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One year of cycling to work

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Re: One year of cycling to work

#311

Post by sandover »

oppositelock wrote: post #217
troncjb wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you don't wear a helmet, don't worry about it, it doesn't mitigate that much risk. The exercise benefits of biking do way more to increase your life expectancy than skipping a helmet does to reduce it. This is very, very stupid advice.

The assumption is that wearing a helmet somehow reduces the odds of exercise. Just keep your helmet with your bike, and you'll never forget it. I've been cycling to work for years, which which has varied from 10 miles one way, to 1 mile. I always wear my helmet, and in all these years an many thousands of bike miles, it only been "useful" once. A drainage grate was covered over with leaves, I didn't see it, my front…

> wearing a helmet somehow reduces the odds of exercise

Helmet paranoia DOES reduce the odds of exercise. On a group level, at the level of public health, that's PRECISELY what it does. I encourage you to read about it, that's why they call it the helmet paradox. This piece is a nice summary.

http://www.howiechong.com/journal/2014/2/bike-helmets

Bike helmets protect our heads, but they also do the following:

1. increase your chances of getting in an accident

2. discourage cycling

Here's what to do:

1. If you want to be healthy, ride a bike instead of driving.

2. If you want to be even healthier, consider maybe putting on a helmet, but be mindful it doesn't increase your risk-taking behavior.

I choose option 2, but option 1 is also great.

Re: One year of cycling to work

#312

Post by JoeAltmaier »

edejong wrote: post #310
bhandziuk wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I were not wearing a helmet routinely I'd be so paranoid about getting hit/falling/some injury that there would be no health benefits at all. Wearing a helmet is comfortable, relatively in expensive and life saving. There is really no argument to be made to not have one on your head. I can't believe you are needing to even make a pro-helmet case at all here.

Arguments: 1. Wearing makes you less cautious 2. Car drivers think ‘you’re protected’ thus make larger risks 3. Helmets are inconvenient to carry around at your destination 4. It hampers the development of saver bicycle road situations, since ‘the cyclists are already protected’ I’m dutch, driving without a helmet since forever (started at 2 years old). Most serious accidents on the road that I know of are broken col…

The classic bike/head injury is riding into a crack (or grating) that grabs the front tire and stops the bike, hurling the rider over the handlebars and hammering them headfirst into the ground.

Re: One year of cycling to work

#313

Post by icebraining »

closeparen wrote: post #255
nsedlet wrote: post #124

I commute about 6 miles each way between Brooklyn (home) and Manhattan (work). I've been raving about it to everyone I know because it's legitimately changed my life. It feels amazing, saves money, keeps me in much better shape, gives me more energy at work. It's slightly faster than the subway, and significantly faster than driving/cabbing at rush hour. I also love that transit time is very consistent (even relative…

Bikes have few problems with traffic because entire rights-of-way are dedicated to a tiny constituency. As bicycling gains popularity, I fully expect bike lanes to exhibit the same traffic problems as car lanes. You’ll still get more throughout from the space, but with a density of bikes meeting or exceeding the density of cars, traffic will certainly become a thing. Now, as always, it’s a good idea to arbitrage and…

I've ridden a bike in Amsterdam; traffic is definitively a thing. Then again, traffic can be a thing even on foot.

Re: One year of cycling to work

#314

Post by JoeAltmaier »

bhandziuk wrote: post #175
troncjb wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> so the helmet gain is only a small marginal difference This is such, such flawed logic. If you are a cyclist getting hit by a car, the averages and statistics don't matter at all. If you are the cyclist getting hit by a car, the helmet is not a "marginal difference". Your protective gear matters. You need to consider the individual cyclist when you are making sweeping statements about the usage of protective gear.

If I were not wearing a helmet routinely I'd be so paranoid about getting hit/falling/some injury that there would be no health benefits at all. Wearing a helmet is comfortable, relatively in expensive and life saving. There is really no argument to be made to not have one on your head. I can't believe you are needing to even make a pro-helmet case at all here.

