<sigh> must we continue to argue about helmets?
1) I wear a helmet all the time (while riding my bike)*. Never while driving a car*. Why is that I wonder? (I personally know two different people with traumatic brain injuries sustained while riding in a car – both injuries changed the personalities and lives of those people, quite negatively). 2) I don’t think we need peer reviewed studies to agree that wearing a helmet can reduce the chance/severity of head injury of a person involved in a crash. 3) It should be obvious (even without a peer reviewed study) that preventing crashes in the first place is better than mitigating their consequences. 4) Another peer reviewed study undertaken in Australia showed that a helmet designed for motorists would reduce head injuries by 67% http://www.copenhagenize.com/2009/08/head-protection-for-motorists.html Therefore, if we really wanted to reduce the severity and frequency of head injuries, we should first try to prevent the crashes that cause them (and it is becoming clearer that separating modes is one of the best ways to do that http://www.citylab.com/commute/2014/06/protected-bike-lanes-arent-just-safer-they-can-also-increase-cycling/371958/), and THEN mitigate the consequences of the crash. For everyone. That is, if we’re going to require (or even encourage) helmet use, why aren’t we requiring it for both motor vehicle drivers and cyclists? Perhaps it’s because many of us continue to view cycling as dangerous, and don’t think of driving the same way. (yes, this is all overly simplified. Isn’t everything that you can fit on one page?) -end rant- *ok, once in the last year I rode 5 blocks to the co-op on my cargo bike without a helmet, and 25 years ago I occasionally raced cars and wore a helmet when driving on the track, but generally the above is true of me. Chuck Strawser Pedestrian & Bicycle Transportation Planner Commuter Solutions UW-Madison Transportation Services Please note that my email address has changed. My new email is charles.straw...@wisc.edu<mailto:charles.straw...@wisc.edu> Visit our University Bicycle Resource Center at Helen C White: http://transportation.wisc.edu/transportation/bike_annex.aspx How are we doing? Take our customer satisfaction survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CommSol_CSSurvey From: Bikies [mailto:bikies-boun...@lists.danenet.org] On Behalf Of Harald Kliems via Bikies Sent: Thursday, September 22, 2016 2:05 PM To: Scott Morris Rose; Bikies Subject: Re: [Bikies] Bicycle helmets reduce risk of serious head injury by nearly 70%, study finds It should be noted that this is not a new study per se, but a meta-analysis, that is, the author analyzed a lot of other studies and summarized their findings. Rune Elvik did the same thing a couple years back and came to very different conclusions: http://www.cycle-helmets.com/elvik.pdf It'll require some careful reading to see how they each reached their different conclusions. Harald. On Thu, Sep 22, 2016 at 1:58 PM Scott Morris Rose via Bikies <bikies@lists.danenet.org<mailto:bikies@lists.danenet.org>> wrote: The Guardian reports on a paper given at the Safety 2016 conference which reports on results of a large-scale study of bicycle helmet use in the Australian state of New South Wales (which is where Sidney is). https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/sep/22/bicycle-helmets-reduce-risk-of-serious-head-injury-by-nearly-70-study-finds I suppose the money quote is "... reduce the risks of a serious head injury by nearly 70%." NSW has long had a mandatory helmet law, which has been unpopular with some in the past and more in the present - the fine for not wearing a helmet has recently risen from $71 to $319 ($240US). Not having a bell? $106. Not stopping at a ped crossing? $425. Coming out of a jusrisdiction that is evidently hell-bent of criminalizing cycling is sure to bring the legitimacy of the study into question, rightfully or wrongfully. More grist for the mill... -- S. Rose _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list Bikies@lists.danenet.org<mailto:Bikies@lists.danenet.org> http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org
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