"Helmets not even in top 10 of things that keep cycling safe"

[mstone]

@lordofthemark 78007 wrote:

I do not see evidence that helmet promotion campaigns in North America actually net reduce safety. I would be interested in seeing links to studies that did establish that.

I’d like to see studies that show that all the millions that have been spent on helmet campaigns, leading to the highest rate of helmet use in the world, has led to a clear improvement in safety, not simply that all of that opportunity cost has merely avoided a net reduction in safety. Surely someone has such studies, right? I’d hate to think our whole cycling safety policy is based on “it stands to reason” and “this one time, this cyclist I knew was in an accident, and if he hadn’t been wearing a helmet I’m sure he would have died.”

[Yggdrasil]

I don’t even know why here is a fight about this. 97% of bike fatalities from 1996-2005 were of people who were not wearing helmets and one of my best friends died from skateboarding without a helmet. Strapping on a helmet takes all of 2 seconds, if you can afford a bicycle then you can afford a helmet, and it is just simple safety. Weigh the pros and cons here: Proper safety that could potentially save a life vs. potential head trauma because a helmet is a mild inconvenience that might muss up your hair. I just cannot for the life of me fathom why this is even a debate. I understand that the overall environment for cyclists can always be improved upon and maybe large scale helmet crusades aren’t the most effective means of helping cycling safety, but helmets are just proper safety and are a simple and easy step you can make to protect yourself.

[hozn]

+1

I also cannot fathom why this is a debate.

[dasgeh]

@Yggdrasil 78055 wrote:

I don’t even know why here is a fight about this. 97% of bike fatalities from 1996-2005 were of people who were not wearing helmets and one of my best friends died from skateboarding without a helmet. Strapping on a helmet takes all of 2 seconds, if you can afford a bicycle then you can afford a helmet, and it is just simple safety. Weigh the pros and cons here: Proper safety that could potentially save a life vs. potential head trauma because a helmet is a mild inconvenience that might muss up your hair. I just cannot for the life of me fathom why this is even a debate. I understand that the overall environment for cyclists can always be improved upon and maybe large scale helmet crusades aren’t the most effective means of helping cycling safety, but helmets are just proper safety and are a simple and easy step you can make to protect yourself.

1) The debate isn’t “should you wear a helmet or not”. The debate is “should the planners focus on getting more people to wear helmets or should they focus on other things (like enforcing traffic safety laws)”.

2) Where are you getting your data? The recent cyclist fatalities I can think of from around here have been wearing helmets. But that’s admittedly anecdotal.

[peterw_diy]

Who are these mythical planners focusing on helmet usage? I’ve never met any.

[Rod Smith]

Chris Boardman has done a great job on focusing attention on helmets and away from the top ten things that keep cycling safe, whatever they may be.

[Geoff]

I give up. Can we file a petition to have Chris Boardman tell us what the top issues are? It will be my #2 priority in life (#1 is getting Justin Bieber deported back to Canada. Oh wait, not such a good idea, I like Canada…)

[peterw_diy]

@Geoff 78071 wrote:

Can we file a petition to have Chris Boardman tell us what the top issues are?

Yes, let’s do. He once was a really fast pro rider, so I’m sure he has all the answers. Maybe even a few more dramatic analogies!

[mstone]

I don’t really know how to change a culture, but since there are so many people who can’t do anything more with a suggestion to focus on issues beyond helmets than mock the suggestion, the culture clearly needs changing.

I guess it’s the busy body gene: instead of tackling the hard work of altering public policy improving infrastructure for everyone, it’s just so much easier to focus on what you think some other person is doing wrong (that isn’t your business and doesn’t affect you anyway).

[Geoff]

@mstone 78077 wrote:

I don’t really know how to change a culture, but since there are so many people who can’t do anything more with a suggestion to focus on issues beyond helmets than mock the suggestion, the culture clearly needs changing.

Problem is, I don’t know what Chris Boardman’s suggestion is. I read the article, sure, but didn’t see where he thinks attention should go. I didn’t even realize mandatory helmets was a big issue. I think helmets are a good idea and have some personal anecdotes, but I actually think they should not be mandatory. A helmet law would probably discourage a lot of CaBi use.

I don’t know about changing the culture, but maybe we could change this conversation. What are the issues we should focus on? What are the local laws on helmets? Are they at all controversial?

[lordofthemark]

@mstone 78041 wrote:

I’d like to see studies that show that all the millions that have been spent on helmet campaigns, leading to the highest rate of helmet use in the world, has led to a clear improvement in safety, not simply that all of that opportunity cost has merely avoided a net reduction in safety. Surely someone has such studies, right? I’d hate to think our whole cycling safety policy is based on “it stands to reason” and “this one time, this cyclist I knew was in an accident, and if he hadn’t been wearing a helmet I’m sure he would have died.”

I would agree with you that there are too few studies of the impacts of specific policies on bicycling safety, and too little data on bicycling, especially ridership data (the Census Journey to Work question is inadequate, and other ridership data is very dependent on local resources devoted to counters) and that this impairs making data based decisions on biking policy, leaving decision making far too much to a priori logic and to anecdotes.

