NYT: To Encourage Biking, Cities Lose the Helmets

To Encourage Biking, Cities Lose the Helmets

ONE spectacular Sunday in Paris last month, I decided to skip museums and shopping to partake of something even more captivating for an environment reporter: Vélib, arguably the most successful bike-sharing program in the world. In their short lives, Europe’s bike-sharing systems have delivered myriad benefits, notably reducing traffic and its carbon emissions. A number of American cities — including New York, where a bike-sharing program is to open next year — want to replicate that success.

So I bought a day pass online for about $2, entered my login information at one of the hundreds of docking stations that are scattered every few blocks around the city and selected one of Vélib’s nearly 20,000 stodgy gray bikes, with their basic gears, upright handlebars and practical baskets.

Then I did something extraordinary, something I’ve not done in a quarter-century of regular bike riding in the United States: I rode off without a helmet.

I rode all day at a modest clip, on both sides of the Seine, in the Latin Quarter, past the Louvre and along the Champs-Élysées, feeling exhilarated, not fearful. And I had tons of bareheaded bicycling company amid the Parisian traffic. One common denominator of successful bike programs around the world — from Paris to Barcelona to Guangzhou — is that almost no one wears a helmet, and there is no pressure to do so.

In the United States the notion that bike helmets promote health and safety by preventing head injuries is taken as pretty near God’s truth. Un-helmeted cyclists are regarded as irresponsible, like people who smoke. Cities are aggressive in helmet promotion.

But many European health experts have taken a very different view: Yes, there are studies that show that if you fall off a bicycle at a certain speed and hit your head, a helmet can reduce your risk of serious head injury. But such falls off bikes are rare — exceedingly so in mature urban cycling systems.

On the other hand, many researchers say, if you force or pressure people to wear helmets, you discourage them from riding bicycles. That means more obesity, heart disease and diabetes. And — Catch-22 — a result is fewer ordinary cyclists on the road, which makes it harder to develop a safe bicycling network. The safest biking cities are places like Amsterdam and Copenhagen, where middle-aged commuters are mainstay riders and the fraction of adults in helmets is minuscule.

“Pushing helmets really kills cycling and bike-sharing in particular because it promotes a sense of danger that just isn’t justified — in fact, cycling has many health benefits,” says Piet de Jong, a professor in the department of applied finance and actuarial studies at Macquarie University in Sydney. He studied the issue with mathematical modeling, and concludes that the benefits may outweigh the risks by 20 to 1.

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Have never worn one, never will.

Aegrescit medendo

Helmets are for the weak!!!

Have never worn one, never will.

Aegrescit medendo

That explains a lot.

Have never worn one, never will.

Aegrescit medendo

You and your European values

Helmets are for the weak!!!

Ride a bike through Times Square on a springtime Saturday afternoon a fewe times, and let me know if you still believe that.

In NYC, there are places where riding w/o a helmet is fine. There's a path on the river next to the West Side Highway that's for bikers, roller bladers, and walkers/jogers. Riding a bike through there w/o a helmet, fine.

But my wife and I used to do that up and then ride back down to the Village on Broadway and 5th avenue. Anybody that wants to make that ride w/o a helmet has psycological or intellectual issues.

Stupid and unsafe are stupid and unsafe and should be called such.

But many European health experts have taken a very different view: Yes, there are studies that show that if you fall off a bicycle at a certain speed and hit your head, a helmet can reduce your risk of serious head injury. But such falls off bikes are rare — exceedingly so in mature urban cycling systems.

I'm not sure such a place exists in the U.S.

I generally don't wear a helmet while biking. But by the same token, I'm usually on wide, smooth trails; at a pace that's comfortable for my kids. If I rode regularly in big-city traffic, I'd have a melon bucket on for sure.

I'm not sure such a place exists in the U.S.

http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/16062/which-bikeshare-system-has-the-most-members/

I just realized that I've used the DC bikeshare a few times without even thinking about a helmet. And tourists are riding around all the time on them. I believe that DC law only requires helmets for kids.

the premise of the article is stupid.... as if it is an either or.

Promote bike riding (through a bike share program, and much better/more important, through bike lanes and bike paths).

also, promote helmet wearing (through education and such)

neither one has to include nor exclude the other.

DC has a ton of bike lanes, and is an awesome place to bike... but i wouldn't do it that regularly with out a helmet.

On the other hand, if i was a tourist just daisypedaling up and down the mall... sure, why not??

