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Pedal Me bans staff riders from wearing helmets for safety reasons

bikebiz.com

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Re: Pedal Me bans staff riders from wearing helmets for safety reasons

#281

Post by dvzk »

ekianjo wrote: post #129
yellowapple wrote: post #52

I'm sorry, and pardonner mou Français, but what in the actual fuck? Should delivery drivers not wear seatbelts because they might not be as afriad that they'll fly through the windshield? Should linemen not wear harnesses because they might be more confident working on power lines? Should warehouse workers not wear hi-vis jackets because they might be more confident working around forklifts? Should construction worke…

> I'm sorry, and pardonner mou Français, but what in the actual fuck? Do you wear a helmet when you drive inside your car? If not, why not? It might make you much safer in case of a crash, according to your reasoning. Wearing a helmet can itself become a leading factor to cause an incident, and it's clearly what they are hinting at in the linked article: that data seems to indicate that riders wearing helmets may be…

As a frequent mountain biker, I can attest that wearing additional safety gear results in me taking more risks. I ride downhill faster, I take corners more aggressively, I take more jumps and I am less cautious over dangerous terrain. When wearing only shorts, a jersey, and a standard helmet, without pads or a full-face helmet, I ride subdued.

Some of this difference is due to the innate and insidious sense of invulnerability with protective gear. It comes naturally even the first time you don it. It's a common source of accidents and something that must be trained out of you.

Being able to get back up unscathed from bad falls also reinforces your future confidence, or lack thereof, which I can also attest from having fallen many times both with and without protective gear.

I'd still never ride without (at least) a standard helmet. If helmets do factually cause more accidents, which is plausible for the reasons I just mentioned, I'd support making helmets mandatory for employees through legislation. It doesn't matter if the numbers support the opposite conclusion: maximizing individual safety in the eventuality of a crash is paramount. If you have ever had a head impact while wearing a helmet, you will understand why.

Re: Pedal Me bans staff riders from wearing helmets for safety reasons

#282

Post by anonymousab »

_Wintermute wrote: post #78
Sebb767 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's more like if a delivery company banned their drivers from installing seat belts and airbags. Even if you are a perfect driver, other people aren't and on a bike, your will be the one hurting after a crash.

Not at all. Seatbelts are a legal requirement, helmets are not. This is employees wearing body amour, which is seen as either encouraging risk-taking, or giving the illusion that the activity is risky.

> or giving the illusion that the activity is risky.

Urban biking is inherently risky, especially in countries/states/cities with lackluster or nonexistent safe cycling infrastructure.

Wearing a helmet is just trying to reduce the potential damage from unforeseen and unexpected accidents - things that may likely be 100% outside of control of the biker once they are on the road. It's not a matter of "I want to wear a helmet so that I can take more risks" and it's ridiculous that Pedal Me is peddling such an excuse.

Re: Pedal Me bans staff riders from wearing helmets for safety reasons

#283

Post by Sebb767 »

shkkmo wrote: post #199
II2II wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "tiny risk" and potentially large consequences is why people should choose to wear helmets, regardless of experience. You never quite know when an accident is going to happen and it is difficult to account for that. The big risks are easier to account for, to be alert and modify your behaviour accordingly. I have seen experienced ice skaters go from not wearing a helmet to being fanatical about wearing one, simpl…

Out of all the people who are vehemently arguing that it is pure idiocy not to wear a helmet, how many of them wear a helmet when driving? I can pretty safely guess that the answer is a big fat zero. Driving is high risk activity that can lead to severe head injuries. It is even easier to keep a helmet with your car than with your bike. The cost to risk profile here is extremely similar but the resultant behavior is…

> Driving is high risk activity that can lead to severe head injuries. It is even easier to keep a helmet with your car than with your bike. The cost to risk profile here is extremely similar but the resultant behavior is quite different.

Just FTR, don't wear a helmet while driving a car. It will massively increase the strain on your spine in the case of a crash and your airbags are not built with helmets in mind. Additionally, car helmets are usually of the full-size kind and reduce your field of vision quite a bit. There's a reason helmets are not recommended for normal driving.

Re: Pedal Me bans staff riders from wearing helmets for safety reasons

#284

Post by AndyMcConachie »

y7 wrote: post #63

Maybe relevant: the Netherlands is probably the country with the highest use of bicycles for transport, yet no one, except for cyclists on racing bikes/MTBs or foreign tourists, ever wears a bike helmet. This is because they're only marginally effective at preventing injury, and the disadvantage of reduced cycling use if helmets are mandated results in far worse public health outcomes. See also https://dutchreview.co…

Read what the Dutch cycling union has to say about helmets.

https://www.fietsersbond.nl/de-fiets/accessoires/fietshelmen...

https://www-fietsersbond-nl.translate.goog/de-fiets/accessoi...

