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In the Netherlands, where 30% of trips are by bike (compared to 1% in the US), almost nobody where a helmet, and it's extremely safe. It's almost impossible to

In the Netherlands, where 30% of trips are by bike (compared to 1% in the US), almost nobody where a helmet, and it's extremely safe. It's almost impossible to go over the handlebars on a Dutch bike. You're sitting upright, you're going slow, the roads are safe, and there are no hills to go zooming down. Dutch cycling is basically at jogging speeds. Nobody expects joggers to wear helmets. However, when Dutch cyclists do go fast, they wear helmets. In Dutch there are even separate words for everyday cyclist (fietser) and speed cyclists (wielrenner): http://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2012/05/28/lycra-on-the-streets-of-the-netherlands/ http://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2012/05/28/lycra-on-the-st... I live in Seattle, where we have killer hills and shitty bike infrastructure. I always wear a helmet, and I've had three minor crashes that would have been major crashes without a helmet. When I finally move to the Netherlands, I'm not bringing my helmet with me.

Zigurd 12y ago
How to spot an American in China: Wearing a helmet, and going twice the speed of the locals.
- kazinator 12y ago
  I've actually been to China and I can tell you that there is a lot of bicycle traffic on the wide, dedicated bike/moped/motorcycle pathways. The locals are fast. Also, the drivers drive as if those cyclists were invisible. For instance, they make abrupt right turns across the bike lane without caring whether or not they are flanked by bikes or not (including electric and gas powered two-wheelers). At any time, you have to be prepared for a car to swerve in front of you to make a right turn, not always signaling beforehand. If anything, an American who is a n00b on the scene will probably stand out by going slower than the locals, out of sheer fear. You'd be crazy to cycle around in a place like Shanghai without a helmet. (Also, the helmets you buy in America are made in China so why wouldn't you get one if you're in China, haha.)
cleaver 12y ago
You don't have to go over the bars or go fast to get hurt. Back during my cycling days a teammate was out training on a quiet country road. He crossed wheels when a kid he was passing swerved. He hit his head, went into a coma and died two weeks later. While this was a competitive cyclist, he was riding solo and training for endurance—not terribly fast, nor anywhere near race pace. You could also be struck by a motorist. Granted, Dutch drivers are more aware of cyclists, but people still make mistakes.
- revelation 12y ago
  You could also trip in a staircase and die. I'd wager the outcomes are about equally likely. Why stop with a helmet? You should always wear knee protectors and any other amount of protective gear. Simply put, the helmet is a political device invoked to get rid of cyclists on public streets and mask the actual risk (cars, by many orders of magnitude, and not only to cyclists, but also pedestrians). As astute people have noticed, helmets are basically absent in countries that have sane city infrastructure transport design and dedicate just a fraction of the resources to making cycling possible for everyone. But we can't expect people to ask for that infrastructure when they don't even know what it should look like. You note "Dutch drivers are more aware of cyclists", missing the most important feature of Dutch infra: there is physical separation that makes the mistakes of human car drivers (universally useless) mostly riskless.
  - dllthomas 12y ago
    "the helmet is a political device invoked to get rid of cyclists on public streets" What?