Given that we are, on this issue of bike helmet campaigns, as far as I can tell, limited to a priori logic and anecdotes, my own a priori logic (informed heavily by what I have read here and similar places) suggests we should not prioritize helmet campaigns, but leaves me skeptical that their impact (that is the impact of helmet PR campaigns, NOT mandates) on ridership and safety in numbers effects is large enough to offset the likely positives of increased helmet usage.

[lordofthemark]

@Geoff 78080 wrote:

I don’t know about changing the culture, but maybe we could change this conversation.

As MStone suggests, focusing on better infra is probably the highest and best thing we can do. But changing infra is hard, slow and costly, and localities are used to spending money on safety campaigns -they do a lot of that on driving and walking – and its almost reflexive to do that for cycling. In which case I think we need to ask, what bike safety campaigns would we prioritize over helmet campaigns. Perhaps I am biased because I live in Annandale where far too many people ride bikes after dark with no lights, but my inclination would be to try to encourage localities to focus on PR campaigns to encourage proper lights on bikes – including handing out free lights (which IIUC FABB has done with funding from the 495 Express Lanes project, and which BikeArlington has done.)

[dasgeh]

@Geoff 78080 wrote:

I don’t know about changing the culture, but maybe we could change this conversation. What are the issues we should focus on? What are the local laws on helmets? Are they at all controversial?

I think better infra is HUGE. But I’m going to make a plug for the children.

Educating the children, that is. I think making educating children about transportation safety and general “street smarts” is a good, cheap way to create some real, relatively quick and relatively cheap change.

Here’s what I mean: Make sure schools integrate daily transportation into their lesson plans, in an age appropriate way. Elementary school (especially the lower grades) is largely about teaching life skills. Getting around is a life skill. Walking and biking safely in all types of weather are life skills. For the youngest set, this is with an adult. As they get older (and out of ES), this includes getting around on their own. Knowing how to cross streets. Understanding how to respect boundaries of where they’re allowed to go. Learn how to read maps, and what to expect from a route based on various types of maps.

Starting around middle school, I think it’s appropriate to throw transit in there. Teach the kids how to navigate bus and rail systems. Know how to read maps and ask for directions. How to understand service changes. And of course, in high school, throwing driving in there is important.

Why should the childless, MAMIL cyclist care about educating the kids about transportation in general and cycling in particular? Because kids influence their parents. The kindergartener strapped in the car seat that says “look Mommy, a cyclist” helps Mommy see the cyclist. The 2nd grader that says “Daddy, Mr. Rogers said that you should always be respectful and give a lot of space when passing a cyclist” plants that idea in Daddy’s head. The 7th grader who insists on biking to school with her friends instead of being driven takes a car off the road. And the 16 year old who has grown up talking about cycling and riding around will have more empathy for the cyclists he encounters when he’s behind the wheel.

So join me in insisting that APS integrate transportation education into the curriculum at every grade level. Join me in insisting that ASP recognize that getting around our community safely – by foot, by bike, by transit and by car – is an important life skill. Join me in insisting that APS commit to giving every student the opportunity to learn to ride a bike.

[Steve O]

@dasgeh 78123 wrote:

So join me in insisting that APS integrate transportation education into the curriculum at every grade level. Join me in insisting that ASP recognize that getting around our community safely – by foot, by bike, by transit and by car – is an important life skill. Join me in insisting that APS commit to giving every student the opportunity to learn to ride a bike.

+1
APS already requires students to learn to swim–at least a little bit. I see learning to ride a bike as easily as much a life skill as learning to swim. And they require driver’s education, even though it is now quite possible to live in a city like DC or NY and not need to know how to drive.
If it were up to me, I would make sure these skills are taught hands-on. Actually go ride the metro system; ride the bus; require bike skills classes, etc.

[lordofthemark]

@dasgeh 78123 wrote:

So join me in insisting that APS integrate transportation education into the curriculum at every grade level. Join me in insisting that ASP recognize that getting around our community safely – by foot, by bike, by transit and by car – is an important life skill. Join me in insisting that APS commit to giving every student the opportunity to learn to ride a bike.

On the one hand, I think this is a great idea, that has more upside than almost anything else we discuss. IIUC biking education is integrated into elementary curriculums in NL and DK, and that makes a huge difference in cycling safety, ridership, etc.

On the other hand, it means involving another bureaucracy, the public school systems. The County DOTs at least mostly see increasing cycling as part of their mission and helpful to their other goals. The school systems are large entities with many other major competing priorities. My wife is on the FCDC education committee, and I can just imagine the response to such a proposal “how will this help address the achievement gap?” “will it improve test scores?” “will it address overcrowding and the budget deficit?” Granted SRTS is already something the school systems are doing, but that doesn’t implicate the curriculum the same way. Look at Prince William, which is making up snow days in part by decreasing recess. I wish you well in advancing this, but I’m not sure I want the heartache of fighting for change in FCPS (beyond the issues my wife is already focused on) (APS maybe would be more receptive)

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