Here’s a perfect example of the kind of reasoning that fits Humble Americans for Math and Reason.

Mr. Money Mustache (funny name, but insanely popular blogger) writes that bicycling is a much safer form of transportation than cars.

Here’s the Money quote:

Under even the most pessimistic of assumptions:

Net effect of driving a car at 65mph for one hour: Dying 20 minutes sooner. (18 seconds of life lost per mile)

Net effect of riding a bike at 12mph for one hour: Living 2 hours and 36 minutes longer(about 13 minutes of life gained per mile)

The full post is quite extensive.

And I want to highlight some HAMR angles on this.

First, the he’s done the math. I do a lot of cycling, but generally believe it is dangerous. Now I’m much less worried and more likely to cycle more in the city. Thank you Mr. Money Mustache for digging up the statistics.

Second, there’s a value system here, which is personal health. It doesn’t cover other value systems like societal benefits of a health population or impact of cars on climate change.

Third, there’s tons of room for humility, i.e. additional analysis. Is this different based on geography, i.e. riding in rural Iowa vs. riding in New York City? I’ve ridden in both and found Iowa surprisingly dangerous. Is there data on other injuries below fatalities?