Comments on: Should You Wear Bike Helmets In France and Italy?

By: Olly

Olly — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 11:29:13 +0000

I find it incredible that any cyclist cannot see the benefits of wearing a helmet. I feel quite lucky that in about 5 years of cycling i have only had 1 accident (my own fault) – and at the time i had a helmet on and bounced my head off some railings at the side of the road. Obviously without the helmet i have no idea what my injuries would have been, but with it, i suffered only road rash and a bruised pride.

With modern helmets weighing around 300g (averageish), i can’t see any case for not wearing them. They are comfy enough that after 5 minutes you don’t even notice them and light enough that it has no effect when trying to hold your head up. How exactly can an extra (think) layer of foam/padding/plastic between your brain and the road not be beneficial?

By: Bicycle helmets? No easy answer. « Filtered Thoughts

Bicycle helmets? No easy answer. « Filtered Thoughts — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 21:19:46 +0000

[...] recent post by Bernard from the Chain Gang inspired me to think again. Why do I I tend to wear a helmet [...]

By: Liam

Liam — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 06:13:54 +0000

As a regular rider, I cannot think of one genuine reason why an individual would not use a helmet. Its only hinderance is your hair!
It reminids me of an Italian study on compulsary helmets for mopeds.
The statistics speak for themselves. http://goo.gl/JlcXL
Nor has speed anyhing to to with the argument, as you would not say that falling when running would make one more prone to a broken wrist then when walking.
Wake up people! You can lead a horse to water but you cannot make it drink.

By: stephen

stephen — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 04:21:26 +0000

I hope other countries can take australia as a lesson the failure of the bicycle hire scheme in Melbourne is a good example – the government are now giving away free passes to try and get people to use it, but when they do the police book them with helmet fines for not having a helmet !. It may be a shock to the un-informed but most people in the city don’t carry a helmet around in their handbag.

The helmet hysteria is beyond a joke here and the police are now using it to raise revenue by harassing and booking people who are in absolutely no danger. I saw 2 women on a path in Adelaide getting booked the other day. I suppose it could be justified if they were bicycle couriers or such racing around thru busy streets, But these people were just cruising along at no more risk than the pedestrians on that same path, and copping a fine. It’s turned us into a police state now where the police have found that bludgeoning the innocent is a better source of revenue than catching criminals, it’s speed cameras, bicycle helmets, jay walking, next thing you know it will be for not tying your shoe laces.!

Wear a bicycle helmet, worship them and wear one all day if you like. But having a law which institutes the persecution of people for not wearing the Australian approved foam helmet that is simply tyranny. And few would agree with the helmet hysteria crew that bicycles are death traps.

In the 2010 election the Labour party lost allot of support and were forced to form a minority government with the greens and 2 independents to keep power. this is good since the greens seem to support civil rights more. And now we have a new political party the LDP (Liberal Democratic party) which supports removing the bicycle helmet laws. If more people vote LDP at the next election it will send a clear message that people have had enough of this kind of treatment.

By: Malcolm Wardlaw

Malcolm Wardlaw — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 19:16:24 +0000

The reply by Margery Cairns is typical of the support for helmet use: a mixture of half-understood statistics followed by anecdote. She is correct that head injuries did fall after helmet compulsion in Australia, this was because there was a fall in cycling and a general fall in head injuries (the decline for pedestrians was actually greater than for cyclists). In fairness, most injury prevention specialists do not understand this point either, or else they choose to ignore it. So far as the anecdotal goes, it is pretty clear that those who use a helmet hit their head far more often than those who do not. Surveys suggest a factor of 8 difference on the basis of self-reporting, but since this will have biases in it, the actual difference might “only” be 2. The bottom line is that she wore a helmet and hit her head. The problem is that, like 99% of helmet users who hit their head – she learned precisely the wrong lesson. Sad, but true. Alarmingly, helmet use has repeatedly been associated with excess cyclists’ deaths. Disgracefully, this has been ignored by the injury prevention community.
Like I said, the helmet culture is a market failure; individuals take what appears to be a sensible choice, but bring harm upon themselves and others as a result.

By: Margery Cairns

Margery Cairns — Tue, 05 May 2009 05:56:47 +0000

In Australia bicycle helmets have been compulsory for several years and statistics have shown that the number of head injuries through bike accidents has been greatly reduced. At first a few people ( mainly due to the effect on the hair do) may have stopped riding bikes. However now most people regard wearing a helmet as just another part of cycling such as wearing cycling shoes, sunglasses etc. and would never ride without their helmet. Helmet designs have improved vastly and are not the sweaty items they once were. In fact they are quite trendy. I suffered a bad fall some time ago, injured my shoulder and landed very heavily on my head on ashphalt. The helmet was damaged but my head survived what could have been a serious injury. A helmets probably wouldn’t help if you were hit by a car, but for less serious accidents it is one way you can protect yourself. Accidents can happen even to the most experienced of cyclists so why not wear a helmet -just in case.

By: Malcolm Wardlaw

Malcolm Wardlaw — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 21:38:55 +0000

Bernard, I have spent quite a lot of time on this issue over the years. Google my name and you will see what I mean. The main problem (as I see it) is that the relevance of cycle helmets has been vastly exaggerated. There will be a mixture of reasons for this. The academics that “proved” helmets are highly effective have a vested interest. Politicians have a vested interest – especially in countries where cycling on the roads is seen as foolhardy. Ironically, cycling in France is probably safer than driving, hour for hour basis. Helmets are doubtless a good idea for mountain biking. Road riding is rather different. The risks are very low and in any case in the unlikely event of beiing in a serious road crash, a cycle helmet will not help you out. It is a great pity that so few cyclists have a thoughtful view on this issue. Nowadays so many people are happy to believe that cycling on the roads is dangerous. Does this reduce cycling? Is the sky blue? Regrettably less cycling means more risk per cyclist. It is a classic market failure that cyclists take to wearing helmets in the belief it is the sensible thing to do, but the collective interest is damaged.

By: Richard Keatinge

Richard Keatinge — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 11:53:11 +0000

Very dubious whether helmets do any good at all, see cyclehelmets.org. Helmet laws have stopped a lot of people cycling and have done nothing for head injury rates, see Robinson DL. No clear evidence from countries that have enforced the wearing of helmets. BMJ 2006;332: 722-5. http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/332/7543/722-a. It appears that helmets break easily, but don’t absorb the impact, see the engineers quoted at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_helmet.

By: jed baxter

jed baxter — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 23:53:17 +0000

Good article Bernard. Well balanced. I tend to wear a helmet *most* of the time. When I do I think – “don’t want the nasty scalp graze from the tarmac should something unexpected happen” . When I don’t I think – “f*** it, chances are nothing is going to happen let’s go ‘as nature intended’ and play safe.