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So i had one single bike accident in my life so far. Happened to be in a urban area. Happened that a car cut the way and i hit it, and the ground with the head
by zobzu 14y ago
So i had one single bike accident in my life so far.
Happened to be in a urban area. Happened that a car cut the way and i hit it, and the ground with the head.
I have a permanent scar (its not so bad) on the side of my face.
Without helmet it'd have something much worse (yeah i broke other body parts, the hit was rather violent - i can avoid a car going at regular speed, but if i'm going fast and the car is speeding, sometimes it's though luck). So you know what? As long as I'm not going down at 60mph in the forest I don't care if I've a helmet or not. Ground is soft, and I'm probably not gonna fall. The chance to hurt my head is low, and the skull is strong.
Now in a urban area, 60mph isn't unheard of. Specially from cars, even if you're at "only" 20mph on the bike. Thats exactly where a helmet is a good idea.
For sure I'm ok with people choosing to wear a helmet or not (as long as if a biker gets hurt by it's own fault, the car driver doesn't have to pay for it, which I fear ain't the case in the US). But I don't think that's a very good idea in a urban environment.
You'd need bike-only lanes that are fully respected, proper visibility, etc. That's not the case in Paris (velib) and that's not the case in the US. In both cities bikers also pass at red light, in both cities non-bicycles use the bicycle lane (in Paris scooters take it all day long to avoid traffic, at high speed). In some other EU countries, or some other French cities it's (much) better than in Paris, though, safety-wise.
Also in the EU (Minus Paris and probably a few other big cities), cars will not attempt to kill bikes if there's no bike lane, and bikes will generally respect the road signs. Makes a world of a difference.
- mikeash 14y agoThis would be much more compelling if you could bring some statistics into the argument rather than tell a personal story and then, basically, guess.
- zobzu 14y agoStatistic of how many head injuries you get if your head is smashed against a car door or the ground at high speed? I suggest you make the experiment, because, I can only guess it hurts every time, and uhm, that's not backed by any statistic. -- I'm not allowed to reply because this has been down-voted, so i'll reply here: the study you linked is a net result of people NOT riding bicycles because they don't want to ride if they have to wear a helmet. Thus they die "faster" from lack of exercising. That's twisted crap, IMO. It doesn't mean not wearing a helmet is safer. It means: NOT DOING EXERCISE IS UNHEALTHY. That's a very different thing. Note that everyone else "against helmets" in the HN threads linked to similar stats (!) As I wrote, I'm all for people being allowed to wear one, or not wear one. But at the end of the day, it's safer to wear one in many environments such as SF/NYC/Paris (yes, Paris too It's not like Amsterdam, at all.). But since you like stats, here are stats, that helmets protected 85% of helmet-wearing riders, as this study does not compare to "people who wouldn't ride because the think a helmet is ugly": http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM198905253202101?HITS=20&hits=20&FIRSTINDEX=0&searchid=1004370623714_124372&stored_search=&tdate=10%2F31%2F1990&author1=Thompson&journalcode=nejm&RESULTFORMAT=&fdate=1%2F1%2F1988&sortspec=PUBDATE_SORTDATE+desc+Score+desc&titleabstract=Bicycle&maxtoshow= http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM198905253202101?HIT...
- mikeash 14y agoThis study claims that there is a substantial net increase in deaths from a law that would require helmets: http://www.cyclehelmets.org/1231.html http://www.cyclehelmets.org/1231.html Where's your evidence that helmets result in a net decrease in risk overall?
- mikeash 14y agoI'm incredibly disappointed with the quality of conversation in this thread. I expected a nice conversation about risks versus benefits. Instead, I see a bunch of people arguing with anecdotes and insults, and turning on anyone who makes even the slightest attempt to look at the situation rationally.
- zobzu 14y agoGiven how many messages you sent with the same tone as when you replied to me, I am not surprised you feel that way. I did give you the link you asked for and full explanation, but instead of discussing those, you're deriving the discussion with complains, which IMO, aren't valid. I'm guessing, and I might be wrong, but I'm guessing, it's partially because you do not accept my point of view as even possible. I don't see any insult in my messages, by the way. Oh and since I've been upvoted back, I can actually reply now. Yay.
- papalalu 14y agothe test that your helmet has to pass is a 12.5mph impact.
- zobzu 14y agoit's AFAIK 14mph, and motor bike helmets are tested at 17mph. Note that in both cases you can still die from head injuries while wearing one. And in both cases accidents happen at a much higher speed than the tested speed (also they do resist much greater impacts)
- sophiabatka464 14y agohttp://freemoviesite24.com/2012/09/journey-2-the-mysterious-island-720p-free-films-to-download http://freemoviesite24.com/2012/09/journey-2-the-mysterious-...