I think what all of this really shows: We need better bicycle PSAs.

If anyone has seen a good one, please post a link here.

For bicycling, a helmet is the very last of 5 layers of risk-management and if the other 4 are followed, the need for it is very low-percentage. I follow the other 4, but I wear one anyway. And I’ve read all the anti-helmet stuff, but I wear one anyway. Maybe it’s just a talisman. I wear one anyway.

Now, on to the video. That is NOT a cycling safety video. Everything is pleasant and non-scary and… only ONE urban hazard is covered—streetcar tracks. After doing an acceptable job of crossing the streetcar tracks, she proceeds to ride TOTALLY in the door zone sandwiched between parked cars and parallel tracks! It’s such a tiny clip, but it made my palms sweat and my heart race! If she swerves to avoid a door, or pedestrian (they do appear from between parked cars), she will snag the rail track and get thrown into the middle of the travel lane and be run over. On second thought, maybe she doesn’t need a helmet. It won’t help.

The video does a nice job talking about being respectful of pedestrians. I’d like to see more discussion of that in other safety videos.

She talks about a tail light, but not a headlight. ??? 95% of crashes happen in FRONT of a cyclist.

I’ve see a lot of marginal “bike safety” videos. That one is by far the worst. But the flowers on the bike are lovely. Really. Very artsy. I must go find some for my Surly.

You don’t have to do the “culture of fear” shtick to make a good safety video. But it is helpful to inform people AT LEAST of the common mistakes cyclists make that get themselves hurt (and killed) — like riding in the door zone and passing on the right in an intersection.

I hate to tell this to you but if a helmet cracks, it failed to absorb the impact, transmitted it to the head and the head took all the impact.