First non-helmet-wearing sighting
ala...@twobikes.ottawa.on.ca
and teens on their bikes. They pretty well always have helmets -- looped
on their handlebars or attached to their backpacks. Wearing them? Fat
chance.
What have been others' sightings on this?
--
Alayne McGregor
alayne at twobikes.ottawa.on.ca
"People have to have a sense of the need for change before it comes. I've never
believed that social change is brought about by rational thinking on the part
of people. They take the next step forward because they have to in order to survive.
Man likes to tread the beaten path. Only a great social upheaval can force him to
move into some great new uplands of human behaviour." -- Tommy Douglas
Juergen Weichert
> With the great weather this week, I've been noticing a lot of pre-teens
> and teens on their bikes. They pretty well always have helmets -- looped
> on their handlebars or attached to their backpacks. Wearing them? Fat
> chance.
>
> What have been others' sightings on this?
>
>
Lots of them around here. Luckily they are usually riding on the
sidewalk or on the left side of the street......
J
Brett Delmage
> With the great weather this week, I've been noticing a lot of pre-teens
> and teens on their bikes. They pretty well always have helmets -- looped
> on their handlebars or attached to their backpacks. Wearing them? Fat
> chance.
>
> What have been others' sightings on this?
My first sighting this week: Ahh, spring is here! two kids coming toward
me on bikes on Michael Cowpland Drive (Kanata south business
park) yesterday afternoon.
Whoops.. they are on the sidewalk, not the road. And no helmets. My
observations show that the skilled cyclists on the road, moving
efficiently, who have lights, also have helmets. The unskilled, uneducated
cyclists do not. Putting helmets on their heads will protect them.
Until the next sidewalk-intersection collision, where they may well die.
But maybe the City's proposal to utterly waste, umm I mean invest,
$1 Million to paint bike lanes on even quiet city streets and next to
parked car doors will help.
Brett
Peter James
Maybe they realize that riding on the wrong side of the road is so
dangerous that it's not worth wearing a helmet for the minimal benefit
it might provide in a head-on collision?
But what is the need to review other cyclists' apparel and riding
behaviour? Is this to help out new list members who are agonising over
the helmet question, or who are undecided as to which side of the road
to use?
Maybe other more important parameters were left unchecked? Did anyone
check if their brakes were functional and if their tires were pumped up?
Were they maintaining a proper cadence? Chain lubricated? Computer set
to the correct tire size?
Where will it all end...
--
Peter James
Patrick Hutber: Improvement means deterioration
ala...@twobikes.ottawa.on.ca
> behaviour?
There has been a consistent campaign on the part of certain head-injury
care advocates to require every cyclist in this province wear a helmet by
law. As of 1995, children under 18 had to wear helmets while cycling. The
last proposed bill requiring Ontario adults to wear helmets only dropped
off the order paper this summer.
The consistent response by CfSC (and other cycling advocacy groups) has
been that a large-scale, intensive education and promotion effort related
to both helmet-wearing and other issues regarding cycling safety/effective
cycling is needed to ensure any permanent change in cyclist behaviour re
helmet-wearing. Instead, we were told that having a law will ensure that
parents force their kids to wear helmets.
It doesn't; they don't. The kids just carry the helmets. That's what I
predicted would happen and it's happening. I'm not happy to be proven
right.
It's not that I think that helmets are the most important part of cycling
safety (although I wear one as a useful precaution). Safe riding
behaviours, understanding road hazards and negotiating in traffic, lights
at night, and a properly-maintained bike are more important.
RealGrouchy (CAM)
expansion of Ontario's helmet law. Guess what? It's already the law
for children to wear them--it's a false argument.
Given that, I encourage all those with cameras to take pictures of
people they see without helmets, or with helmets hanging from their
handlebars, or with old (i.e. useless) or improperly-worn helmets.
The next time this comes up in Ontario, we can inundate them with this
anecdotal evidence that the laws simply don't work!
- Charles.