As a gating item to riding at all, its arguably a negative influence on public health. Since otherwise exercise-leaning people might not do it if they couldn't work the helmet into their schedule (have it at all; carry it with them all day)

Re: One year of cycling to work

#315

Post by thescriptkiddie »

ilovecars2 wrote: post #113
HarryHirsch wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

cutting in front of cars and crossing intersections when they shouldn’t What drivers who have never used a bicycle don't even consider is that as a cyclist you are extremely mobile and have a much better overview of the road. A cyclist can cross an intersection on red with little danger, a car attempting the same would be murderous. In countries like the Netherlands most everyone has biked to school from the age of 6…

It is NOT OK to go through red lights, whether in a car, on a bike or on foot. The rules are the rules and we should all abide them. It happens all the time in London where bikes go through red lights and weave through pedestrians (sometimes at speed) who are crossing the road. Pedestrians are even worse - and often walk or run across red lights and almost get hit from a bus, car or bike. It’s madness!

I many places is is allowed and even encouraged for cyclists to go through red lights and stop signs. It's called the Idaho stop [0]. It's believed to be safer than waiting at the red light provided that the intersection is clear. Consider that rear-end collisions are the most common cause of cyclist fatalities [1].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idaho_stop

[1] https://www.treehugger.com/bikes/how-get-killed-bike-your-ch...

Re: One year of cycling to work

#316

Post by dionidium »

s73v3r_ wrote: post #174
sandover wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wear a helmet too! But it doesn't change the truth of the sentence: "The exercise benefits of biking do way more to increase your life expectancy than skipping a helmet does to reduce it."

But that sentence doesn't make any sense! There is precisely ZERO reason to skip the helmet!

There is ZERO reason not to wear a helmet every time you leave the house. You could trip and fall at any moment!

Presumably, you're willing to accept that risk. Biking without a helmet is no doubt riskier than walking without one, but both activities are well within reasonable risk-taking range.

You don't need me to tell you why I don't like wearing a helmet when I bike; you already use all those same reasons to avoid wearing one when you walk.

Re: One year of cycling to work

#317

Post by [deleted] »

u801e wrote: post #263
soperj wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know the rules of the road for NYC. Where I'm from though, you are supposed to take the lane. Quite frankly, it's insane not to take the lane, since people think they can pass you in their car, while staying in the same lane.

Traffic lanes are rarely wide enough for two vehicles to travel side by side with sufficient space between them. For example, on a street with 10 foot wide lanes, a 6 foot wide car would have a margin of 2 feet on either side of it and 4 feet between it and a car in the adjacent lane. For buses that are 8.5 feet wide, they have about 0.75 feet on each side and 1.5 feet between them and another bus in an adjacent lane…

[deleted]

Re: One year of cycling to work

#318

Post by dionidium »

troncjb wrote: post #144
sandover wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds like you're not informed. https://www.vox.com/2014/5/16/5720762/stop-forcing-people-to...

> Helmet proponents are right about one thing: If you're in a serious accident, then wearing a helmet makes the odds of a head injury significantly lower — by somewhere between 15 and 40 percent. (This is why ER doctors and brain surgeons are so pro-helmet — they've seen firsthand what happens in helmet-less accidents.) So this is why most of us wear a helmet. The logic is not "so few people get in accidents that if…

> The logic is not "so few people get in accidents that if I wear a helmet it is likely to be overkill!". The logic is "if I get in an accident I will be very glad I am wearing this."

You could use the same logic to justify extreme defenses against all kinds of rare-but-deadly events. You should be wearing a helmet in your car to protect against accidents in which your head hits the side window. You should be carrying a rifle to fight off wildlife every time you go for a hike. You definitely shouldn't be crossing any streets in auto-heavy cities. (And we could go on and on and on like this. There's no reason to even leave your house! Better to get everything delivered and not risk contact with the world at all!)

Everything is a tradeoff. There are no absolutes. Just tradeoffs.

Re: One year of cycling to work

#320

Post by edejong »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #312
edejong wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Arguments: 1. Wearing makes you less cautious 2. Car drivers think ‘you’re protected’ thus make larger risks 3. Helmets are inconvenient to carry around at your destination 4. It hampers the development of saver bicycle road situations, since ‘the cyclists are already protected’ I’m dutch, driving without a helmet since forever (started at 2 years old). Most serious accidents on the road that I know of are broken col…

The classic bike/head injury is riding into a crack (or grating) that grabs the front tire and stops the bike, hurling the rider over the handlebars and hammering them headfirst into the ground.

Been there, done that. Catch yourself on your hands/elbows. If you can’t, then perhaps you should go slower over such terrain. We dutchies coast on average around 20 km/h (12.5 mph). Anyone going above 30 is deemed “racing bicyclist” and they usually do wear helmets. They are a class on their own and are often hated by car drivers, since they think they have the road for themselves.
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