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Seattle is located in King County, which has a mandatory helmet law for all riders, regardless of age. Melbourne, Australia has a program with helmet laws and i
by koji 14y ago
Seattle is located in King County, which has a mandatory helmet law for all riders, regardless of age. Melbourne, Australia has a program with helmet laws and it has struggled to maintain ridership. This is definitely a concern. Vancouver, BC is also launching a program in a similar situation, so people are watching it closely.
There is undoubtedly a solution out there, but it may take some time to see how users adopt helmet requirements. We're definitely excited about the Puget Sound planning that is going on. I would love to see bikeshare in my hometown!
- philwelch 14y agoThe concern to me is less the helmet laws and more the fact that it's not actually safe to ride bicycles in most American cities without a helmet. It's not like we have physically separated bicycle routes like Copenhagen or anything--it's a basic safety precaution.
- dprice1 14y agoI agree and was really surprised to see the rider in the video not wearing a helmet, even though it is legal to do so in California if you are over 18 (it is not, however, smart). The answer is to just carry one with you-- they aren't heavy, and you can usually strap it onto a backpack when not in use. As an aside, riding on the sidewalk in the business district of Mountain View (the video is clearly Castro @ Villa) is not actually legal (http://library.municode.com/HTML/16508/level3/PTIITHCO_CH19MOVETR_ARTVIBIROSKCOELPEASMODEEP.html#PTIITHCO_CH19MOVETR_ARTVIBIROSKCOELPEASMODEEP._S19.51RIBISIPR http://library.municode.com/HTML/16508/level3/PTIITHCO_CH19M...)