Bicyclist traffic fatalities

As Americans have bought more oat milk, almond milk, and their sundry plant-based cousins, more cyclists have been killed on US roads, a correlation that suggests the same people pouring alternative milk into their coffee are also pedaling into traffic on roads that were not designed for them. The coefficient is 0.926 across eleven years, during which both curves climbed with the earnest persistence of trends driven by people who care deeply about sustainability and are poorly served by the infrastructure that surrounds them.

Plant-based milk sales grew from about 1.2 billion dollars in 2012 to over 2.8 billion by 2022, driven by lactose intolerance awareness, environmental concerns, and the sheer variety of oat, almond, soy, and coconut options now occupying an entire grocery aisle. Cycling fatalities grew from about 730 to over 1,000 during the same period. Both trends are fueled by the same urban, environmentally conscious demographic making lifestyle choices that the current infrastructure alternately supports (grocery stores stock 47 varieties of oat milk) and fails (bike lanes remain painted afterthoughts on roads designed for SUVs). The oat milk arrives safely at the grocery store. The cyclist does not always arrive safely at the grocery store.

Eleven years of plant-based milk and cycling deaths growing together is a story about a demographic whose values outpace the systems they depend on. The milk is plant-based, the lane is paint-based, and the gap between consumer choice and infrastructure investment is the real correlation. The oat milk sells, the cyclist pedals, and the road remains unchanged.