For what its worth... i bike commute (in the spring/summer/fall) from mclean to downtown every day. I wear a helmet. But i never wore a helmet before i had kids.... and i used to live in Davis, CA (before i had kids) which has the highest per capita bike usage in teh country (or at least used to).. and almost NOBODY there uses helmets (or at least used to). When i lived there I once saw a woman who appeared to be in her 50s or so have a really slow motion accident. She was barely moving, but she went over a curb, and in doing so she stood up on her bike and put on her front brakes. she fell over the front of her handlebars REALLY slowly... but hit the ground hard nonetheless, and was knocked out cold. She was still out cold when teh ambulance got there 10 minutes later, and was still out cold when they left with her another 10 minutes or so after that. no motion whatsoever. It doesn't take much to have a serious accident when hard pavement and cars are involved.

Having taken a tumble (at very low speed) due to not being able to unclip from the pedals, and cracking my head on the curb, I will ignore the advice to go helmet-less. I was hurting pretty bad and can only imagine what it would have been like if I had not been wearing a helmet.

I loved riding my bike when I lived in Philly. Got hit by a few cars, but it's because I was being an *******.

I hate those helmet laws for peddle bikes. What a joke. If you're unsafe or learning, yes, wear one.

I use to be very into mountain biking and I'd usually wear one if I was going downhill fast. But when I see somebody, an adult, riding a bike in the suburbs, through a development, wearing a helmet, I want to push them down.

Falling down? Use your arms and cover your head.

A good friend of mine frequently bikes without his helmet. What a clown

Should always be wearing helmets when biking

What happens if you get in an accident? Bam

I loved riding my bike when I lived in Philly. Got hit by a few cars, but it's because I was being an *******.

I hate those helmet laws for peddle bikes. What a joke. If you're unsafe or learning, yes, wear one.

I use to be very into mountain biking and I'd usually wear one if I was going downhill fast. But when I see somebody, an adult, riding a bike in the suburbs, through a development, wearing a helmet, I want to push them down.

Falling down? Use your arms and cover your head.

Then you need to get over yourself.

Having a family friend that became a vegetable after hitting his head in a biking accident is a constant reminder as to why I need to wear a helmet and I do. Not only that, but I sometimes haul ass and rarely do I just go for a casual stroll.

Just wish I could still put those playing cards in my spokes like the old days.

Why not wear a helmet? Especially with bikes riding in streets with high speed cars at high speeds, there's a great risk of injury. I'm not sure how much safer helmets are, but I'd think they're safer and I don't see the purpose of not wearing them. Its kinda like wanting to not wear seatbelts. I mean, yeah it makes you big and bad, but do you really want to die for that?

Having read through literally hundreds of police reports for accidents involving bike and cars, I would never ride in a populated area w/out wearing a helmet.

Seriously people. You see how terribly people drive when there are just other cars on the road, and you want to go up against that on your bicycle with nothing between your head and the pavement but your hair?

I loved riding my bike when I lived in Philly. Got hit by a few cars, but it's because I was being an *******.

I hate those helmet laws for peddle bikes. What a joke. If you're unsafe or learning, yes, wear one.

I use to be very into mountain biking and I'd usually wear one if I was going downhill fast. But when I see somebody, an adult, riding a bike in the suburbs, through a development, wearing a helmet, I want to push them down.

Falling down? Use your arms and cover your head.

did you also like to knock down foreign and gay kids in the locker room at school ?

Urban biking in the US is different than it is in the EU. I've been a bike commuter for 20+ years in Boston and biked the mean streets of NYC for the 3 years I lived there too, and it's not comparable. I've visited many European cities with great bike systems, and I've noticed four huge differences:

The bikers go much slower

There are bike lanes or other dedicated byways in many of the streets

The cars actually make allowances for all this

The bikers obey the traffic laws to the same extent as the drivers

It's just a different culture here - none of those things happen. I think comparing the two is like comparing apples and eggs.

We should live like they do in Wall-E.

I was watching some ****ty movie with my girl last night and the time period was when England ran the world and they all started dressing like a bunch of fancy pansies and women. What a joke.

Riding a bike in normal conditions and being required to wear a helmet is like being required to wear a helmet and life vest when tubing in a slow river.

I'm no athlete, but if I am riding a bike in normal conditions and i decide to start doing dangerous crap like riding into traffic or jumps or down hill, I'll put a helmet on. Bt if I'm riding down the road, no, I won't. I shouldn't have to.

The responses I got in this thread, for my comments are pathetic. Go live in a ****ing hamster ball or go out have fun and fall down and get dirty. Get busy living or get busy dieing.

---------- Post added October-5th-2012 at 04:55 PM ----------

did you also like to knock down foreign and gay kids in the locker room at school ?

It was a joke geared for people who are afraid of life. Get over yourself.

---------- Post added October-5th-2012 at 05:33 PM ----------

I wonder if any of the people upset that I think helmet laws are for asshats, are against the large soda bans or oil bans that I like.

Imagine riding a bike around cars and going fast, it's dangerous right? Maybe you should slow down or change roads or put a helmet on. They don't make helmets for obesity, heart attacks and strokes.