5 ms·

Why is she not wearing any type of safety gear / a helmet?!

jrootabega 8y ago
Yep, your head will crack open from a four foot drop at any speed. And how about a helmet where the strap is actually clipped and tightened?
- corobo 8y ago
  Hope they don't play any kind of sports in that sports room they're testing in then!
  - jrootabega 8y ago
    Bikes are risky in that sense. Your legs and arms can't mitigate a fall like they usually do. And testing an experimental bike with a bunch of extra metal to find out how it fails? Even worse. Besides, the point of the experiment is to test the bike. There's nothing gained by not wearing a helmet. You're also implying that those other sports wouldn't be better with helmets, which may not be true.
    - gerbilly 8y ago
      >Bikes are risky in that sense. Your legs and arms can't mitigate a fall like they usually do. The way to handle most falls if you can anticipate them is to jump straight up and off the bike. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcCGDr9f1L8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcCGDr9f1L8
- recursive 8y ago
  > Yep, your head will crack open from a four foot drop at any speed. I highly doubt this. The amount of force required to crack a human head open seems to be much more than what you can generate in 4 feet of free-fall.
stefan_ 8y ago
Do you wear a helmet to work? Much more dangerous environment as the statistics show.
- larkeith 8y ago
  More dangerous than riding a bike? I exceedingly doubt that, could you link those statistics?
  - askmike 8y ago
    Not sure about how unsafe offices are but here is a paper showing statistics about how it is safer to ride a bike than to not ride one. As in "[cycling has] shown beneficial effects on population risk of all-cause mortality (ACM)": https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25344355/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25344355/
    - larkeith 8y ago
      Huh, that's an interesting result, though perhaps not entirely unexpected. Another aggregate study can be found at [1]. I still suspect that the difference in risk between biking without a helmet and with a helmet is significant, and that the studies aggregated likely had a majority of riders using helmets (this is entirely based on subjective experience of US cyclist helmet-wearing probabilities, so let me know if that's wrong).
      - askmike 8y ago
        I'm not sure, but I do know that in the Netherlands no one bikes with a helmet, and it's considered very safe: I took the bicycle to school ever since mid primary school (we don't have school busses or anythig like that.) The only people that I ever see wearing helmets on bicycles are North American tourists.
        larkeith 8y ago
        I guess it depends heavily on the locale - I live in Portland, and while we're one of the most bike-friendly cities in the US, going helmetless would be risky at best, though outside city limits wouldn't be as concerning.
upofadown 8y ago
Dunno, people probably do actual gymnastics in that gym with no safety equipment at all. I suspect that there is some sort of cultural thing here where it feels more dangerous because someone is touching a bicycle. In particular it is probably some sort of car culture thing. In such a culture there is a tendency to aggressively ignore the danger of cars. That seems to cause a tendency to overestimate the danger of other transportation modes.
userbinator 8y ago
She's in a large room with no other traffic, and not going fast at all. The risk of anything is extremely low.
- lifeformed 8y ago
  My coworkers dad died from falling off a bike in his driveway at zero speed. He had no helmet and hit his head on the pavement and instantly died.
  - nicky0 8y ago
    People get struck by lightning too.

Yep, your head will crack open from a four foot drop at any speed. And how about a helmet where the strap is actually clipped and tightened?

corobo 8y ago
Hope they don't play any kind of sports in that sports room they're testing in then!
- jrootabega 8y ago
  Bikes are risky in that sense. Your legs and arms can't mitigate a fall like they usually do. And testing an experimental bike with a bunch of extra metal to find out how it fails? Even worse. Besides, the point of the experiment is to test the bike. There's nothing gained by not wearing a helmet. You're also implying that those other sports wouldn't be better with helmets, which may not be true.
  - gerbilly 8y ago
    >Bikes are risky in that sense. Your legs and arms can't mitigate a fall like they usually do. The way to handle most falls if you can anticipate them is to jump straight up and off the bike. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcCGDr9f1L8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcCGDr9f1L8
recursive 8y ago
> Yep, your head will crack open from a four foot drop at any speed. I highly doubt this. The amount of force required to crack a human head open seems to be much more than what you can generate in 4 feet of free-fall.

stefan_ 8y ago

Do you wear a helmet to work? Much more dangerous environment as the statistics show.

larkeith 8y ago
More dangerous than riding a bike? I exceedingly doubt that, could you link those statistics?
- askmike 8y ago
  Not sure about how unsafe offices are but here is a paper showing statistics about how it is safer to ride a bike than to not ride one. As in "[cycling has] shown beneficial effects on population risk of all-cause mortality (ACM)": https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25344355/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25344355/
  - larkeith 8y ago
    Huh, that's an interesting result, though perhaps not entirely unexpected. Another aggregate study can be found at [1]. I still suspect that the difference in risk between biking without a helmet and with a helmet is significant, and that the studies aggregated likely had a majority of riders using helmets (this is entirely based on subjective experience of US cyclist helmet-wearing probabilities, so let me know if that's wrong).
    - askmike 8y ago
      I'm not sure, but I do know that in the Netherlands no one bikes with a helmet, and it's considered very safe: I took the bicycle to school ever since mid primary school (we don't have school busses or anythig like that.) The only people that I ever see wearing helmets on bicycles are North American tourists.
      - larkeith 8y ago
        I guess it depends heavily on the locale - I live in Portland, and while we're one of the most bike-friendly cities in the US, going helmetless would be risky at best, though outside city limits wouldn't be as concerning.

upofadown 8y ago

Dunno, people probably do actual gymnastics in that gym with no safety equipment at all. I suspect that there is some sort of cultural thing here where it feels more dangerous because someone is touching a bicycle. In particular it is probably some sort of car culture thing. In such a culture there is a tendency to aggressively ignore the danger of cars. That seems to cause a tendency to overestimate the danger of other transportation modes.

userbinator 8y ago

She's in a large room with no other traffic, and not going fast at all. The risk of anything is extremely low.

lifeformed 8y ago
My coworkers dad died from falling off a bike in his driveway at zero speed. He had no helmet and hit his head on the pavement and instantly died.
- nicky0 8y ago
  People get struck by lightning too.