Mandatory Bicycle Helmet Laws in Australia
Chris Rissel
Alan Todd
On 16 Mar 2017, at 3:42 PM, Chris Rissel <chris....@sydney.edu.au> wrote:--
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Nicholas Dow
On Thursday, 16 March 2017 15:42:39 UTC+11, chris.rissel wrote:
"The Australian Capital Territory’s cycling level can be attributed to its significant cycling infrastructure."
It's also due to the lack of enforcement of the law: very few fines are issued for the ACT, 50 per year according to http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/police-issue-201-fines-to-cyclists-without-helmets-20160224-gn2ctg.html
When I cycle in the ACT I see a lot of unhelmeted cyclists, so the 50 fines are not due to high levels of compliance. No other AU jurisdiction has such low per-capita levels of fines, ACT is even lower if calculated per bike-trip.
Under your heading Why MHL are a bad idea you mention two surveys of attitudes to helmet law. Stronger evidence comes from the Victorian TAC survey which found 28% of ppl who had ridden a bike in the last 6 months were deterred from riding by helmet law. http://www.freestylecyclists.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/AQON_TAC_021215.pdf
Missing from the article is the balance between the health benefit of increased helmet wearing rates versus decreased cycling rates. Prof de Jong's paper http://www.cyclehelmets.org/1249.html covers this. Suffice it to say, helmet laws cost the health budget money, I'm not sure that anyone reading the Croakey article would get this.
Herve
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