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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

#521

Post by eloff »

dotancohen wrote: post #512
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.…

> Cycling on roads with cars is dangerous, even when there is a dedicated bike lane. My brother in law passed just two weeks ago when a sanitation truck entered his bike lane. 35 years old, left a pregnant wife (my sister) behind. Don't trust the motor vehicles to keep you safe. That's your job.

That's horrible, my heart goes out to your sister and your family.

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

#523

Post by Nexxxeh »

dotancohen wrote: post #512
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.…

> Cycling on roads with cars is dangerous, even when there is a dedicated bike lane. My brother in law passed just two weeks ago when a sanitation truck entered his bike lane. 35 years old, left a pregnant wife (my sister) behind. Don't trust the motor vehicles to keep you safe. That's your job.

I'm so sorry for your family's loss.

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

#524

Post by raegis »

gernb wrote: post #504
rollcat wrote: post #359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I''m not defending Pedal Me but you could try to design the city so biking is safer https://www.treehugger.com/why-dutch-dont-wear-helmets-48581... Sure you can still get in an accident. That's true of everything though. I don't go for a walk in a plastic bubble just in case a car hits me https://www.google.com/search?q=cars+hitting+pedestrians&tbm...

Even well-maintained streets can get potholes, especially after huge weather swings. I once hit a pothole while biking and somersaulted over the handlebars. I landed on my back, but a slightly smaller rotation would have me in the hospital, or worse.

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

#526

Post by krab »

rhinoceraptor wrote: post #474
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.

At racetracks, they're usually mandatory. It's all a matter of risk vs. inconvenience.

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

#527

Post by rollcat »

d00k wrote: post #513
rollcat wrote: post #359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Quoted post unavailable.

Why did you choose to purposefully misinterpret a metaphor?

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

#528

Post by seunosewa »

rhinoceraptor wrote: post #487
ndsipa_pomu wrote: post #367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The pictures that I've seen of the various "saved my life" destroyed helmets have the polystyrene split apart - it's usually quite easy to split polystyrene if the force is applied the right (wrong) way. I don't like the concept of requiring PPE for a relatively safe activity as cycling as it makes cycling seem like a far more risky activity than it is and there's also the problem of "helmet hair" which can dissuade…

Also, the average person likely drives much more than rides a bicycle, so they're much more likely to be injured in a car accident. But no one would suggest mandatory helmet use for drivers, even though that would likely prevent many times more deaths and injuries than mandatory bicycle helmets.

Seatbelts and airbags provide very good protection for drivers' heads. If cars didn't have those, drivers would need helmets.

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

#529

Post by ndsipa_pomu »

threeseed wrote: post #501
ndsipa_pomu wrote: post #479

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Refutation of the Walker study which "assesses the extent to which the sample size in the original analysis may have contributed to spurious results". https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3783373/

Response to the refutation: https://researchportal.bath.ac.uk/en/publications/bicycle-he...

Olivier and Walter re-analysed the same data in 2013 and claimed helmet wearing was not associated with close vehicle passing. Here we show how Olivier and Walter’s analysis addressed a subtly, but importantly, different question than Walker’s. Their conclusion was based on omitting information about variability in driver behaviour and instead dividing overtakes into two binary categories of ‘close’ and ‘not close’; we demonstrate that they did not justify or address the implications of this choice, did not have sufficient statistical power for their approach, and moreover show that slightly adjusting their definition of ‘close’ would reverse their conclusions. We then present a new analysis of the original dataset, measuring directly the extent to which drivers changed their behaviour in response to helmet wearing. This analysis confirms that drivers did, overall, get closer when the rider wore a helmet.

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

#530

Post by Nexxxeh »

aasasd wrote: post #316
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…

Another such example is drivers or passengers opening cars' doors without looking in the mirrors. A car's doors are reinforced plenty while having relatively sharp-ish metal ‘lip’ on the butt end, and you really don't want to run into one from that angle.

It's a significant issue.

The British Highway Code now includes the "Dutch Reach" car door open (where you grab the door handle with the hand furthest from the door to force your body to turn, hopefully seeing inbound cyclists).

A LOT of the updates to the highway code are for the sake of road users that aren't in cars.

https://www.highwaycodeuk.co.uk/changes-and-answers/category...

>239 ...

>where you are able to do so, you should open the door using your hand on the opposite side to the door you are opening; for example, use your left hand to open a door on your right-hand side. This will make you turn your head to look over your shoulder. You are then more likely to avoid causing injury to cyclists or motorcyclists passing you on the road, or to people on the pavement

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