    - asavadatti 12y ago
      Help! Help! I'm being repressed.
    - ciupicri 12y ago
      What the OP is probably trying to say is that politicians will push for mandatory helmet wearing, all in the name of safety. Some cyclists will comply, while others will stop riding altogether resulting in less cyclists on public streets.
richardlblair 12y ago
That's like saying "I don't wear a seatbelt because I drive the speed limit". This is some of the worst logic I've seen on here in a while. I'll keep an eye open for your Tell HN post "I should have wore a helmet"
- limsup 12y ago
  I think there's something to say about it being safer to bike in general in Netherlands vs in the US. Often in the US you are riding next to busy traffic, while in NE the bikes are better protected. Along with other things too: like a car driving population that is careful about bicyclists. So, it's not exactly like saying I don't wear a seatbelt because I drive the speed limit. Rather it's like saying I don't wear a seat belt because I live in a different country where accidents are less probable.
  - georgemcbay 12y ago
    Accidents may be less probable, but if you happen to be one of the unlucky ones who does have one you could still die or suffer severe brain damage, so why not just wear the helmet? Sure it makes you look a bit goofier, but that's a small price to pay to protect your melon. I do a lot of downhill mountain biking, snowboarding, etc, so I'm not one of these people that tends to be overly worried about safety, but whenever I get on wheels or something that can easily slide out of control I wear a helmet, period. I'm (pun intended) painfully aware of the amount of impact force a rotational component can add to an otherwise relatively low-speed, low-altitude fall. Maybe the drivers are more cognizant of bikers in the Netherlands vs the US, but I still wouldn't trust them, they are not infallible and it only takes one of them one fuckup to mess me up. A helmet is a very effective (though non-perfect) fail-safe for this that costs virtually nothing (amortized over time of use before it is needed, hopefully never) and has no real downside other than pure cosmetics.
    - deleted 12y ago
      [deleted]
  - Someone 12y ago
cbr 12y ago
It's almost impossible to go over the handlebars on a Dutch bike. I've done it. I was cycling slowly along the road, and my front wheel went into a drain-grate that had been mistakenly oriented with bars parallel to the road. I landed on my head, had a sore neck for a while, replaced my helmet, and was glad I had been wearing one.
kazinator 12y ago
In Vancouver here. I had a bad one in October 2013. Going downhill on a wet pavement and into a corner. The bike just skidded out from under me. Luckily, the car behind me was far enough to be able to avoid me. The back of my helmet hit the pavement quite hard. I heard quite a loud sound and was a little dazed as a result. That would have been very bad without a helmet. There isn't anything I could have done to protect my head in that situation, like choose to fall differently. I had a huge black bruise covering much of my right hip, and a pain in the right side of my rib cage that lasted into the following spring.
emmelaich 12y ago
I lived in Amsterdam for a while and loved commuting on my bike. But here's an anecdote for you. I grew up in a large town in Australia where bicycling was very popular. I rode everywhere and had paper runs. I don't remember anyone having a serious accident. At 17 I went to University in Sydney and rode everywhere; again no helmet and no accidents. In Amsterdam I had one big crash; my wheel went between the cracks on the footpath and I face-planted into the concrete and took a lot of bark off my face. What does that tell you? Perhaps nothing :-)