I live here and I'll say that almost all bicycle delivery drivers where helmets in NL. Lost of riders wear helmets here, but I agree that most people just riding to work or going shopping do not.

I will also note that probably the largest bicycle delivery service in NL has helmets for sale for its riders.

https://shop.thuisbezorgd.nl/nl/helmen

Re: Pedal Me bans staff riders from wearing helmets for safety reasons

#285

Post by kijin »

itronitron wrote: post #276

Pedal Me should instead mandate that all staff riders wear helmets, but that those helmets must be 'high-visibility' (painted neon yellow, green, or pink, and with reflective stickers.) They can then tell customers that the helmets are there to improve visibility and therefore safety of their passengers.

Even better, put their own logo on the helmets and treat it as a kind of uniform, just like the pink mustache that Lyft used to have. That would double as free advertising, too.

Re: Pedal Me bans staff riders from wearing helmets for safety reasons

#286

Post by dan-robertson »

Etheryte wrote: post #269
y7 wrote: post #63

Maybe relevant: the Netherlands is probably the country with the highest use of bicycles for transport, yet no one, except for cyclists on racing bikes/MTBs or foreign tourists, ever wears a bike helmet. This is because they're only marginally effective at preventing injury, and the disadvantage of reduced cycling use if helmets are mandated results in far worse public health outcomes. See also https://dutchreview.co…

This completely misses the forest for the trees and misattributes causality. The Dutch don't wear helmets because the traffic culture and infrastructure are completely different, not because of some questionable statistic no one has heard of. In the Netherlands you feel safe as a cyclist. Drivers look out for you because they're also all cyclists at other times. Cycling is so prevalent that it's hard to explain to an…

I roughly agree with you but this hypothesis would suggest:

- more helmet wearing in less cycling-friendly cities like Rotterdam which, IIRC, is an example of such a place in the Netherlands

- more helmet wearing (in the sense that the ratio between Dutch helmet wearing and helmet wearing in other Western European countries is higher) at points in the past when bicycle infrastructure was less protected. Though this is confounded by lots of things.

Re: Pedal Me bans staff riders from wearing helmets for safety reasons

#287

Post by buildingsramen »

spankalee wrote: post #272

I once saw an accident where a cyclist going straight through an intersection was hit by an oncoming truck turning left that was impatient, didn't see the cyclist and gunned it between cars. The cyclist was launched headfirst into the bumper of a car stopped at the light and her helmet loudly cracked in two. She was still hurt, but I'm sure she would have died without that helmet. If some riders choose to not wear a…

Did you read the article? These bikes are 2-3 meters long. There is no chance of this type of injury occurring with them.

Re: Pedal Me bans staff riders from wearing helmets for safety reasons

#288

Post by anonymousab »

edmcnulty101 wrote: post #117
alanbernstein wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, but this is a bad, dumb comment. Your point is valid generally, but not here. What is the COST of wearing a helmet? $60 purchase and 5 seconds every time you ride. Essentially nothing. Compare to, e.g. TSA, which has a cost of billions of dollars and millions of person-hours. Unlike helmets, which are known to actually prevent some injuries, TSA is also effectively useless at its intended goal.

It's hypocritical of you to not be wearing full body chain mail to protect yourself from bullets and stabbings. There's more gunshots and stabbings than people injuring their head on bicycles. You can buy a suit of chainmail for the same price as a modern bicycle. Its minimal cost.

> It's hypocritical of you to not be wearing full body chain mail to protect yourself from bullets and stabbings.

In most countries, the risk of shootings or stabbings are orders of magnitude lower than having a fall or accident on a bike on the road with other types of vehicles.

In certain parts of the US, though? Yeah, wearing body armor would probably be a good idea. I think people just generally try to avoid going to those places as their strategy of risk avoidance, which negates the need for any body armor.

Re: Pedal Me bans staff riders from wearing helmets for safety reasons

#289

Post by dymk »

GuB-42 wrote: post #99
wzdd wrote: post #20

This is a pedicab service. A cynic would assume that Pedal Me is mandating this (and thus putting their drivers at risk) because passengers are more nervous about taking a service where the driver wears a helmet and they do not.

So why not do the reasonable thing and provide passengers with helmets, like they do with motorbike taxi?

Lice

Re: Pedal Me bans staff riders from wearing helmets for safety reasons

#290

Post by allears »

darkerside wrote: post #244
treesprite82 wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't perceive the benefit from risk reduction of helmets in cars to overcome the hassle hurdle. But I wouldn't advocate banning others from wearing helmets in cars if they so wished.

Helmets reduce peripheral vision. I would absolutely be comfortable banning helmets in cars if people started wearing them and causing more accidents.

My bicycle helmet sits on top of my head, and has nothing to do with peripheral vision. Do you wear yours pulled down low over your forehead? If so you're doing it wrong.
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