http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/sep/19/transport.transport
The model Elle Macpherson was this week pilloried by the tabloids for bicycling in a London street without a helmet and with her (helmeted) son on her handlebars.
"Elle on wheels," cried the Mail.
"What the Elle are you doing?" screamed the Mirror with an editorial titled "Elle to pay".
Even the Times demanded a response to her behaviour from the gods of health and safety.
The answer from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents was a predictable howl: "Illegal and dangerous!"
The truth is the opposite.
Macpherson was probably the safest cyclist in London that day. Like the mayor, Boris Johnson, she is signed up (I guess by instinct) to the Wilde-Adams theory of compensatory risk assessment. By not wearing a helmet, she lowers her risk threshold and thus rides more carefully. She commendably cycles rather than drives a car and protects her child, who cannot manage his own risk. The society should give her a medal, not insult her. The press were idiots.
The model Elle Macpherson was this week pilloried by the tabloids for bicycling in a London street without a helmet and with her (helmeted) son on her handlebars.
"Elle on wheels," cried the Mail.
"What the Elle are you doing?" screamed the Mirror with an editorial titled "Elle to pay".
Even the Times demanded a response to her behaviour from the gods of health and safety.
The answer from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents was a predictable howl: "Illegal and dangerous!"
The truth is the opposite.
Macpherson was probably the safest cyclist in London that day. Like the mayor, Boris Johnson, she is signed up (I guess by instinct) to the Wilde-Adams theory of compensatory risk assessment. By not wearing a helmet, she lowers her risk threshold and thus rides more carefully. She commendably cycles rather than drives a car and protects her child, who cannot manage his own risk. The society should give her a medal, not insult her. The press were idiots.
