PLEASE, do yourself a favor and wear a helmet while cycling. The cost/benefit analysis for bicycle helmet usage is beyond a "no-brainer."
For visual impact I will include this photo from a German bicycle safety campaign with the slogan "Be careful when transporting fragile goods"
7 comments:
Tacky, tacky.
This is your brain.
This is your brain on the pavement.
Following your logic of cost benefit analysis, you should wear a helmet every time you take a shower since more falls happen in showers than to people on bikes. Wear a helmet if you choose, just please stop with the dogma.
Steely
I've also read that wearing a helmet while operating a motor vehicle will significantly reduce injury severity in accidents. After all, race-car drivers wear them.
Now THAT would be awesome.
I think the whole helmet thing hurts the cycling cause. It makes it seem to those unfamiliar with cycling that it is inherently dangerous. Helmets should simply be another gear choice, like leather seats and single speeds, that a cyclist has. They should not be the jihad some advocates have turned them into.
I agree that helmets have been incorrectly pushed as a get-out-of-injury-free card, while nobody talks about riding skills anymore. However I call shenanigans that it has hurt cycling. People didn't stop buying cars when seatbelts and airbags became required safety features, nor did they stop buying electrical appliances when polarized plugs or double-insulation became popular. It's just a safety feature.
I (now) know firsthand that no matter how great a vehicle operator you think you are, situations can still arise where your handling skills don't save you. That's where the safety features come into play.
By pushing helmets in manner they have been, it has eclipsed all other issues that really make cycling safe. It has created the image that cycling is inherently unsafe. One of the leading reasons given by people for not riding more is that it is perceived to be unsafe. I agree that helmets, when properly used and promoted, do not hurt the image of cycling. The latter day jihad that no head shall go uncovered has hurt cycling.
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