Before this argument even picks
up a faint hint of steam it needs to be crushed. Mandatory bike helmet laws would be a foolish
step to take if we are at all serious about lowering carbon emissions. If you are
so concerned about the safety of cyclists then lobby for tougher laws against aggressive
drivers and let individual cyclists decide whether or not they want to wear a
helmet.
Making helmets mandatory for
cyclists is basically telling people not to ride bikes. It over-inflates the dangers of cycling and
gives people the false impression that riding a bike is hazardous to their
health. I have ridden a bike almost every day of my life since I was a child
and the vast majority of the kilometers I have racked up cycling have been without
a helmet, so sue me. If you look at cities where people actually embrace
cycling as a mode of transportation you will find that almost no one wears a
helmet when commuting. You can cite all of the studies you like (and the
argument about helmets goes both ways—for and against) but I haven’t completely
relinquished my common sense which tells me that riding a bike in the city isn’t
particularly dangerous.
I’m quite certain that studies
would show that people who wear helmets 24 hours a day no matter what they are
doing suffer fewer head injuries yet we don’t mandate helmet laws for all
public activities. Wearing a helmet
while driving a car would probably save lives but making all automobile
passengers wear a helmet would be at least as ridiculous as forcing helmets
onto the heads of bike commuters.
The bottom line is that society
should be getting down on their hands and knees and thanking people who choose to
ride a bike instead of firing up an internally combusted machine to effect
their daily rounds. The absolute last
thing we need to do is give anyone an excuse to leave their bike at home.
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