I recently read a book about the history of cars in my country [0], and how they came to dominate. It's quite astonishing how quickly we went from the streets belonging to the people, to the few privileged owning a car taking all that space. In 1920, 15 pedestrians were killed with only 2000 cars in the country. Instead of that being a killing blow to the cars, the rich people owning cars organized. They had power and stood together, and managed to make it so that it was "uncultured people walking in the road getting run over". Some of these organizations still exist today, like Trygg Trafikk ("Safe Traffic"), and they're true to their roots: they're not really advocating for less traffic deaths, they're advocating for making it easier to drive everywhere in the guise of promoting "safety".
> In 1920, 15 pedestrians were killed with only 2000 cars in the country. Instead of that being a killing blow to the cars, the rich people owning cars organized.
What's missing in this analysis is a comparison to the numbers of injuries and fatalities caused by horse drawn carriages. Also, cars didn't leave horse poop everywhere on the streets, with all of the health and sanitation implications.
One indicator is that horseback riding today is one of the most dangerous things you can do. The injury rate for recreational riding is higher than American football, car racing, and skiing. https://tsaco.bmj.com/content/6/1/e000728
I would venture to guess that since stop signs, lane markings and traffic signals were all deployed after cars started killing people, there were a significant number of people annually run over by horse-drawn vehicles, thrown from horseback, or run over by pre-car vehicles like trolleys and trains. Urban streets looked something like this: https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Image/IM24987
You’d have to look at the annual per capita numbers. Anyway I agree it’s possible cars today are way more deadly. We have no way of knowing, but we know for sure that it wasn’t all wine and honey pre automobile.
You're comparing horse riding to being a pedestrian though. People on the street didn't consent to the risk the same way a rider or a driver has. You'd need to compare horse bystander injuries to get something remotely comparable.
It can contain listeria, giardia, roundworm, e. coli, salmonella, clostridium and all sorts of other nasty business. Most healthy horses have low amounts of these in their stools, especially compared with dogs or humans. However, each horse produces about 5 tons (11,000 lbs) of poo a year.
A bunch of horses in a big city on a rainy day is a recipe for spreading disease.
[0]: Et land på fire hjul, by Ulrik Eriksen