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I agree with your general sentiment, but don't think people on electric bikes are going to improve the situation, rather make it much, much worse based on the e

• gpm 7y ago
  Wearing a helmet increases your chance of death on a bike according to the statistics. I personally don't, I feel less safe wearing one. I can't locate cars as accurately with audio with one on my head, the extra weight makesy head turn slower, and I think subconsciously left often. Drivers pass more aggressively and illegally (most drivers passing break the law here that requires a meter seperation when passing a cyclist, but they break it 'more' by coming closer when I wear a helmet).
  • driverdan 7y ago
    > Wearing a helmet increases your chance of death on a bike according to the statistics. Completely untrue. Bike helmets do increase the risk of concussion but decrease the risk of other serious injuries or death.
  • sjclemmy 7y ago
    Care to substantiate that?
    • gpm 7y ago
      I'll find a source tonight and link it here.
  • foota 7y ago
    Fairly certain that's bullshit. https://www.iihs.org/topics/pedestrians-and-bicyclists https://www.iihs.org/topics/pedestrians-and-bicyclists
    • gpm 7y ago
      Helmets protect you somewhat if you crash but are correlated with a significance increase in number of crashes. That page only addresses the first number.
    • anyanswers 7y ago
      https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/jan/24/bike-helmet-appetite-danger https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/jan/24/bike-helmet-...
  • maaaats 7y ago
    > Wearing a helmet increases your chance of death on a bike according to the statistics I've heard that too. If it's true, could the causality be the other way? As in, people wear a helmet when the chance of accidents is bigger. When I road bike on open roads it's both fast and higher chance of accidents, so I wear a helmet. Same with downhill cycling. But when using a city bike, I bike slow in the inner city, and don't have a helmet.
    • gpm 7y ago
      Causality could definitely be the other way as far as the stats I saw. I personally suspect the is some causality in both directions.
  • duncan-donuts 7y ago
    I’ve never heard anyone say it’s actually less safe to wear a helmet. What kind of helmet are you wearing? Most helmets are so light you’d hardly even notice. I’m just confused about this comment.
    • cobbzilla 7y ago
      I am trying to find the study, but iirc it was that in the US cars drive more carefully when they see a cyclist w/o a helmet, resulting in fewer collisions. Doubtless in case of a collision you’d be better off with the helmet, but at a high enough speed it won’t matter anyway. I used to play basketball with a personal injury lawyer who flat-out stated that the % of situations he’s seen where a helmet actually helped was very small. I don’t wear one for many reasons; and I don’t judge anyone else’s decision.
  • Johnny555 7y ago
    Are you wearing a motorcycle helmet? My bike helmet doesn't touch my ears and weighs around 300g, about 5% of the 5 kg weight of a human head -- I can't tell the difference between turning my head with and without a helmet, but it doesn't matter much on the road since I use a rear-view mirror on my glasses so I look behind me much more often than if I had to turn my head every time.
    • gpm 7y ago
      Normal cyclist helmet. It causes more wind noise and generally messes up directionality because there is something above your ears. A rear view mirror might change my decision, I keep intending to try some of those out.
      • jackcarter 7y ago
        I built one myself with some spare parts. I love it, to the point that I wear my helmet for short trips when I otherwise wouldn't bother. It's modeled after this one: https://www.efficientvelo.com/home/safezone https://www.efficientvelo.com/home/safezone The key component is the flexible, stays-where-you-put-it arm. Safezone is repurposing an industrial product called "coolant hose" - a 1-ft length costs less than $5. Epoxy a small mirror to the end, and attach it to your helmet with zip ties or velcro straps. Here's mine: https://imgur.com/a/a9H7bXq https://imgur.com/a/a9H7bXq
        • Johnny555 7y ago
          I tried some helmet mounted mirrors, but they moved around too much for me, so I switched to this eyeglass frame mounted mirror: http://travellingtwo.com/resources/take-a-look-mirror http://travellingtwo.com/resources/take-a-look-mirror It's simple to clip on, and stays put once it is, I've been using this mirror for over 5 years and feel uncomfortable riding without it.
    • 05 7y ago
      Those 5% have larger radius of gyration than the brain, though..
  • Zigurd 7y ago
    I always wear a helmet biking, and skiing for that matter. Neither helmet is likely to save me from a serious injury or death. They provide a small extra margin of safety in low speed collisions. Bike helmets are no impediment to vision or turning one's head. What I'd like is a cam linked to the police that would auto-ticket anyone passing too close. I would gladly sign an affidavit confirming the infraction.
  • ebg13 7y ago
    > Wearing a helmet increases your chance of death on a bike according to the statistics. I'm not aware of any study that says this. The most I've ever read is speculation that wearing a helmet might lead to more accidents, but that's not the same thing, since accidents with head protection are less likely to result in catastrophic head trauma and death. Could you maybe drop a reference link or two for this claim?
