You're not campaigning to increase the number of dogs on the road, you are aiming to increase the number of cyclists.
At the moment, the main worry is car/cycle interactions and car/person; however let us say all cars vanish and everyone who drove now cycles. You're now going to have a LOT more cycle/cycle and cycle/person interactions. Indeed, without the requirements of formal road training (I.e. a license) you're going to see injuries from cycle incidents in every city daily. It's a matter of probability, more so an increasing one.
Then again, "dog causes 50 person pile up" might well mandate stronger laws for dog owners, with cyclists pushing for it. So perhaps it isn't so much apples Vs oranges and more failing to appreciate scale - that the issue isn't the apples and oranges, but the sheer number of them!
You're really hitting the nail on the head with this analogy. If you replaced all the cars with cyclists then yes you'd increase the number of cycle accidents, but no one of those cyclists would be capable of causing anywhere even remotely near the level of carnage one car driver can cause. In fact, the amount of damage a single cyclist can cause would decrease with fewer cars on the road, given that at present the worst damage a cyclist can cause is by indirectly causing a car driver to crash.
Apples and oranges friend.
You're not campaigning to increase the number of dogs on the road, you are aiming to increase the number of cyclists.
At the moment, the main worry is car/cycle interactions and car/person; however let us say all cars vanish and everyone who drove now cycles. You're now going to have a LOT more cycle/cycle and cycle/person interactions. Indeed, without the requirements of formal road training (I.e. a license) you're going to see injuries from cycle incidents in every city daily. It's a matter of probability, more so an increasing one.
Then again, "dog causes 50 person pile up" might well mandate stronger laws for dog owners, with cyclists pushing for it. So perhaps it isn't so much apples Vs oranges and more failing to appreciate scale - that the issue isn't the apples and oranges, but the sheer number of them!
You're really hitting the nail on the head with this analogy. If you replaced all the cars with cyclists then yes you'd increase the number of cycle accidents, but no one of those cyclists would be capable of causing anywhere even remotely near the level of carnage one car driver can cause. In fact, the amount of damage a single cyclist can cause would decrease with fewer cars on the road, given that at present the worst damage a cyclist can cause is by indirectly causing a car driver to crash.