livedarklions

Triggered much?

Certainly not before you read what actually happened there: https://publichealthinsider.com/2022...helmet-policy/

Understand that the Seattle law was a health regulation, and data on the actual very selective enforcement of the rule led the Board of Health to determine that encouraging helmet use was going to be more effective than punishing non-use.

tfay

I think wearing a helmet is a necessity when cycling. So whoever it is, I think everyone should comply.

clubman 

Based on what I'm seeing these days, I'd hedge my bets on that. We're far too stoopid.

rydabent

Helmet laws are just like any other law invented by people that for some reason want to control what other people do. That said, I always wear my helmet even tho I mostly ride my trike and have only a short distance to fall.

Koyote

If you think helmet law enforcement has ever, anywhere, generated more than a rounding error's worth of revenue for any government entity, you must've fallen off your 'bent and hit your noggin pretty hard.

I've never even heard of anyone getting a ticket for riding helmet-less.

livedarklions

The enforcement is, where it does happen, highly "selective". Stopping people on bikes is actually pretty hard to do. When I was a kid in Minneapolis, the police were actually trying to enforce a bike license requirement, and it was laughably easy to avoid getting stopped, especially since the cops attempting it were always on foot.

tds101 

Apparently this little tidbit wasn't noticed by some:

Unfortunately this seems to be the issue. Health and safety of the public isn't the current concern at all.

Camilo

Why is it a necessity? Is it because it's so intrinsically dangerous that to not wear a helmet is likely (the word is likely, not possible) to result in a serious injury? If so, I disagree. I think cycling is not very dangerous. That is not to say I think it it is without risks of injury, it's just that I think that the risk of serious injury is small. There is a very small possibility of a serious head injury while cycling without a helmet. Although I do wear a helmet, I do not think its a necessity. I think kids riding without helmets is perfectly OK and I'm glad to see they're out doing something physical without being afraid.

Troul 

x2

People should wear chemical & cut resistant gloves when washing there dishes...... Read that again. Bet it gets funnier every single time.

SurferRosa

I think tires are a necessity. There should be a law.

Trakhak

Absolutely. In fact, there's never been a single situation where head injury was likely enough to justify the use of helmets. Race car driving, construction work, military combat . . . the list goes on and on.

Since I started riding a bike in the late 1950s, I've done what must be close to a million miles on my bikes, and yet I've had only four biking-related concussions.

Or maybe it's five. Can't remember for sure. Either way, that proves how unnecessary helmets are.

refrigerator900

what does car conflicts mean?

and how are helmets - a device for safety - bewing up racial concerns?

*english is not my native languge so i may be missing something here?

and regarding bycicle hemlmets - if it is not a full face that protects the chin it's kind of bad to bite down into a curb but hey, at least you'll live to tell the tale?

TLit

I looked at the regions of helmet requirements in the US, not too many places require them for all ages; certainly requirements for kids makes tremendous sense.

I've almost always been a cautious rider. When I was around 10 I biked down a friends steep driveway at high speed wiping out and creaming one side of my face; strangely I didn't cry but my friend Richard did.

I've never worn biker garb and seldom helmets. I'm always conscious of car doors possibly opening suddenly and reckless drivers. I bike as far to the right side of roads as I can usually except when it is rough or there is broken glass.

livedarklions

Are you sure you wrote this?

Really great sarcastic post, but I suspect it might go over some (possibly concussed) heads.

livedarklions

It's based on who was actually getting ticketed for not wearing a helmet (and, implicitly, who was not). Selective enforcement suggests strongly that it isn't being enforced for safety reasons, but instead to harass members of groups the police want to push around.

GhostRider62

Once per year on a warm Spring day, I would grant myself a nostalgic ride sans helmet out in the countryside.

Never, ever again will I do that.

Why?

I had a bizarre crash last September landing on my left side, cracking the helmet pretty good. Broke left hip bone (torchanter), 5 ribs. collar bone, scapula, humerus in 3 pieces, left elbow and they had to surgically break my ulnar to put me back together. The Trauma team could not believe my head was ok, they said you must have had a really good helmet. It was the top of the line Laser MIP, it now in the landfill.

refrigerator900

oh now i get it.
makes sense.

livedarklions

Nothing anywhere near as traumatic, but I've had two occurrences that could have been major damage turned into non-events by my helmet. I've discovered that if you're not looking for them, small overhanging branches over roads don't really call attention to themselves. "Thwack!!!!!" right into my helmet. They were glancing blows that basically just startled me, but the sound sure made me think there was no way my head would not have been injured, possibly severely, if I hadn't been wearing the helmet.

I consider helmets a necessity for me especially as I ride rather fast, but don't believe in making it legally mandatory because I don't think that kind of enforcement actually increases helmet use.

GhostRider62

I've had quite a few walnut boink me off the helmet but never a branch.

I should have mentioned that the trauma team said many cyclists who come in w/o wearing a helmet lose consciousness or in other words they often get knocked out, which by definition is a serious concussion. Only after I relived every detail of the incident for them did they consider me not having lost consciousness. I guess I have had 4 somewhat serious crashes in 40+ years but that was the first that I hit my head. One was at 35 mph, two were at 40-45 mph and the really bad one was only 20 mph. Go figure.

I also do not think mandating helmets would have much of a benefit.

refrigerator900

isn't in some us states not mandatory to wear a helmet on a motorcycle?
curious about bycicle laws in those states.

this here is really awkward cause only certain types of people were being ticketed.

GhostRider62

There are quite a few states that do not mandate helmets when riding a motorcycle.

Connecticut requires a bicycle rider to wear a helmet but motorcyclist are not required to wear one, IIRC. Same with Pennsylvania.

fooferdoggie 

even a slow speed accident a helmet can help. I was doing maybe 10mph at most when this stopped car jumped and knocked my bike out from under me. my helmet bounced off the pavement instead of my forehead. all H ad was a big knot on my leg. I had already cracked my head open twice as a kid glad I did not do it again

TLit

No, CT does not:

State Bicycle Helmet Laws and How They Work | Nolo

GhostRider62

My understanding is that teens need to wear them in CT and I do not remember seeing helmets on bikers (the hog ones) there

livedarklions

No state requires adults to wear bicycle helmets. States are all over the place in their mc helmet requirements: https://www.iihs.org/topics/motorcyc...met-laws-table
CT requires mc helmets for 17 and younger.