I live in a small town. The county is 571 sq miles and a population of only 34,000. People quite often pull out in front of me when I'm in my car. Throw the deer into the equation and it's not much safer.
Same here. The amount of people in an area does not seem to matter. In fact here it seems worse because with less traffic and more old geezers, like me, they don't look before pulling out on the four lane about a mile from our house. I'd swear we've seen and heard of more bikers killed and seriously injured since we've been here than all our time in central Illinois. Add the very large deer population since a 7500+ acre game preserve and the Suwannee River are near and riding a motorcycle becomes a gamble. Even in central Illinois my son and I both stopped riding for awhile because many bikers were intentionally being run off the road. In the 80's people hated us crazy bikers even though I worked with many of those car poolers. We intended to buy another motorcycle after getting settled in after retiring in 1994. In a few days it will be 20 years and we are still bikeless. I believe partially because of all of the friends getting killed or injured. People here can't even see a red Dodge quadcab with a topper.
Like anything in life there are pros and cons to both. I'm just more worried about other drivers than myself.
I rode for a whole month, back in 1981. Bought a H-D Sportster bastard bike, built from at least six different bikes, from a friend, for a whopping $1,200. Borrowed part of the cash for it, and had not even made my first payment on it, when a gal in a little Chevy LUV pickup ran a light. I hit her doing 40 mph, right behind the cab, and flew like a bird through the air for about 50 feet. I landed on my ass and feet, then rolled a couple of times onto my feet! From a couple of witnesses, it looked pretty spectacular! I had boots, denim pants, leather jacket and a full-face helmet on, so all I did was get some road rash and ripped the pockets right off my jeans! The pickup driver got knocked out as she spun into a power pole across the intersection! I was able to walk away. It was then I decided I was not going to ride again. I sold the bike parts for more than I had in the bike itself, so that helped. So, if you feel the desire not to ride again, that is purely your decision to make. These days, a 4x4 crew cab pickup is invisible to others on the road. A bike is even more so, and I will not ride on public roads at all.