Helmet Laws

You’ve totally missed the point of my debate here. It’s not about the effectivmess of helmets or if they’re cool or not, the debate is about being FORCED to wear one by the government.

I wear a helmet 80% of the time. Always when racing, training and any fast riding I may do. I just think that the rest of the world is right and you don’t need to wear one 100% of the time.

It doesn’t make sense to me to say ‘I’m okay to wear a helmet while racing, but not while getting the milk’. Like any law, it needs to be a blanket condition, otherwise what’s the point of even having the law if there are loop holes?

Wearing helmets is a bit like wearing seat belts in cars. I’m sure people complained about them when they were introduced in the 1960’s, but now it’s a non-issue.

For me, wearing a helmet is a non-issue.

On that note (ie: compulsory seat-belts), more people die of head injuries in car crashes every year than in bike crashes. Why aren’t helmets in cars compulsory?

I’m all for freedom of choice btw, but my helmet has saved my noggin on a couple of occasions. I choose to wear.

I wear a helmet 99 time out of a hundred It has saved my melon two many times to count (I am a clumsy rider). In saying that I am pro choice, but only when you are old enough to know better as all kids should ride with one especially when their plates are still meshing.

I think people should be free to make retarded decisions like smoking, eating junk food and not wearing helmets. Keeps “natural selection” going!

I don’t really think about wearing one anymore. I remember being in Japan and wishing I could back home and not wear a helmet… But I wear mine 100% of the time, no matter where I am riding to.

I think it should be our choice, and not mandatory… but I know that I wouldn’t probably wear one in more “dangerous” situations (eg. riding on busy roads, etc) if they weren’t mandatory.

It’s hard, I’m on the fence with this, but am leaning towards pro-choice.

This is my point, it should not be mandatory at all and we should be free to choose as adults. There is a hugely increased danger rate doing things such as criterium racing at 60km/h with 90deg corners, way more so than riding to the shop on the foot path at 12km/h.

Why is this country one of the only countries in the world to enforce this on us? The more you ride abroad the more you realise how brain washed everybody is here.

As I’ve stated, my argument is not for not wearing helmets, it’s just I don’t agree to being forced to by the law.

I think that there is a misconception that cycling is dangerous, you can see in this thread:

free to make retarded decisions

brains spread accross the road

ugly and alive than cool and dead.

Its just not that dangerous an actvivity.

people ride bikes all over the world without helmets.
Helmets have only been compulsory here for around 20 years

some of these comments would suggest that before helmet laws were brought in, people were dropping like flies, smashing their heads everywhere with brains and feces shmeared all over the road, well its not true.

i can only speak for myself, but i dont care if you wear one. Im sick of reading

well i wear one cos i dont wanna die

this statement above is irrational, irrelevent and ignorant.

Cycling aint fukn BASE jumping and you aint gonna die.

Touch Wood

sadly most people have already bred by the time these things catch up with them…

i agree shortsie.

my wife worries that i’m gonna die in a bike accident. i just tell her she’s more likely to die driving to work than i am riding.
what’s the road toll so far this year? car deaths vs bike deaths? I’d wager it’s running at about 300 or 400 - 1 nationwide.

k just checked: most recent complete data from ABS

2005:

motor vehicle deaths : 1188
pedestrian deaths: 250
Bicycle deaths : 31

so bike deaths are only like 2.6% of car deaths. much safer.

I agree completely.

I have never ridden with a helmet. Not in NZ, not in London, and not here. I am fully aware that it could, in specific situations, do me a lot of good, and quite frankly, as I approach fatherhood at a rapid pace I am beginning to feel compelled to wear one, but I’m not going to do it because the law tells me that I should.

The more old men in cars, on foot, and on bikes that point and yell at me and tell me to get a helmet, the less inclined I am to do so. Why do they feel compelled to do that? I don’t yell at people I see driving past without seatbelts on. I don’t yell at people on their cellphones while driving. I don’t yell at people jay-walking. I just don’t tell anyone to do anything. Whatever other people do is their decision, and whatever I do is my decision, and no one else’s, ESPECIALLY not a fucking cop.

