Before considering the answers, remember again that there are completely different agencies in different countries taking data, so any conspiracy seems unlikely. And it's true that it's difficult to find the number of hours people cycle, so some inaccuracy is inevitable. Still, here are the results:[i]
France: An hour of
cycling is safer than an hour of driving.
Germany: cycling is
about equal in safety, per hour.
Sweden: cycling is
about equal in safety.
Switzerland: cycling
is about equal in safety.
Netherlands: cycling
is about equal in safety.
Australia: cycling
is slightly more dangerous than driving.
USA: cycling is
safer than driving, per hour.
Britain: cycling is more dangerous.
Yes, for all of these countries except Britain, the agencies that have studied the data have concluded that an hour of cycling is safer, or roughly equal, to an hour of motoring. Incidentally, Failure Analysis Associates data1 for the USA ranks cycling as nearly twice as safe as motoring: only 0.26 fatalities per million hours for cycling, versus 0.47 fatalities per million hours for motoring.
[i]. Wardlaw, M., "Stepping Stones to a Better Cycling Future", http://www.bicyclinglife.com/Library/SteppingStones.htm