11-05-2018, 04:52 PM
(This post was last modified: 11-05-2018, 04:53 PM by danbrotherston.)
(11-05-2018, 04:32 PM)KevinT Wrote:(11-05-2018, 12:59 PM)plam Wrote: On another note (somewhat related), I saw that the Bicycle Network of Australia was advocating for a pilot project making helmets not mandatory on footpaths and cycle tracks. They point out that personal protective equipment should be the last line of defence and there are many other things to consider for safety of those on bicycles.
I don't understand this. If I drop a watermelon from about head high it's pretty obvious what will happen to it when it hits the ground. It doesn't matter whether or not I drop it on a road, a sidewalk, an MUT, while stationary, moving slowly, moving quickly, in the presence or absence of traffic -- the result is the same.
(Yes, there's a straw man argument that my head is at about the same height while I'm walking so why not insist on helmets for walkers too, but the key difference is in my ability to cushion and control my fall if I stumble while walking, a luxury one does not enjoy while astride a bicycle.)
There's many things here.
One does have the same luxury astride a bicycle, absolutely you can cushion your fall, further, heads don't just fall from shoulder height to the ground, unless they're lopped up--rarely an issue while cycling. They're attached to a human being which changes the dynamics substantially. Also, your head is a lot different from a Watermelon, concussions are bad, but the demonstration has far more to do with optics than safety
If helmets keep you safe, making a law still wouldn't make sense, because the law only serves to discourage and reduce the number of cyclists which makes you less safe, and gives police another justification to harass those who they wish to target. This is fairly definitively shown by analysis of the helmet law examples we have.
The "helmets keep you safe" is almost certainly false anyway, given how strongly it's contradicted by the Dutch who have the safest place to cycle with near zero helmet use.
Even if we take it and say, cycling on our roads is different because you could get hit by a car and thus falls are more likely, and helmets will protect you then, the evidence is still pretty weak, but we're still back to the point where if we have safe infra, we no longer need a helmet.
Frankly the main reason I wear a helmet while cycling is the very limited protection it gives me against victim blaming.