Thread by @Pflax1

You ever notice how news reporters for TV and newspaper outlets go to AAA for comments when they're writing a story about bicycle safety? That's an organization with an agenda—and it's agenda is not helping bike riders stay alive.

What put the topic in my head this morning was this news story out of Tampa. The lede is about another cyclists getting hit by a hit and run and how statistically the Tampa area may be the most dangerous in the nation.
wfla.com/mobile/hundred…

So this is the point where the writer turns to AAA for insight on this terrible problem.

Part of this is on the "journalist" and the editor. If you're publishing a story about a bike rider who got hit by someone driving with headlights off and then left the scene, grabbing a two paragraphs from a press release about helmets and bright clothes is amazingly tone death.

So, I went to Google and found the "survey" mentioned in the story. Here's AAA's response to news that Florida is the deadliest state in the US for bike riders. It's just a bald-faced attempt to push nearly all the blame on the people getting killed.
media.acg.aaa.com/may-is-bike-sa…

What I'd ask AAA and the NBC reporter: Are bike riders dying in Tampa because they're worse at wearing helmets & bright clothing than riders elsewhere? Or is the problem crazy sprawl, crap road design, weak law enforcement, poor legal protections & a culture of dangerous driving?

Plain and simple the agenda of AAA is to make life smoother for the motoring public. The org understands that cyclists dying is bad for everyone but they relentlessly deflect responsibility for drivers. Just like the NRA will never admit that more gun regulation would save lives.

Anyway, after more googling, I found this entity called the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. Interesting. They fund and support and publish "research" on this broad topic. You can learn a lot about this organization's soul from this web site.
aaafoundation.org

I was surprised to see a channel devoted to "VULNERABLE ROAD USERS." This is my jam! But when I clicked through, there was no research about folks walking or riding bikes. It seems AAA defines vulnerable road users as elderly drivers! There's some rhetorical jiu jitsu for you!

When I read some of this research, I learned elderly rural drivers face isolation if they lose driving privileges. That older drivers make surprising adjustments to their loss of motor skills. Basically that older drivers are vulnerable because society thinks they're dangerous.

To tie up my rant, I feel obligated to say out loud that Florida has 3.3 million licensed drivers over the age of 65 and leads the nation in fatal crashes involving seniors. Maybe more than helmets and hi viz, this explains a decent chunk of why people are dying in Tampa?

Exec summary: AAA ignores disturbing data about older drivers & instead defines them as vulnerable road users, responding to record numbers of riders dying by urging helmets/hi viz. They're free to pursue an agenda but the public/media shouldn't look to them for credible insight.