London Cycle Scheme with helmets
HJ said:
No other city cycling scheme has cycle helmets with it, why start now?? If someone really wants to wear a silly hat, they could always bring their own with them...
Now now, let's not descend into unpleasantries (especially as a citizen of glorious Edinburgh
).
I would not like for them to make cycle helmets mandatory, however I would like for them to be promoted, i.e. all adverts advertising the scheme to only show cyclists with helmets, and recommendations to be put throughout.
In Paris, there is a lot of room to move around due to wider roads and boulevards Similarly, there a lot of almost pedestrianised streets where cars are few and far between, and very slow when they move through them. I as a pedestrian have noticed this, and generally people feel safe waliking down these passages on the road. Therefore cyclists can natrually, get around everywhere either by the major urban roads of the small side streets. Then we have Sundays were large parts of the city are effectively closed off to Cars.
Consequently, there are a lot of cyclists, and a fair few do not wear helmets.
London on the other hand is more compact, with more twists and turns than you could shake a twisted log at. It would work perfectly as a car-free designation but as Sir Humphrey says, that would be 'Brave'. Althogh once can perhaps look to the audience articipation levels when those SKYrides were about, huge! Unfortunately, there are a lot of challenges in London, traffic is fast, the road design has given precedence to motorvehicles at the expense of pedestrians and cyclists, and there are few joint paths for cyclists to actually use. Given the current trend for HGV's to take out people, and for aggressive drivers to sometimes cause hassle for cyclists, there are plenty of improvements to be made.
As a result, I would prefer that most users wore helmets when the cycle scheme takes off. I can however, imagne that this shall not be the case, as it certainly is not the case at the moment from my observations (outwith normal commuter hours) around Lambeth, Camden, Kensington, and the East.
Although, I can imagine that this debate (to wear or not to wear helmets) can easily take a whole thread, if not forum of its own so back to the main topic at hand (bar replies
)