Zigurd 12y ago

How to spot an American in China: Wearing a helmet, and going twice the speed of the locals.

kazinator 12y ago
I've actually been to China and I can tell you that there is a lot of bicycle traffic on the wide, dedicated bike/moped/motorcycle pathways. The locals are fast. Also, the drivers drive as if those cyclists were invisible. For instance, they make abrupt right turns across the bike lane without caring whether or not they are flanked by bikes or not (including electric and gas powered two-wheelers). At any time, you have to be prepared for a car to swerve in front of you to make a right turn, not always signaling beforehand. If anything, an American who is a n00b on the scene will probably stand out by going slower than the locals, out of sheer fear. You'd be crazy to cycle around in a place like Shanghai without a helmet. (Also, the helmets you buy in America are made in China so why wouldn't you get one if you're in China, haha.)

cleaver 12y ago

You don't have to go over the bars or go fast to get hurt. Back during my cycling days a teammate was out training on a quiet country road. He crossed wheels when a kid he was passing swerved. He hit his head, went into a coma and died two weeks later. While this was a competitive cyclist, he was riding solo and training for endurance—not terribly fast, nor anywhere near race pace. You could also be struck by a motorist. Granted, Dutch drivers are more aware of cyclists, but people still make mistakes.

revelation 12y ago
You could also trip in a staircase and die. I'd wager the outcomes are about equally likely. Why stop with a helmet? You should always wear knee protectors and any other amount of protective gear. Simply put, the helmet is a political device invoked to get rid of cyclists on public streets and mask the actual risk (cars, by many orders of magnitude, and not only to cyclists, but also pedestrians). As astute people have noticed, helmets are basically absent in countries that have sane city infrastructure transport design and dedicate just a fraction of the resources to making cycling possible for everyone. But we can't expect people to ask for that infrastructure when they don't even know what it should look like. You note "Dutch drivers are more aware of cyclists", missing the most important feature of Dutch infra: there is physical separation that makes the mistakes of human car drivers (universally useless) mostly riskless.
- dllthomas 12y ago
  "the helmet is a political device invoked to get rid of cyclists on public streets" What?
  - asavadatti 12y ago
    Help! Help! I'm being repressed.
  - ciupicri 12y ago
    What the OP is probably trying to say is that politicians will push for mandatory helmet wearing, all in the name of safety. Some cyclists will comply, while others will stop riding altogether resulting in less cyclists on public streets.

richardlblair 12y ago

That's like saying "I don't wear a seatbelt because I drive the speed limit". This is some of the worst logic I've seen on here in a while. I'll keep an eye open for your Tell HN post "I should have wore a helmet"

limsup 12y ago
I think there's something to say about it being safer to bike in general in Netherlands vs in the US. Often in the US you are riding next to busy traffic, while in NE the bikes are better protected. Along with other things too: like a car driving population that is careful about bicyclists. So, it's not exactly like saying I don't wear a seatbelt because I drive the speed limit. Rather it's like saying I don't wear a seat belt because I live in a different country where accidents are less probable.
- georgemcbay 12y ago
  Accidents may be less probable, but if you happen to be one of the unlucky ones who does have one you could still die or suffer severe brain damage, so why not just wear the helmet? Sure it makes you look a bit goofier, but that's a small price to pay to protect your melon. I do a lot of downhill mountain biking, snowboarding, etc, so I'm not one of these people that tends to be overly worried about safety, but whenever I get on wheels or something that can easily slide out of control I wear a helmet, period. I'm (pun intended) painfully aware of the amount of impact force a rotational component can add to an otherwise relatively low-speed, low-altitude fall. Maybe the drivers are more cognizant of bikers in the Netherlands vs the US, but I still wouldn't trust them, they are not infallible and it only takes one of them one fuckup to mess me up. A helmet is a very effective (though non-perfect) fail-safe for this that costs virtually nothing (amortized over time of use before it is needed, hopefully never) and has no real downside other than pure cosmetics.
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
- Someone 12y ago

cbr 12y ago

It's almost impossible to go over the handlebars on a Dutch bike. I've done it. I was cycling slowly along the road, and my front wheel went into a drain-grate that had been mistakenly oriented with bars parallel to the road. I landed on my head, had a sore neck for a while, replaced my helmet, and was glad I had been wearing one.

kazinator 12y ago

In Vancouver here. I had a bad one in October 2013. Going downhill on a wet pavement and into a corner. The bike just skidded out from under me. Luckily, the car behind me was far enough to be able to avoid me. The back of my helmet hit the pavement quite hard. I heard quite a loud sound and was a little dazed as a result. That would have been very bad without a helmet. There isn't anything I could have done to protect my head in that situation, like choose to fall differently. I had a huge black bruise covering much of my right hip, and a pain in the right side of my rib cage that lasted into the following spring.

emmelaich 12y ago

I lived in Amsterdam for a while and loved commuting on my bike. But here's an anecdote for you. I grew up in a large town in Australia where bicycling was very popular. I rode everywhere and had paper runs. I don't remember anyone having a serious accident. At 17 I went to University in Sydney and rode everywhere; again no helmet and no accidents. In Amsterdam I had one big crash; my wheel went between the cracks on the footpath and I face-planted into the concrete and took a lot of bark off my face. What does that tell you? Perhaps nothing :-)