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Originally Posted by blueash
I am not a fan of donor-cycles but I question the data you have presented. Would you please link your source? Wikipedia shows about 4500 - 5000 deaths a year on motorcycles. It does not give a denominator of the number of people who ride motorcycles. Is your figure 1/1250 riders die or is it 1/1250 Americans die? Per year or per lifetime? Everyone is exposed to the risk of lightning, some more than others, but not everyone is exposed to the risk of death on a motorcycle.
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My source was, "The Handy Science Answer Book" compiled by the Science and Technology Department of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburg. (580 Pages)
It's an older book (copyright 1997) that I bought for $1.00 at the library.
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NWS Lightning Safety: Understanding Lightning Introduction gives odds using averages for the last ten years, and gives the odds of being personally struck by lightning as 1/12000 over a lifetime of 80 years (struck not killed) Odds of being affected by a lightning strike in your life 1/1200 as 10 people are affected by an average event. Keep in mind that lightning events are not evenly distributed over the population. Higher risk in Florida obviously. One would also need to have data such as hours at risk to death while riding a motorcycle vs hours at risk while outdoors with an electrical storm in the vicinity. It all gets very complicated. I do agree, no matter how you do the calculation, motorcycle riding is much more dangerous than being out in a thunderstorm.
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Yes, it can get complicated. I presented the information exactly as it appeared in my book, no more and no less. It consisted of two sentences, one for lightning and one for motorcycles. There was no explanation of why they chose to put those two facts together. And they didn't give any explanation of how they made the calculations. Therefore, if our sources are not in agreement, I have no idea why.