One of the great things about getting older is calling my parents and getting to spend 20 minutes talking about their frustrations with their new microwave.

Mom: “did you ever get your bike back?”
Me: “No, unfortunately I—“
Mom: “Simon Cowell crashed his e bike.”
Me: “—sorry, what?”
Me: “Remember Simon Cowell?”
Me: “What?”
Mom: “Your sister was a big American Idol fan.”
Me: “___.”

Picking up this thread for just a bit: Yes, my mom’s Simon Cowell comment is very mom-like. But, real talk here: I think this actually highlights a pretty big disconnect in the way a lot of people view risk and traffic violence.

In my mom’s world, the biggest threat to me as an e-bike rider was that the same thing would happen to me that happened to Simon. Namely, my extremely powerful, motorcycle-esque bike would careen out of control and throw me off of it.

When I responded to her by noting that the biggest threat to my safety on a bike—any bike—was other drivers, she literally paused, then said “well I guess that’s true.” It’s not something she really had given much thought to.

Simon Cowell getting thrown off his bike made headlines on CNN, so that’s the lens through which she views bike riding safety. Meanwhile, multiple people in my city have been struck and killed by drivers this past week. But those don’t make national news...

I don’t think my mom is being willfully ignorant or obtuse. It’s just not something she thinks about, and I don’t think she is alone in that. So many people never, ever pause to think that the most dangerous thing they’ll do on a given day is get behind the wheel of a car.