DaveReading
Don't suffer fools gladly (must try harder!)
Today on the way to work, a passing helmet busy after he has passed turns and snarls “Where’s your helmets?”
I'd have been tempted to ask him how many he thought I should be wearing.
Today on the way to work, a passing helmet busy after he has passed turns and snarls “Where’s your helmets?”
Today on the way to work, a passing helmet busy after he has passed turns and snarls “Where’s your helmets?” Perhaps the irony of him cycling towards a T-junction on a blind bend, wearing dull black clothes and looking backwards, not towards where he was going was lost on him.
There were two of us.I'd have been tempted to ask him how many he thought I should be wearing.
Replies here are slowed by moderation - both directly and indirectly in that you need to try not to typo stuff because editing is not allowed.
Malta's legislature was convinced enough people were deterred that they repealed their helmet law: https://road.cc/content/news/236188...helmet-law-it-hinders-efforts-get-more-people - I don't know how online Malta's political processes are, but you might be able to find the evidence that led them to that conclusion by searching.
There are some dissenting analyses but it looks to me like Australia is the longest demonstration of discouraging cycling by law: http://www.cycle-helmets.com/cycling-1985-2019.html
The Isle of Man seems about to try to prove the same effect again by making helmets compulsory for cycling: https://cyclingindustry.news/isle-of-man-compulsory-cycling-helmet/
And some in Denmark claim that even just showing helmets (not compelling them by law and not even promoting them) discourages cycling: http://www.copenhagenize.com/2013/10/promoting-cycling-positively-now-with.html
There's also this excellent work from Dave Horton hosted there: http://www.copenhagenize.com/2009/09/fear-of-cycling-03-helmet-promotion.html
In countries such as France, the Netherlands and Denmark, little interest is shown in helmets, despite high levels of utility cycling and much better safety records. Cycling is very safe where it is popular.
curmudgeon community Is this phrase helpful, or even meaningful?These are interesting but I wonder how much work has been done to bring up kids with the expectation of wearing a helmet, vs the potential reduction from the curmudgeon community? Plus, different countries are um... different?
For example, I doubt there are many kids in the UK who don't regard a helmet as being part and parcel of riding a bike for example, and the majority of cyclists seem t choose to wear a lid. Cycle clubs require lids, as to sportives and other events.
I'm replying to this thread because of something that crossed my mind this weekend. I was walking through the park and there were a ton of kids playing on scooters (primarily) and also bikes. The prevalence of helmets was the first thing I noticed. All the kids (I'm guessing these were in the under 10 age group) were wearing helmets. The prevalence of scooters was another thing. Scooters were really uncool, to be abandoned as soon as possible for a bike when I was a child.Kids? Well this is just opinion, but I reckon most would choose not to wear them if/when they can get a way with it.
CTT time trials do not require helmets. Many older, more established clubs do not have helmet rules, a lot of the newer ones, set up directly through British cycling, do.I need to correct some of your 2nd para:
There's a pretty even split of helmet rules in clubs (as it happens, only one of the 5 major clubs around me has compulsion).
Many events do NOT require them e.g. Audax - around since 1984 and supporting millions of miles ridden annualy in the UK.
If it's on a public road they can't stop you, can they?I cannot ride with the local club any more, nor take part in my employer's annual charity ride.
While you may think that "the majority of cyclists seem t choose to wear a lid" the most recent official statistic that I've seen is that UK helmet use was in the mid-30s % and falling. It does seem to vary a lot from place to place, though.For example, I doubt there are many kids in the UK who don't regard a helmet as being part and parcel of riding a bike for example, and the majority of cyclists seem t choose to wear a lid. Cycle clubs require lids, as to sportives and other events.
Denmark is somewhere between Holland and the UK and IMO much closer to the UK outside the big cities. It does indeed have some great cycling infrastructure but most of what I've ridden was actually pretty mediocre, mostly a Milton-Keynes-like design but actually maintained (MK currently suffers too many rough and broken surfaces and missing signs) along major roads, accompanied by a surprising amount of painting a dotted line up the middle of the roadside pavement (or similar surfacing) and calling the half nearest the carriageway a cycleway, with it turning into paint-only lanes across junctions. The UK could absolutely be 80% Danish-level cycleways within 5 years with no tax rise if there was political will to divert the motorway-building budget for that time. I don't think they're that far ahead and, as such, observations from there could apply to here very easily.Denmark, a bit like Holland has some great cycling infrastructure, so again, given that interactions between cars and bikes is greatly reduced I can imagine that the perceived need for a helmet is very different there.
I do agree with that, though!I don't think it is something you can assess very easily.