In a private capacity please allow me to place Jean Soler’s letter ‘Road safety rules for all’ (November 16) into context.

Soler attempts to prove that cycling is dangerous (in Malta), based upon cycling fatality rates in the Netherlands, a country with a greater population where there are far more cyclists making far more trips. Therefore, cycling fatalities in the Netherlands in 2010 may seem high but, in reality, this is only approximately one fatality per 100,000 inhabitants. The equivalent bicycle mortality rate for Malta, using the Netherlands mortality rate, would be roughly 0.05 per 100,000 inhabitants or about one death in every 13 years!

Cycling fatalities in Malta are, thankfully, very rare occurrences, almost to the point of being unrecordable in some EU records. When they have occurred, they have resulted in a fatality rate of less than 0.25 per 100,000 inhabitants.

It is therefore very unlikely that one can use such figures to say that cycling is dangerous, either in the Netherlands or Malta. In fact, the complete opposite, that it might be a less dangerous mode of transport, with significant health and social benefits, might be found to be true.