The Wheels Go Round
On Canada Day, we noticed that the first seven bicycle riders we saw did not wear helmets.
Over the course of the afternoon, as we cycled round from South False Creek to North and then English Bay, the average was 10 No Helmets to One Helmet.
Guess the law and common sense have simply gone.
My favorite, which I see almost daily, is the mom or dad who has the kid on the back of the bike. The kid is wearing a helmet but good parent is not.
One wants to ask, "So if you are killed and your head is squashed like a melon, this will help your child how?"
But how often can we interfere in people's lives? Who designated us as neighbourhood cop?
8 comments:
David,
Do tell, is it still against the law to ride without a helmet?
I always do wear one but a teacher friend of mine says it's no longer illegal to be without one.
Robert
Perhaps having a head squashed like a melon, would be a good thing. It may in fact have more "content" in that vegetative state. Gary.
The countries with the highest percent of cyclists, like Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands, have no helmet laws.
They also have the lowest number of injuries and deaths for cyclists in the world.
Japan is similar to the above countries.
We have it wrong here David. The danger is that we give priority to the car, and expect people on bicycles to operate on the uneven playing field we call our "public right of ways" (aka roads for cars).
We need to reverse our thinking.
Many people have been deterred from riding a bicycle due to the helmet law, including myself.
I am not convinced the helmet law has reduced injuries or death to cyclists, it is more likely worse.
An interesting study in England showed motorists give more consideration to unhelmeted bicyclists than riders with helmets.
Am I safe in assuming that those of you citing these anti-bicycle helmet statistics are also in support of removing helmet laws for motorcyclists and seat belt laws for car drivers?
I used to be ambivalent about wearing a helmet while bicycling until my accident. After that I'd never be without one again.
"Here! Here!" to what Pelalusa just stated. Years ago, a co-worker of mine skidded out of control on his bicycle when riding to work one morning. He suffered numerous serious injuries, and was in hospital and rehab for months. He was also wearing a helmet that shattered upon impact. Had he not been wearing that helmet he would have probably been killed. I say let helmet use for cyclists be mandatory.
Craig Y.
I have yet to see statistics proving that bicycle helmets have reduced injuries and deaths, and that tells me that there is no proof.
Riding a bicycle at 10kph is no comparison to wiping out on a motorcycle at 100kph.
Statistically a bicycle rider is 20 times less likely to be killed than a motorcycle rider and 5 times less than motorists, so let's make everybody who rides in a vehicle wear a helmet.
Personal experience and common sense strongly suggest that if you're riding along in an elevated position at 10 or 20 or 30 km/h, especially on city streets - where anything can happen at any time - that wearing a helmet makes absolute and complete sense.
Unlike a car, a bicyclist and motorcyclist doesn't have the protection of a protective metal cage around one's body.
As for the statistics that you keep on blathering on about, do you think that most bicycle accidents feed into those stats? Mine didn't. And I'd bet you that most others don't either.
David: Perhaps a future summer editorial you pen could be about the loss of common sense in our culture?!
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