Bicycle fatalities spiked 16 percent in two years after declining for decades

That's the shocking topline finding from a report out this week from the Governors Highway Safety Association, which found that an uptick in ridership may be linked to a spike in cyclist fatalities.

Nationwide, 722 cyclists died in traffic accidents in 2012, up from 621 in 2010. Both totals are significantly lower than the 1,003 fatalities recorded in 1975. Yet the sharp increase in recent years came after fatalities had steadily fallen over the previous three decades.

The report also found that the percentage of deaths involving adult riders is way up. Twenty-one percent of deaths in 1975 involved riders over the age of 20, a figure that shot up to 84 percent in 2012.