    • gpm 7y ago
      Totally fair to call me out on references. You should read this instead: https://www.vox.com/2014/5/16/5720762/stop-forcing-people-to-wear-bike-helmets https://www.vox.com/2014/5/16/5720762/stop-forcing-people-to... Why? Because it's an meta analysis of a bunch of actually rigorous papers written for the general public. My original source was a blogpost written by some guy with an opinion. I promise you I'm not lying that's what it said, but I wouldn't trust the statistics he had to not be caused by some quirk like "people in safer to countries to bike are less likely to wear helmets". I can't find it again, sorry - probably because google has gotten so much worse at surfacing blogposts in the last few years. You'll just have to take my word that I wasn't lying when I said I saw such statistics (or google more yourself, I didn't try that hard, but at some point googling for statistics that support your view is unfair cherry picking of evidence).
  • provolone 7y ago
    In my experience as a courier and in dirt jump, the helmet puts extra weight on the head and neck at the time of impact. This can make it harder to tuck and roll. Also the size of the helmet adds a few inches, making it harder to avoid the earth/pavement.
• seanmcdirmid 7y ago
  Having lived in China, I can tell you it doesn’t get better when they own their own e-bikes. Also, bike helmets are mostly an American/ Anglo sphere thing, there are whole countries with mass bike cultures that don’t bother with helmets and are still much safer than the USA.
  • dheera 7y ago
    I live in the US and consider helmets an absolute necessity here as I'm riding alongside cars, trucks, and various other things that could kill me instantly, and riding in streets that don't have bike lanes to begin with. The reason most other countries are safer is because of awareness of bikes and proper design of bike lanes. Google image search "bike lane china" or "bike lane netherlands" to see how safe bike lanes should be designed. In these places it's just much less common to be knocked off your bike in a dangerous manner. I've biked all over China and feel a lot safer there than in e.g. Palo Alto or San Francisco. However, personally, I'd still wear a helmet regardless. I like my brain.
    • seanmcdirmid 7y ago
      Yes, I agree with that. But it is a problem we created ourselves because of our love for car culture, not that helmets should be mandatory in other more sane countries. There aren't a lot of brain injuries in the Netherlands from bike accidents, so there is no demand for them. China really isn't on the list of sane places, but traffic is slow enough that helmets might not matter much anyways. My point about china was more about dangerous electric bicyclists zooming on the sidewalk and almost hitting you.
      • stevesimmons 7y ago
        I nearly got a brain injury in the Netherlands! I was riding too fast, carrying a TV, in heavy rain (all perfect normal for Amsterdam!). For some reason, I took my other hand off the handlebars, the front wheel spun round and I landed face-first on the road. :( 100% my fault; no other vehicles involved. (btw, I wear a helmet 100% of the time in the UK, and in NL when on my road bike with clipless pedals)
• hannasanarion 7y ago
  Electric bikes enable more people to participate in biking when they would have driven otherwise. It takes time to build up the leg strength it takes to bike well enough for commuting, most people don't have the time to train for weeks so that they can comfortably conquer the hill on the way to work or whatever. More bikes on the road means more pressure on drivers to keep an eye out, and more pressure on politicians to make infrastructure safe for cyclists.
• cbm-vic-20 7y ago
  Providence is one such city with an electric bikeshare fleet. The people who ride them appear to be in much more danger, as they rarely wear helmets and seem to be even less aware of traffic regulations than traditional cyclists.
• himeexcelanta 7y ago
  I’m curious which city you’re in. Not that it’s this simple, but it seems to me that any one of those electric bike-share users would otherwise be contributing to localized and global pollution and congestion through the use of a car. Additionally, the lack of infrastructure (i.e. protected/expanded bike lanes) would might explain why it seems like those cyclists “a danger to everyone”.
  • borkt 7y ago
    No, I saw a an ebike blow out of golden gate park against a red and cause a 3 car accident in SF a few weeks back, despite only spending a few days in SF each year. At least one or more of the cars were likely totalled and would contribute much more significantly to waste/emissions. I also saw a lot of people on bikes/scooters using sidewalks and crosswalks like their personal fast lines and ignoring signs and signals repeatedly as well.
    • himeexcelanta 7y ago
      I live in SF. Agree that there are many reckless scooter and e-bike users. To offer another anecdote, everyday I see Uber/Lyft drivers stopped in the middle of traffic, parked in red zones, and driving 10-15 mph under the speed limit. Either way, San Francisco has a big problem of actually enforcing the rule of law for traffic violations.
• WhompingWindows 7y ago
  In the city itself, I don't think ebike vs regular bike is the lynch-pin issue. But if we want to set up intra-city transport networks, if I want to go from Providence to Boston for instance, that's 50 miles which is way too much of a workout. If I have an e-bike, however, that extends my "comfortable" riding range from around 15-20 now to 50+ easily. For intra-city transport on protected paths, I think e-bikes will be a great revolution. Within cities themselves, we simply need to get smaller cars, autonomous probably would help, less car-trips overall, less parked cars, and with raised/separated bike lanes like Holland. Eventually, with more and more riders and good education, we could have regions of the USA with strong bike transport. Imagine, for instance, if we established certain roads/streets for non-car travel only. I'd expect a massive flourishing of businesses, increased walkability, better air quality, more room for greenery/outdoor tables and events, all due to taking one street here or there off the car-grid. Take Chicago or NYC for instance, they have numerous parallel streets, incredibly redundant network, cars could go around these non-car roads with ease. As of right now, cars dominate all of southern New England except for the Cambridge area.