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Bicycles are, in many ways, the best form of personal transportation ever invented. Des Moines’ annual staging of Ride Your Bike to Work Week is a good way to remind people that they do have choices. Bicycling is healthy and cuts our use of fossil fuels.

But riding a bike on city streets is dangerous. It’s undeniable. So we worry about what the list of downtown biking injuries will look like a year from now, five years from now, whenever you care to measure it.

You can certainly find veteran Des Moines cyclists who have ridden for years without a scratch – although it might be harder to find one without a close call to recount.

Also, statistics for New York City suggest that driving a car is far more dangerous than riding a bike. But that argument is skewed so extremely by the numbers of cars compared with the number of bikes, it’s meaningless.

The larger and more frightening point is, when a bicycle is struck by a motor vehicle, there’s nothing to protect the cyclist’s body. The world resounds with the sound of fender-benders, most of which don’t result in injuries. A modest bump from a two-ton car is likely to send a cyclist to the hospital.

The controversial bike lanes recently painted on Ingersoll Avenue are a step toward a safer biking environment. However, almost anyone riding a bike to work downtown will be forced to ride on streets with no bike lanes. It’s hazardous for the drivers who have to slow down and swoop around the cyclists, but it’s much more of a threat to the bike riders.

We found a website with good advice for bicyclists on city streets. It’s www.bicyclesafe.com. If you ride to work or are considering it, please visit the site and at least read what it has to say.

It would be great to add “top biking city” to the list of awards Des Moines is racking up. But there’s more to a great lifestyle than exercise and energy savings; keeping residents out of hospital beds is important, too.