4 ms·
Helmets are a red herring in the whole cycling discussion. Unless you're racing or mountain biking, you shouldn't need a helmet for regular cycling anymore than
by freshflowers 12y ago
Helmets are a red herring in the whole cycling discussion. Unless you're racing or mountain biking, you shouldn't need a helmet for regular cycling anymore than you should need a helmet for crossing the street on foot.
There's nothing inherently particularly unsafe about cycling (at least no more unsafe than many everyday activities), even while sharing the road with cars.
The only thing that makes cycling unsafe in certain countries are the drivers, and the culture that puts cars above other traffic to the point where it's apparently okay to run over the odd annoying cyclist.
- jan_g 12y agoI don't think that's healthy point of view. Helmet has saved my skull once and a close relative of mine had an accident that would save him lots of pain had he wore a helmet (he hit a curb with his head when falling down). Comparing cycling with walking on foot is, well, unusual to me to say the least. Of course, you can fall down walking as well, but as a cyclist, you are faster and you are sharing the road with other bigger/heavier vehicles. I would not dream of going on a bike to cycle in and around my town (somewhat hilly terrain, relatively narrow roads) without a helmet.
- frabbit 12y agoAgreed. When cyclists come into contact with vehicles there are a bunch of other major traumas besides the head. Rapidly rotated bodies can have their aortas ripped apart. Spleens are burts. Spines are snapped. And yet, the actual level of cycling deaths is comparable to pedestrians. It's quite low. The way to solve these problems is to reduce the abuse of motorised transport.