Re:We Need to Dream Bigger Than Bike Lanes
by willis936 on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @10:28AM
(#21334961)
From the re-analysis cited in the wikipedia article:
"Do bicycle helmets reduce the risk of injury to the head, face or neck? With respect to head injury, the answer is clearly yes, and the re-analysis of the meta-analysis reported by Attewell et al.(2001) in this paper has not changed this answer."
https://doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.aap.2012.12.003
If it's behavior that's being targeted by policies around helmets, then why would a more care-free attitude towards biking make it safer?
Re:We Need to Dream Bigger Than Bike Lanes
by ogre_codes on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @11:36AM
(#21335697)
It doesn't make cycling safer for the individual, it makes society safer and people healthier. Individually riding with a helmet is safer than riding while not wearing a helmet, but if everyone rides a bike without a helmet, fewer people die and people live longer because there are far fewer cars on the road.
Fewer people are driving cars which are much more lethal to non-drivers, so fewer people get killed. People are more active and live longer because of increased physical activity.
Making bikes more appealing/ easier to access by not requiring helmets makes people collectively safer and healthier.
The sense of safety a helmet gives you when you cycle is mostly a false one. Lack of cycling infrastructure is a far greater danger anyway. In countries with the best cyclist safety records, no one wears or owns bike helmets, like not figuratively 'no one', but literally, no one. Can't be a very significant standalone determinant of bike safety then, can it?
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_helmet#Effectiveness