srw
It's a bit more complicated than that...
Various people - including me (Why are UK cyclists fixated on helmets) - have been speculating about the incidence of bike helmet use in London and elsewhere. To get beyond anecdote into data I took an opportunity* yesterday of conducting a mini-survey. This is not properly scientific but I think it's indicative.
The survey was conducted in two blocks - firstly a daytime block in approximately the 35 minutes before I went out to lunch and then a peak period survey covering the start of the evening rush hour. The survey covers cyclists travelling north along Gracechurch Street EC3 and turning right into Fenchurch Street, left into King William Street or straight on - because that's what I can see from my office window. My vantage point covered a junction with traffic lights and an ASL, making counting relatively easy.
Each row of the data starts with a time period, then there are two pieces of data - the number of cyclists not wearing a helmet and the number wearing a helmet - and two derived statistics - the total number of cyclists seen and the proportion who had chosen to wear a helmet.
1140 - 1215: 20 - 14 (34) 41%
-----------------------------------
1650 - 1700: 20 - 20 (40) 50%
1700 - 1730: 41 - 67 (108) 62%
1730 - 1745: 18 - 50 (68) 74%
1745 - 1800: 30 - 48 (78) 62%
I'll post another post with some more anecdotal observations and conclusions, but wanted to leave this data post clean.
[edit: thanks to @Afnug for spotting my schoolboy error]
*I was sitting in my office window away from my computer scanning a report that didn't require full brain capacity and needed a fair bit of staring into space for inspiration.
The survey was conducted in two blocks - firstly a daytime block in approximately the 35 minutes before I went out to lunch and then a peak period survey covering the start of the evening rush hour. The survey covers cyclists travelling north along Gracechurch Street EC3 and turning right into Fenchurch Street, left into King William Street or straight on - because that's what I can see from my office window. My vantage point covered a junction with traffic lights and an ASL, making counting relatively easy.
Each row of the data starts with a time period, then there are two pieces of data - the number of cyclists not wearing a helmet and the number wearing a helmet - and two derived statistics - the total number of cyclists seen and the proportion who had chosen to wear a helmet.
1140 - 1215: 20 - 14 (34) 41%
-----------------------------------
1650 - 1700: 20 - 20 (40) 50%
1700 - 1730: 41 - 67 (108) 62%
1730 - 1745: 18 - 50 (68) 74%
1745 - 1800: 30 - 48 (78) 62%
I'll post another post with some more anecdotal observations and conclusions, but wanted to leave this data post clean.
[edit: thanks to @Afnug for spotting my schoolboy error]
*I was sitting in my office window away from my computer scanning a report that didn't require full brain capacity and needed a fair bit of staring into space for inspiration.
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