to get people on bicycles, you don't want to force them to wear a helmet and imply that they are doing something more dangerous than driving.
The same arguments were made when Preston Tucker wanted to include seatbelts in his cars. His board thought it implied that Tucker cars were unsafe. (Instead, it was Volvo who introduced seatbelts. I guess they weren't afraid that their cars might be considered unsafe.)
Today, most of us use seatbelts, because we are aware of the risks of driving. Seatbelts don't keep people from driving. It seems to make little sense to pretend that riding bikes is risk-free. Do we really want to foster a teenage-like feeling of invincibility in cyclists? (Like my neighbor 20 years ago, who took up cycling in middle age. She loved it, riding against the flow of traffic, helmet-free on an old bike with no real brakes.)
The bigger issue that nobody addresses is simple: A seatbelt or a helmet is your last line of defense. Accident avoidance through competent driving/riding is a much more important component of your safety. With cars, our focus on technology over driver education has had the U.S. slip from the safest country for drivers to one of the least safe. (However, that statistic in the NY Times was per driver, not per miles, and Americans drive more... so one might want to correct for that.)
At Bicycle Quarterly, we are considering looking at the statistics and figuring out whether helmets make riding safer, whether risk compensation really is a factor, etc. I believe there is a need for real data, rather than opinion, on the subject. It's not that hard to figure this out, especially when you compare different countries and populations. But of course, like most quasi-religious topics, it would be a hotly debated issue. What do you guys think?
Jan Heine Editor Bicycle Quarterly http://www.bikequarterly.com Follow our blog at http://janheine.wordpress.com/ -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
