsistently yearly. So even with registered mopeds doubling, there is really any big change based on looking at the numbers, of course this is without running it through any statistic algorithms(might run one on excel later...).
*http://www.upi.com/Business_News/2011/06/18/Car-oriented-Michigan-embraces-mopeds/UPI-92351308409280/
No comments:
Post a Comment