Today I rode downtown without a helmet.
(Play the shocking sound track of your choice in your head now!)
I felt perfectly comfortable, safe, and normal because, frankly, bicycling is a comfortable, safe, and normal thing to do.
If we’re going to wear helmets based on some probability that we might actually crash and get hurt, then we might want to think about wearing them for the statistically more dangerous activities of walking and driving.
Perhaps our time and money is better spent making roads safer for all users and dealing more forthrightly with the real killer — the automobile. A news article in USAToday today takes a look at the upward trend in pedestrian deaths:
Some communities are working to curtail sudden, puzzling increases in pedestrian traffic deaths while safety advocates urge states to spend more federal transportation dollars on sidewalks, crosswalks and safety programs for walkers and bicyclists.More than 76,000 Americans have been killed walking or crossing the street in the past 15 years, and pedestrians account for about 11.8% of all traffic fatalities, according to the groups Transportation for America and the Surface Transportation Policy Partnership. However, less than 1.5% of federal transportation money is spent on projects for walkers and bicyclists.
The groups are asking Congress to offer incentives in a new transportation bill for states to spend more of their share of federal funds on road projects to address the needs of pedestrians, bicyclists, transit users, children, the elderly and disabled.
Pedestrian deaths have held fairly steady in the past decade — more than 4,500 a year, according to federal data.
The 716 bicyclists killed in traffic in 2008 accounted for about two percent of all traffic deaths.
Part of the upshot for me here is that I’m becoming increasingly annoyed with the idea that bicycling is dangerous.
Comments 7
Where did you get such a notion, and then get annoyed by it? You’re supposed to wear a helmet to set a good example. Actually, they’re a durn good idea if you go trail riding as well. I’ve also found, quite recently, that they help keep your head a bit warmer when it’s cold outside.
Posted 10 Nov 2009 at 7:21 pm ¶Steve… My remarks should be understood as confined to town bicycling at modest speeds. Trail riders, roadies, and other sport bicyclists have other concerns.
I wonder if wearing a helmet sets a good example. I wonder if what it really does is help promote car culture.
Posted 10 Nov 2009 at 7:42 pm ¶I’ve worn a helmet regularly on my commute since Bruce Rosar died. In combination with an assertive riding approach, it reinforces the notion amongst motorists that I’m not messing around out there. Remember that not all transportation cycling is town bicycling at modest speeds.
When I implement the one-mile solution, on the other hand, I rarely wear a helmet, though I ride exactly the same way, albeit slower. And, this time of year, keeping one’s head a little warmer is a good thing even for those town bicycling at modest speeds.
Posted 10 Nov 2009 at 9:44 pm ¶CT I think you’ve missed placed somethings.
Think of a helmet as “insurance”, a very modest “hedge bet” against an “unlikely” event, a serious crash. A lawyer asked me once when do you need a helmet? Answer: Before your head smacks the road, but you’ll never totally know when.
To make that “hedge bet” very, very, very unlikely or a true accident build in four layers of safety before putting the helmet on. Here is short summary: http://www.floridabicycle.org/rules/driveyourbike.html
Cyclist wear gloves for comfort and grip, but if you take a spill the palm of you hand will be protected. Helmets do have benefits: keeping you head warmer or cooler depending on the weather, distinct road profile, surface for reflective materials or lights (i.e. head or rear lights). Positive role model to others?
Bicycle helmet promote “car culture”? You are kidding? Helmets are misplaced popular answer to cyclist safety, which is 99% behavioral.
Consider: “Judgments about whether safety can be promoted by means of vehicle and road engineering, or by altering road user behaviour, depend on the views taken about the possibilities for making roads and vehicles more “foolproof” on the one hand, and for making human beings less “foolish” on the other.” John Adams, “Risk and freedom”, page 10
Posted 11 Nov 2009 at 6:14 am ¶I do think of my helmet as that last layer of insurance… as well as a place to mount lights… and nowadays a camera.
But there are times when I want to toss it out of pure exasperation for the constant harping of the helmet nannies.
It’s such a minor aspect of bicycling safety, but it gets unwarranted excess attention to the exclusion of important stuff… like teaching people how not to crash in the first place.
Posted 12 Nov 2009 at 8:35 am ¶Keri… re: teaching people how not to crash in the first place
Exactly.
Sometimes people tell me their “how my helmet saved my life” stories. And nearly all of them have two things in common: 1) speed, and 2) sport cycling. Is sport cycling more dangerous than utility cycling? Hmmmm… how could that be determined?
I haven’t given up on my helmet. What I’ve decided to do is wear it selectively based on the conditions I expect to encounter.
Since that suggests I’m thinking about helmet use with each ride, perhaps I ought to develop some criteria
Posted 12 Nov 2009 at 8:53 am ¶I do both. I think sport cycling has a higher risk in two ways:
1) paceline riding contains a leap of faith because you can be a competent cyclist and still be taken out by the rider in front of you. I was in a pile-up several years ago as a result of a rider panic-braking (2 riders in front of me, 4 of us ended up on the ground).
There are more paceline crashes in Orlando that bike-v-car crashes, but few of them make official reports.
2) speed. For the same reason that motorcycling is more dangerous — they experience the same crossing crash types as bicyclists, but a bicyclist typically operates at a speed which allows for better perception and reaction to situations as they develop. High-speed bicycling requires extra vigilance as well as assertive lane positioning and knowledge of emergency maneuvers.
The few times I’ve had to react abruptly, I was riding fast.
But sport cyclists know everything so they won’t seek traffic cycling education. We had 5 of them get clobbered by common crossing/turning conflicts in one year. No fatalities, fortunately, just broken hips and collarbones. Of course, all were riding on the edge of the road or the shoulder.
…
The one time I landed on my head, it was a result of speed and insufficient understanding of bike lane risks.
Posted 12 Nov 2009 at 10:46 am ¶