Chris Boardman - Helmets not even top 10 things keep cycling safe

[Nigel-YZ1]

I suspect you were told that by someone speaking from a carcentric viewpoint.

I'd believe this. A shining example is Meadowbank Road in Rotherham.
The cross hatch down the centre was doubled in width, and a cycle lane put down one side only. The result is two much narrower lanes for the metal boxes and a shitty excuse for cycle provision among all the grates and island pinchpoints.
If you want to cycle back from Rotherham to Sheffield you're in the firing line.

 

[benb]

I want to have Chris Boardman's children.

The man speaketh sense.

Oh, child abductor are you?

 

[benb]

I don't trust those around me, therefore I wear a helmet to protect myself.

Simple.

Except it won't
It might prevent some injuries in the case of a low speed or stationary off, but if it's motor vehicles you're worried about a helmet probably won't help.

 

[MontyVeda]

So what are Chris Boardman's top ten things to keep cycling safe?

 

[e-rider]

so all we need is the government to pledge £20 billion over the next decade to make cycling just like it is in the Netherlands - like any of the big political parties are going to do that!

If you want cycling like in the Netherlands, but best thing to do is move there, as you'll be waiting a very long time for it to arrive here.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Except it won't
It might prevent some injuries in the case of a low speed or stationary off, but if it's motor vehicles you're worried about a helmet probably won't help.

My problem is that years ago I had the pefect helmet-friendly off. Relatively low speed (one foot still strapped in afterwards), no other vehicle involved, knocked unconcious, buckets of blud. A hat may or may not have kept me concious - I suspect it would but I don't know - but I'm pretty certain it would have saved me from the abrasions. I have no idea how it happened, as I have no memory of it at all. The memory of the aftermath, however, is the main reason I wear a helmet. I'm pretty sure a helmet would have made it a lot less unpleasant - and it was very unpleasant.

Now, being 6'3", I frequently hit my head on things. I've been hospitalised - stitches and concussion - twice by lintels. Just last week I hit my head on a low beam hard enough for my legs to give way momentarily and dump me on the floor. It happens. And yet I don't wear a going-though-doors helmet. Some may see this as a kind of logical inconsistency. Which it may well be. But as Walt Whitman wrote: Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.)

Which isn't to say that I disagree even slightly with Boardman. Or that I would advise others to wear one. It's up to them, that's just my story.

 

[Danny Tuff]

Except it won't
It might prevent some injuries in the case of a low speed or stationary off, but if it's motor vehicles you're worried about a helmet probably won't help.

Do you wear a seat belt on a flight ?

 

[Dogtrousers]

Do you wear one to walk to the shops?

Walking to the shops while strapped to a seat could prove difficult.

I do, however, wear a belt when walking to the shops. It could potentially Save My Life, for instance I could be lynched by angry parents if my trousers were to fall down in front of a group of schoolchildren.

 

[MontyVeda]

...

Now, being 6'3", I frequently hit my head on things.

...

I'm 6'3" too... and somehow don't hit my head on things... maybe i've developed some sort of 'spacial awareness' as to the dimensions of my body in the years since I've been fully grown.

 

[I like Skol]

I do, however, wear a belt when walking to the shops. It could potentially Save My Life, for instance I could be lynched by angry parents if my trousers were to fall down in front of a group of schoolchildren.

That is the difference right there!

It's the link between the knowledge that if you don't wear a belt then your pants fall down and wearing a belt prevents this.

The similar argument for cycling doesn't quite work, 'If I ride a bike I am going to receive a life threatening blow to the head and wearing a helmet will prevent this'!!!!

The two things are not the same, one is sensible, the other is nonsense to all rational people

But they should be free to wear a helmet if they choose.

 

[MontyVeda]

a campaign to outlaw helmets?

 

[Dogtrousers]

I'm 6'3" too... and somehow don't hit my head on things... maybe i've developed some sort of 'spacial awareness' as to the dimensions of my body in the years since I've been fully grown.

Alow me to qualify my statement.

I'm 6'3" and am a contender for Britains clumsiest man. I have not developed any sort of spatial awareness.

Ow!

 

[Sara_H]

I find the helmet debate quite interesting from the perspective of a nurse who's spent 15 years working in intensive care nursing people with the most serious head injuries.
Among my colleagues, my partner and I are the only two that don't wear helmets. I've even been harangued in the bike sheds for being so stupid. One colleague proudly told me she'd hidden her 12 year old daughters bike because she refused to wear a helmet.
When I stop and ask them to reflect on what causes the terrible head injuries we deal with at work, they have to admit that the majority are either car passengers or pedestrians that have been knocked down by a car. Yet none of them wear a helmet in their cars, or when they are pedestrians.
In all honesty, I can't recall one patient in my care that sustained a serious head injury when cycling and not wearing a helmet.

Common sense doesn't even prevail among the professionals who have a bit of insight, they're as sucked in by the helmet marketing as everyone else.

 

[Sara_H]

But they should be free to wear a helmet if they choose.

Or should they? If there's evidence that the risks of helmets outweigh the benefits, then maybe they should be completely banned?

 

[Sara_H]

I had a visit to A&E last week, during which one of the nurses insisted that they see lots of cyclists who hadn't been wearing helmets with head injuries but no head injuries among those who had been wearing one. I did struggle to believe it at the time.

My view may be a bit skewed as my area of expertise is paediatrics, so there will inevitably be differences in patterns with adults.
It's frustrating when even those at the sharp end can't see the wood for the trees. Our senior pharmacist was really rude to me recently, demanding to know where my helmet was and told me I must already be brain dead when I said I don't wear one cos I believe the risks outweigh the benefits. These are intelligent people who should have a really clear grasp of the research available to them. Mind boggling really.
I also have a friend who thinks baby trailers/child seats on bikes are evil personified as she knows of someone who's baby died in a collision with a car in one or the other. As sad as that is, its a completely irrational view given that no such attitude is held about cars and the epic numbers of people killed by them annually. She's a really keen cyclist who has just had a baby, so I suppose thats her off a bike and into a car for the next few years, where, ironically, her baby is at far more risk of coming to harm.