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Biking isn't completely safe. Do helmets really help all that much? Very questionable[0]. Wearing a helmet, for example, promotes less safe behaviour by both cy

Biking isn't completely safe. Do helmets really help all that much? Very questionable[0]. Wearing a helmet, for example, promotes less safe behaviour by both cyclists and by drivers around them. The sense of safety a helmet gives you when you cycle is mostly a false one. Lack of cycling infrastructure is a far greater danger anyway. In countries with the best cyclist safety records, no one wears or owns bike helmets, like not figuratively 'no one', but literally, no one. Can't be a very significant standalone determinant of bike safety then, can it? [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_helmet#Effectiveness https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_helmet#Effectiveness

willis936 7y ago
From the re-analysis cited in the wikipedia article: "Do bicycle helmets reduce the risk of injury to the head, face or neck? With respect to head injury, the answer is clearly yes, and the re-analysis of the meta-analysis reported by Attewell et al.(2001) in this paper has not changed this answer." https://doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.aap.2012.12.003 https://doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.aap.2012.12.003 If it's behavior that's being targeted by policies around helmets, then why would a more care-free attitude towards biking make it safer?
- ogre_codes 7y ago
  It doesn't make cycling safer for the individual, it makes society safer and people healthier. Individually riding with a helmet is safer than riding while not wearing a helmet, but if everyone rides a bike without a helmet, fewer people die and people live longer because there are far fewer cars on the road. Fewer people are driving cars which are much more lethal to non-drivers, so fewer people get killed. People are more active and live longer because of increased physical activity. Making bikes more appealing/ easier to access by not requiring helmets makes people collectively safer and healthier.

willis936 7y ago

From the re-analysis cited in the wikipedia article: "Do bicycle helmets reduce the risk of injury to the head, face or neck? With respect to head injury, the answer is clearly yes, and the re-analysis of the meta-analysis reported by Attewell et al.(2001) in this paper has not changed this answer." https://doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.aap.2012.12.003 https://doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.aap.2012.12.003 If it's behavior that's being targeted by policies around helmets, then why would a more care-free attitude towards biking make it safer?

ogre_codes 7y ago
It doesn't make cycling safer for the individual, it makes society safer and people healthier. Individually riding with a helmet is safer than riding while not wearing a helmet, but if everyone rides a bike without a helmet, fewer people die and people live longer because there are far fewer cars on the road. Fewer people are driving cars which are much more lethal to non-drivers, so fewer people get killed. People are more active and live longer because of increased physical activity. Making bikes more appealing/ easier to access by not requiring helmets makes people collectively safer and healthier.