Actually, when measured pe rmile travelled, air travel is safest. When measured per passenger transported, busses are the safest.

when measered by height, 6'0" is safest.

wait, per miles travelled, how does the space shuttle compare?

I think walking is safest.

Teleportation is best.

My "Caterpillar" freight train ( model train & battery power'd )
came off the track at Dead Man's Bend
& a flat top loaded with a Grader blocked the Scalextric track
& the silver Scalextric Mercedes Benz with the Jeremy Clarkson dolly crashed
into the flat top & Grader & the Jeremy Clarkson doll got a bit mangled

I could accept responsibility on behalf of the shareholders and management for
an inadequate maintenance program, but I'd rather blame the dead Train Crew
for breaching the recently introduced reduced Speed Limits at Dead Man's Bend
( reduced speed limits caused by poor track condition & I hope the Train Crew read that obscure memorandum on Safety notifying them of reduced speed limit at Dead Man's Bend)

Is that allegorical enough for y'all ????

Draugnar: I think I saw you post out of the corner of my eye the other day about about how good health insurance is easy to get in the United States and how only a fool can't manage to get him- or herself covered. You don't have the best track record here in my eyes. What's your source?

Jece - I never said that. Quite the opposite. When I was self employed, I couldn't get any health insurance for myself and coveragevfor my wife was $800 per month. You must be mistaking me with someone else.

As far as my source for safest form of transportation, Google safest form of transportation. One of the first links up there said air travel by mile and bus by number of passengers, although I'd bet train is pretty damm close. It's just that, at least in the US, buses are more common than subways and light rail.

This was what I originally found...

http://www.omg-facts.com/Sports/Flying-Is-The-Safest-Form-Of-Civilian-Tr/15450

But thie table here lays it out
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aviation_safety

This table indicates that Bus is #1 in two of three categories (deaths per billion journeys and deaths per billion hours) and #2 in deaths per billion kilometers. Air is #1 for distance but not nearly as good int he other two categories. Rail is right behind bus in every category.

And as I saw it mentioned earlier, the only place Space Shuttle doesn't come in dead last (pun intended) is distance where it comes in 7th, behind car.

Of the common forms of transportation (Space Shuttle isn't exactly something everyone flies every day), motorcycle comes in last in all three categories.

I'd say train and plane are much, much safer than car. But who can beat yacht travel?

for long distances, plane is safest. For medium and short, bus and train are neck-n-neck. But cars and bicycles are more practicle.

practical.

I'm still dreaming of the day that northeastern NA installs a first class train system. 3 hrs for Toronto to Montreal. 2.5 for Montreal to Boston. NY to Toronto in 4. Fuck, that'd be awesome.

Never mind the fact that we can't figure out municipal transport here in Toronto let alone provincially.

Really, what I'm trying to say is that trains are awesome and I want more.

I loved them in Germany. Always on time. Clean. Efficient. Fast enough.

The trains in Germany were great. Even the subways and trams were pretty nice.

I would really love to see a high speed train in the USA, but right now, there's just not enough money for it. It would be quite a project though that would really open us up in my mind if it were cheaper than planes at the same time rate (without hours of waiting) or even quicker.

That would obviously cost a ton though so not happening any time soon.

Draugnar: Maybe I did mix you up with someone else. Not that it would be surprising to me if you said something like that. ;-)

Your references sound interesting. I'll take a look at them later. I guess it's hard to know what category is best. It probably makes most sense to look at deaths per passenger ride in similar categories (municipal, greater metropolitan, regional/national inter-city, trans-continental, trans-Atlantic, etc.).

And about fast: I heard the president of Adif say the other day that the train which crashed, going 190+ km/h, is not considered 'high-speed'; high speed trains go 300 or 350 km/h and have never had a crash in their 50-year history anywhere, be it in Spain or Japan.

(Adif is the state agency responsible for maintaining and expanding the Spanish rail network.)

@JECE - Whatever... Check your references next time and you won't look like an asshole. :-)