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The recent correspondence on the safety of cycling in Holland (‘Road safety rule’, Jean Karl Soler, April 6) has been brought to our attention. We would like to respond as follows.

That “25 per cent of road fatalities in 2011 were cyclists” is not a strange figure, since 26% of all rides are made by cyclists.

“The road fatality rate per kilometre travelled by cyclists was more than three times higher than that for car drivers this is comparing apples with pears, as we say in the Netherlands. It’s comparing long-distance highway journeys with short distance inner-city rides. According to OECD the fatality rate per kilometre for cyclists in the Netherlands is the lowest in the world. When comparing with car accidents, counting per trip gives a much better comparison.

“The serious injury rate for cyclists, moped riders and motorcyclists has been increasing in the Netherlands year by year, while that for car occupants has been falling steadily.” Safety on the Dutch highways has improved enormously in the last decades. These are now among the safest in the world.

Improvements in cycle infrastructure resulted in a steady increase in the number of cyclists and an enormous decrease in injuries and casualties since 1980.

In recent years this growth has matched injury rates. We conclude that cycling in the Netherlands is extremely safe. What we do see is that people in the Netherlands keep cycling longer as they get older. Elderly people are more vulnerable to injury and this is what we see in the figures.

“Serious injury rate for cyclists is actually higher when the accident does not involve a car.” This proves the success of the Dutch ‘sustainable safety’ approach, to make safe bicycle paths on all main roads and slow down car traffic on all minor roads. Therefore the number of bike/car accidents decreased dramatically. This leaves unilateral accidents, such as collisions with poles, ramps, kerbs etc. Designing ‘forgiving cycle paths’ is an important issue now.

Misinterpreting statistics is easy. To make useful conclusions you need to know underlying facts and the right context. It is better to talk about ‘traffic health’ than about ‘traffic safety’. Air pollution has a far bigger impact on the life expectancy of cyclists than accidents. And the daily use of a bicycle has an enormous impact on health. Daily cyclists live about 200 days longer than daily car drivers.