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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

#471

Post by gorgoiler »

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…

With that level of violence it is the same scenario and the same outcome for a car.

If we insist that cyclists protect themselves against multiple tonnes of kinetic energy impact, we should insist on the same protection for car drivers.

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

#472

Post by freedomben »

alexggordon wrote: post #344

Note, these are not normal bikes. From the article: > A major cause of head injuries is going over the handlebars, which is not possible with a 3 metre long bike. Another thing that makes us unique is our training systems, maintenance systems, and ability to track poor rider behaviour. Made me curious what they actually look like[0]. Seeing that, I’d tend to reset my presumptions about wearing helmets with these. The…

I wish more people would see this! Judging by 95% of the comments on here, people think it's just "helmets in general" that they're talking about. The don't seem to realize that these are not normal bikes.

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

#473

Post by MrMan »

dougmsmith wrote: post #445
eloff wrote: post #424

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a near miss like this that really scared me in Vancouver. I was going straight, and the light went yellow just before I got to the intersection. Thinking like a car, I speed up to clear the intersection before the red light. An oncoming car in the left lane also sped up to make a left turn. I don't remember if he indicated, certainly I didn't see it. We both slammed on the brakes and narrowly missed each other.…

Quoted post unavailable.

nonsense what has kept you safe is blind luck

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

#474

Post by rhinoceraptor »

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…

Should drivers also be required to wear helmets? Driving a car is itself unsafe, motor vehicle accidents are one of the leading causes of TBIs.

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

#475

Post by jasonkester »

rollcat wrote: post #359
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…

Background: I do downhill longboarding as a hobby. > If some riders choose to not wear a helmet [...] ...we take their board from them, until they show up with one. This sport is almost completely unregulated (outside of official events), but somehow the community has developed an incredibly strong culture of keeping both yourself and the others around you safe. I guess something about being a niche sport, perhaps a…

What do you suppose happened to the rest of skateboarding that pushed it in the opposite direction?

Watching the olympics this summer, it was amazing to watch the street skating events with none of the competitors wearing any sort of protective gear. And it’s not like they didn’t need it either. They were getting wrecked in falls to the point where some of the couldn’t even finish the competition.

It was nuts watching it, since my last exposure to the sport was from the 90s where Tony Hawk would be padded out to the nines while standing around giving an interview by the side of the park.

What is going on that made helmets so uncool that you wouldn’t even wear one if you knew you were going to fall on your head?

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

#476

Post by stjohnswarts »

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.

Those people aren't riding bikes 8-10 hours a day, 5-6 days a week. If they can't see the difference then maybe they're better off without a pedicab, I would be afraid to deal with customers who were that smooth brained.

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

#477

Post by watwut »

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…

The "must wear helmets" advocacy is never focused on conditions or nuanced ideas about when it is OK not to wear helmets.

Instead, it is focused on make people feel as afraid of biking as possible. Literally all these debates are focused on making people afraid no matter of what conditions, speed. Whether you go mountain bike competition or whether you are 50 years old manager slowly commuting in skirt and business hairstyle.

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

#479

Post by ndsipa_pomu »

op00to wrote: post #423
cycomanic wrote: post #399

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a cycling accident when out training on a road bike coming down a hill doing about 50km/h and a delivery van turned in front of me into a parking lot. I hit the side of the van put a big dent in it and fractured my clavicle and t6 and had several cuts in my face. The helmet I was wearing was completely disintegrated on the side I hit the car with. Fortunately I was visiting Australia were cycling helmets were m…

> it’s true that drivers are more aggressive towards helmet wearers Citation, please? > can't think of an accident where a helmet would help when I'm on the cargo bike. Right hook.

There's this Ian Walker study: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00014...

It's a small sample size, so take with a pinch of salt.

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

#480

Post by progman32 »

dougmsmith wrote: post #445
eloff wrote: post #424

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a near miss like this that really scared me in Vancouver. I was going straight, and the light went yellow just before I got to the intersection. Thinking like a car, I speed up to clear the intersection before the red light. An oncoming car in the left lane also sped up to make a left turn. I don't remember if he indicated, certainly I didn't see it. We both slammed on the brakes and narrowly missed each other.…

Quoted post unavailable.

I don't follow why your anecdote suggests that body armor is useless. You're just saying that good awareness is also a good idea. All it takes is one momentary lapse of reason. I say this as a motorcyclist who adopts a similar head on a swivel approach. Assume everyone's out to kill you and make it look like an accident. I don't assume I'm perfect, though.
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