Slashdot Mirror
To Encourage Biking, Lose the Helmets
Hugh Pickens writes in about the detrimental effects of mandatory helmet laws (at least as applied to adults): "Elisabeth Rosenthal writes that in the United States the notion that bike helmets promote health and safety by preventing head injuries is taken as pretty near God's truth but many European health experts have taken a very different view. 'Yes, there are studies that show that if you fall off a bicycle at a certain speed and hit your head, a helmet can reduce your risk of serious head injury,' writes Rosenthal. 'But such falls off bikes are rare — exceedingly so in mature urban cycling systems.' On the other hand, many researchers say, if you force people to wear helmets, you discourage them from riding bicycles causing more health problems like obesity, heart disease, and diabetes. Bicycling advocates say that the problem with pushing helmets isn't practicality but that helmets make a basically safe activity seem really dangerous, which makes it harder to develop a safe bicycling network like the one in New York City, where a bike-sharing program is to open next year. The safest biking cities are places like Amsterdam and Copenhagen, where middle-aged commuters are mainstay riders and the fraction of adults in helmets is minuscule. 'Pushing helmets really kills cycling and bike-sharing in particular because it promotes a sense of danger that just isn't justified — in fact, cycling has many health benefits,' says Piet de Jong. 'Statistically, if we wear helmets for cycling, maybe we should wear helmets when we climb ladders or get into a bath, because there are lots more injuries during those activities.'"
I wouldn't actually like to kill them per say, but their deaths can only improve the gene pool.
It wouldn't be a problem if there WAS a way to safely pass the morons without going into oncoming traffic.
The bikes here are causing car accidents. In a recent case a fatal one. They should be outlawed on the roadways.
Sure if there were bike lanes etc everywhere or at least a wide paved shoulder for them to ride on, or maybe if I lived in a magical place where all of the roads are straight. However I've twice now almost run over a bike around a blind corner going up a hill.
There ARE areas here with a few bike lanes and in those places they're fine and not a nuisance at all. You have to watch for them at intersections etc but thats not a big deal.
However in this day and age bicycles belong firmly planted in the "recreation" category of life. Not as a mode of transportation. Its even less safe than riding a motor cycle in general traffic and around here we generally refer to motorcyclists as organ donors.