> So buy a fucking helmet and bring it with you.

Wow, that's harsh. She built something novel and potentially very useful. If you live in a city, it's impractical to carry your helmet everywhere you go all the time, and you'll surprise yourself at the number of times you need to quickly rent a bike (but have no helmet handy.)

If it passes the safety certifications and rolls out, it will very likely increase the proportion of cyclists wearing helmets.

It's not impractical at all. You clip it to your backpack. That's what I did in college, and if I wanted to ride a city bike in a big city, that's what I'd do there too. Every time I go into a walkable big city like NYC, I'm carrying my backpack with me since it's the most practical way to carry a bunch of stuff including my laptop. Clipping my bike helmet to it would be trivial.

Who are these people that think a helmet is impractical to carry? You also have to leave your bike somewhere everywhere you go, isn't that inconvenient too?

I rode a bike for 2 years in downtown Toronto, wearing a helmet the entire time, and never once did I think that the helmet was inconvenient. You carry it up to your office and leave it on your desk. Or you turn it upside down and it's an adhoc shopping basket. Or you clip it to your backpack. Or you loop it through your bike lock.

There are a million ways to answer the "inconvenience" problem that don't involve wearing a pseudo-helmet.

> Who are these people that think a helmet is impractical to carry?

People that use shared city-bikes irregularly (like me.) I don't always go out expecting to use a bike, but life isn't always predictable (subways busted, cabs not available, unanticipated change of plans, etc.)

> I rode a bike for 2 years in downtown Toronto, wearing a helmet the entire time, and never once did I think that the helmet was inconvenient. You carry it up to your office and leave it on your desk. Or you turn it upside down and it's an adhoc shopping basket. Or you clip it to your backpack. Or you loop it through your bike lock.

Good for you for not finding it inconvenient. That doesn't mean that other's also don't.

In a suitcase? The woman says she wanted a helmet while traveling.

Yeah they have a FAQ:

http://www.ecohelmet.com/copy-of-about-us

Before we can put it on the market EcoHelmet has to pass the tests necessary to be CPSC certified-- just like every other bike helmet.

That should say "we pass the same safety standards as the bike helmets you are used to" before anyone gets too excited.

SmartCars have to pass the same safety standards as Ford F150s. Which one would you feel safer in?

That's the wrong analogy.

This is an electric tricycle that hasn't passed any crash testing that is going to save us from pollution.

Yeah but this fucking helmet will fit in a bag when not in use making a hell of a lot easier to bring it with you.

Agreed. All design award winners are of the same class: something that looks like it would work, but probably doesn't. It takes real effort to design working things; their construction reflects the real constraints on the design. If folded paper could absorb impact, that's what a real helmet would have in it.

> If folded paper could absorb impact, that's what a real helmet would have in it.

That's analogous to saying that if the polio vaccine could vaccinate users from polio, that's what would have been administered already. The whole point of this is that it's a potentially new innovation, which implies it is something the helmet industry hasn't yet developed.

Only if you can possibly imagine that it never occurred to bike-helmet engineers to try folded paper.

It's possible for folded paper to be effective, but not an optimal solution for normal hard shell helmets where the ability to fold flat is not a consideration. Just because EPS works best in that situation doesn't mean it's the only solution.

A helmet is no substitute for good cycling. If you cycle correctly, you should never come off your bike or collide with anything. Whenever I read anyone say "that helmet saved my life" I immediately think "you probably did something wrong". The way cyclists with helmets ride, it's no wonder they need them.

How does cycling well prevent someone else from colliding with me? At least in the US, cars and bikes share the same roads, and there's not much one can do while cycling to prevent cars from injuring cyclists.