7 ms·

People get brain injury's from car accidents all the time, why are we not advocating for people being mandated to wear them while in an automobile as well as on

by math0ne 12y ago

People get brain injury's from car accidents all the time, why are we not advocating for people being mandated to wear them while in an automobile as well as on bicycles. As someone posted above: "A UK study on the effects of cycle helmets found that if pedestrians and motorists wore helmets it would save 12 times more lives than if cyclists wore them."

cooper12 12y ago
> why are we not advocating for people being mandated to wear them while in an automobile as well as on bicycles. While I don't know how effective they are, cars already have a safety system: airbags. Cars are also built to rigorous safety standards. As for why pedestrians aren't mandated to wear them, they have infrastructure in place to protect them from cars: traffic laws, sidewalk/street separation, and crossing lights. Cyclists on the other hand are usually riding directly in the streets or in poor excuses for bike lanes.
charlieflowers 12y ago
I haven't seen the study, but I don't believe the claim. I'm no Lance Armstrong by any stretch, but I've done a bit of biking here and there. And twice already, I've had crashes that could have been serious without a helmet. It's too easy to fly over the handle bars. Once was a slight layer of mud over a sidewalk, which was completely unpredictable to me (but won't ever be again). Extrapolating from my own experience (which is by no means a gold plated double blind study, but which still presents valid evidence about reality), the physics of a bicycle make the rider prone to crashes that involve head impact. You can cry "anecdotal," but I'll answer "common sense." Besides, the people who argue that evangelizing helmet-free riding will lead to more riders actually acknowledge that helmets are important ... they just want to spread a different story publicly.

7 ms·

People get brain injury's from car accidents all the time, why are we not advocating for people being mandated to wear them while in an automobile as well as on

by math0ne 12y ago

cooper12 12y ago
> why are we not advocating for people being mandated to wear them while in an automobile as well as on bicycles. While I don't know how effective they are, cars already have a safety system: airbags. Cars are also built to rigorous safety standards. As for why pedestrians aren't mandated to wear them, they have infrastructure in place to protect them from cars: traffic laws, sidewalk/street separation, and crossing lights. Cyclists on the other hand are usually riding directly in the streets or in poor excuses for bike lanes.
charlieflowers 12y ago
I haven't seen the study, but I don't believe the claim. I'm no Lance Armstrong by any stretch, but I've done a bit of biking here and there. And twice already, I've had crashes that could have been serious without a helmet. It's too easy to fly over the handle bars. Once was a slight layer of mud over a sidewalk, which was completely unpredictable to me (but won't ever be again). Extrapolating from my own experience (which is by no means a gold plated double blind study, but which still presents valid evidence about reality), the physics of a bicycle make the rider prone to crashes that involve head impact. You can cry "anecdotal," but I'll answer "common sense." Besides, the people who argue that evangelizing helmet-free riding will lead to more riders actually acknowledge that helmets are important ... they just want to spread a different story publicly.