The helmet issue is like the God issue in that you can't convince a believer of anything. They have a deep seated need to believe or abandon head protection.
On Mar 16, 9:10 am, Jan Heine <hein...@earthlink.net> wrote: > > 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 Quarterlyhttp://www.bikequarterly.com > > Follow our blog athttp://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.