The argument that wearing a helmet is safer is way too touchy. When you see studies such as the ones initially posted in this thread, and information like this - http://www.cycle-helmets.com/ - surely you should question it, and not just take the law as gospel. As for me, I feel that riding without a helmet makes me far more aware of what’s going on around me, which could be argued, lessens the possibility of an accident. But I wouldn’t feel comfortable making a call on whether or not it’s safer without one because I just don’t know.

At the end of the day, you’d have to be ignorant to say that in some situations, a helmet isn’t going to do you a lot of good. But I am 100% in the pro-choice category on this matter, and I’ll wear one when I’m good and ready.

disregarding the comments regarding whether helmets ARE or ARE NOT good for you head in an accident, it seems that even people who DO wear their helmets all the time still believe it should be up too the individual to choose if they wear one or not, which is my opinion.

People on the forum are adults, and can make the decision based on experience/ road knowledge etc.
But young teenagers/ children who dont like to wear their helmets due to the cool factor, couldnt make the same informed decision, which means compulsory helmets for U/16? U/18? but personal choice for adults?

Cycling isnt dangerous for alot of people, but it is for others.

In addition to heavymetal’s comment, my girlfriend asked me if i was going to be using my lights the other day… at 9am… just to be safe :wink:

I jsut feel safer riding in traffic with a helmet on because i dont trust car drivers, its as simple as that.
I will ride to the shops without one, and i ride my bmx without a helmet except when im at rampfest because i ahve to there, which is probably more ‘dangerous’ but i feel more in control so i have no issues with it.

As a kid we all wore out helmets because our parents let us spend a bit of cash on good ones that fit well, and looked half cool. I had a sweet Bell XC helmet as a youngster because im fairly sure Cadel was running Bell helmets (or maybe it was Shaun Palmer!?) at the time. I crashed into a power pole and broke my collar bone and completely compressed the side of that helmet, im sure it saved my life or at least from splitting my head open.

At the end of the day i dont even notice im wearing a helmet because it fits well and is light as a feather. I’d hate to get smashed by a car and end up a vegetable because i wasnt wearing one.

this shits me so bad. obviously these ppl think that wearing a helmet is unnecessary/uncool, but they carry one around anyway.
i did this in high school because wearing a helmet was seriously uncool but my parents wouldn’t let me leave without it, so it came off as soon as i was around the corner.

but as an adult, c’mon, either wear it or leave it at home. obviously you cant put it on as you get into an accident, and if you think a cop won’t fine you or that you can put it on before a cop sees you then you’re a bigger dickhead than you look

Another thing i would be interested to find out is how many of you are Pro helmet but ride brakeless?

:-o

I had this conversation with my girlfriend.

I’m brakeless, but wear a helmet 100% of the time.

I guess they almost cancel each other out.

Also, my friend sent me a funny email along the lines of… they made helmets mandatory to protect cyclists and not clog up our healthcare system, but people thought they were uncool, so stop riding bikes and then got fat… now they clog up our health care system.

I ride brakeless, but arent ‘pro helmet’ as such, even though i wear one about 90percent of the time.

I’m staying out of the why/why nots for this.

But I’d like to see a list of countries that don’t require you to wear one and ones that do. I know that a lot of places do require one, but the enforcement is lax enough that visual evidence would make you think you didnt need to wear one.

i know that in canada it is a mix of mandatory/not mandatory from province to province (state to state). i also know that in some US states it is required… but again rarely enforced.

ok - i checked - the us has a mix too.
Predominantly age-based.

The UK doesnt require one…

I wonder about some of the european countries…

^ How many car driver deaths were in your CBD?
How many cyclists hit in the CBD sustained a serious injury vs motorist crashes and them having serious injury?