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When people skip the helmets, i think it is a sign the infrastructure is safe. I my home city, helmet use is around 50%. There are cyclists on most roads and routes so drivers are pretty aware generally. Where I work, helmet use is more like 75%. They have no infrastructure so people riding are generally exercising or adventurous. There is a group where helmet penetration is low, the people riding their bikes to the day laborer pick up spots. The other group with low helmet penetration are the train commuters. I will stereotype those people as hipsters young people who bike for transportation. (The commuters are clear because the train from San Francisco requires you to tag your back, and if you live in SF, you don't likely live near the train station. It is a quick bike ride to the station from many neighborhoods, but a really really long transit ride). Those commuters also bike in normal clothing and actually use u-locks properly. All the other people use cheaply chains. I think bike theft is super low in my work city. (Most younger workers in my work city work at startups. There are a million in the office buildings and above the downtown storefronts so it is a reasonable stereotype)
There's a large number of helmet-less people in Richmond. I ride more than anyone I know (except the bike messengers downtown), and I don't feel safe riding without one in the core of the city. There's too much traffic, lots of parking garages, highway ramps, etc. I agree that there are trends among groups of people. There are lots of hipsters in Richmond and I'm pretty sure they can't even spell helmet. The office workers (like me) are hit and miss, with some of them being weekend century riders (TDF helmet wearers) and others being outdoorsy urban people. Another ironically large non-helmet group are college students. You'd think they'd want to protect their brains.
Wearing helmets while bicycling results in approximately the same level of increased safety as wearing helmets while driving, but nobody is calling for all drivers and passengers of automobiles to wear helmets. Why? Nobody wants to suggest that riding or driving in automobiles is an inherently dangerous activity, as it would make them less likely to drive.
Wearing helmets while bicycling results in approximately the same level of increased safety as wearing helmets while driving, but nobody is calling for all drivers and passengers of automobiles to wear helmets. Why? Nobody wants to suggest that riding or driving in automobiles is an inherently dangerous activity, as it would make them less likely to drive.
LINK! Hint: the one you provided doesn't prove squat. It's a bunch of opinions, by people who don't want to change what they're doing. I already posted some stats about helmet use, and some posts from a thread we had on Colorado, with a Dutch guy participating.
Are you familiar with the phrase "Stubborn Dutchman"?
LINK! Hint: the one you provided doesn't prove squat. It's a bunch of opinions, by people who don't want to change what they're doing. I already posted some stats about helmet use, and some posts from a thread we had on Colorado, with a Dutch guy participating.
Are you familiar with the phrase "Stubborn Dutchman"?
Stats, schmats. Somebody on the Internet felt no need to do so which proves the matter.
These guys felt the need to staple their tongues with a stapler.
Wearing helmets while bicycling results in approximately the same level of increased safety as wearing helmets while driving, but nobody is calling for all drivers and passengers of automobiles to wear helmets. Why? Nobody wants to suggest that riding or driving in automobiles is an inherently dangerous activity, as it would make them less likely to drive.
Driving is certainly dangerous, and often overlooked, but wearing a helmet while biking is very different IMO. At least in a car, you have the protection of the car (metal skeleton, seatbelt, air bags, etc.). On a bike, all it takes is getting hit by someone's mirror, hitting a pothole, etc. and you could suffer a serious head/brain damage.
Okay then--just went and checked, and in 2011, 4432 pedestrians and 677 bicyclists were killed when cars crashed into them. Which raises another point: Why don't we require pedestrians to wear helmets?
Okay then--just went and checked, and in 2011, 4432 pedestrians and 677 bicyclists were killed when cars crashed into them. Which raises another point: Why don't we require pedestrians to wear helmets?
This is starting to sound like one of those smoking threads I used to get involved with. . . until I figured out that the smokers had a talking point to every issue brought up and had no intention of being confused with facts.
I get it, and I think some others do too; you don't want to wear a helmet. I stand by what I said about helmets.
Okay then--just went and checked, and in 2011, 4432 pedestrians and 677 bicyclists were killed when cars crashed into them. Which raises another point: Why don't we require pedestrians to wear helmets?
Because it's less risky than bicycling. While there are more fatalities for pedestrians, FAR more people are walking. I think it also has something to do with fashion too
Because it's less risky than bicycling. While there are more fatalities for pedestrians, FAR more people are walking. I think it also has something to do with fashion too
This. You need to look at fatality rate. Note that motorcyclists wear helmet, while car drivers and passengers don't.
So the Netherlands, with about 1/20th the population of the US, has 1/3 the bicycle deaths of the US. The US had 618 deaths from bicycling in 2010. If it had the same rate as the Netherlands, it would have had 4000. The Netherlands' death rate from bicycling is ~ 6X higher than the US'. Maybe we're on to something here, especially when you take into consideration that there is far more opportunity for a bike/automobile crash here.
There are far more cyclists in the Netherlands so it's unclear how much of the higher death rate is from lack of helmet use. Note:
Quote:
16 million Dutch own 18 million bikes. About half the population of the NL rides a bike once a day.
The average distance traveled by bike per person per day was 2.5km in 2006.
The bicycle is used for almost a quarter of all journeys, and 35% of journeys below 7.5km.
If accurate, that's many times more than American rates.
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