As an example, consider me riding my solid, everyday bike at 12 mph. If some hypothetical inattention meant I hit a pedestrian, they would face kinetic energy of about 1,250 joules. That’s not insignificant, but it could be much worse. Had I been driving the last car I owned, a relatively tiny Nissan MICRA, the energy imparted of that traveling at 30 mph would have equated to just short of 100,000 joules. Make it a midsized SUV at 35 mph, and suddenly we’re at almost 270,000 joules.