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Paul Gecius
I was vacationing in the south of Spain September last year, and it would appear that
there are helmet laws in place in that part of the world as well. Whether they apply to
minors operating bicycles, I do not know. But it would appear that it does apply to minors
operating Vespas or other similar motorized vehicles. While walking around the local town
one day, my wife and I observed a teen-aged girl coming towards us on a Vespa. She was not
wearing a helmet. Just up the street where we had just passed, there were two motorbike
policemen sitting and chatting. It was rather amusing watching this young girl, when she
noticed those same two policemen, and without batting an eyelash, take both her hands off
the handlebar, reach down to between her feet where she had her helmet stowed, pick the
helmet up, put it on her head and continue on her way. She never did fasten the strap
under her chin. And the policemen did not take any notice of her, anyway.
Peter James
SNIP
>
> The consistent response by CfSC (and other cycling advocacy groups) has
> been that a large-scale, intensive education and promotion effort related
> to both helmet-wearing and other issues regarding cycling safety/effective
> cycling is needed to ensure any permanent change in cyclist behaviour re
> helmet-wearing.
>
It seems to me that there's relentless promotion of helmet-wearing by
just about everybody else out there - uninformed general safety
organizations, helmet vendors and manufacturers, health professionals,
etc - and mostly based on what most of us consider to be the wrong
reasons - "wear a helmet and you'll be safe".
Granted that CfSC and other cycling advocacy groups may choose to
promote helmet-wearing for the "right" reasons or with the "correct"
emphasis on their probable efficiency - but surely these messages are at
risk of being swamped by the general sea of misinformation?
On the other hand, CfSC and other cycling advocacy groups are
well-equipped to promote "proper" safety practices - and given that not
too many groups are actually doing this (in comparison to the
helmet-focussed promotions) then surely the same effort would be
proportionately more visible and, hopefully, more effective.
SNIP
> It's not that I think that helmets are the most important part of cycling
> safety (although I wear one as a useful precaution). Safe riding
> behaviours, understanding road hazards and negotiating in traffic, lights
> at night, and a properly-maintained bike are more important.
>
Agreed. So why bother even recording the lack of helmet-wearing by a few
riders?
RealGrouchy (CAM) wrote:
> Alayne brings up a good point: people use children as the excuse for
> expansion of Ontario's helmet law. Guess what? It's already the law
> for children to wear them--it's a false argument.
>
> Given that, I encourage all those with cameras to take pictures of
> people they see without helmets, or with helmets hanging from their
> handlebars, or with old (i.e. useless) or improperly-worn helmets.
>
> The next time this comes up in Ontario, we can inundate them with this
> anecdotal evidence that the laws simply don't work!
And just what will this achieve? We know that the law is ineffective -
but what value can bicycle safety advocates obtain from that
information? Either we want to change the law or we don't, and given
that helmets for kids is a motherhood issue ISTM that not too many
people would be rooting for a change - so what can this information be
used for - increased enforcement?
In some ways the progress of helmet-wearing advocacy is a bit like the
progress of workplace no-smoking programs or drunk-driving reduction
programs (I'm not making a moral or ethical comparison here, I'm making
an observation on process). There was slow acceptance by the general
public of these new rules or practices, but gradually the new practices
were accepted (or people adapted?), and these practices became the norm
rather than the exception. They are adopted not only on their direct
merit, but also because some members of society "set an example" that
others were then prepared to follow. Despite the fact that some people
don't wear helmets (and some people still drive drunk) the majority now
does follow the new practice - it's now socially acceptable.
So although CfSC and other cycling advocacy groups can certainly
continue "a large-scale, intensive education and promotion effort
related to both helmet-wearing and other issues", surely the time might
arrive where concentrating on the other issues would be a more effective
program?
Brett Delmage
> Agreed. So why bother even recording the lack of helmet-wearing by a few
> riders?
My own eyes tell me it's far from a"few" riders, and therefore is a
potential issue that in fact will affect all cyclists.
Peter James
> On Thu, 30 Mar 2006, Peter James wrote:
>
>>Agreed. So why bother even recording the lack of helmet-wearing by a few
>>riders?
>
> My own eyes tell me it's far from a"few" riders,
Hmm - I'm pretty certain that most of the riders I've seen over the last
few days were wearing helmets - but I'll keep my eyes open for those two
riders on Michael Cowpland Drive.
> and therefore is a potential issue that in fact will affect all cyclists.
Now I've lost the thread - how will some cyclists not wearing helmets
affect all cyclists?