Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Pedal Me bans staff riders from wearing helmets for safety reasons

bikebiz.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

571–580 of 797 posts

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

#571

Post by maccard »

harph wrote: post #498
jasonkester wrote: post #475

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 watchin…

Protective gear was always uncool in street skateboarding. Vert (Tony Hawk's main discipline) was the exception. From what I understand it's about being counterculture, punk etc. Today even bowl riders mostly don't wear helmets or pads, and crashing in a concrete bowl is arguably even worse than on a wooden ramp.

There's a big difference between the speeds you travel at in a bowl and in very skating.

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

#572

Post by jacquesm »

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 so sad, it breaks me up just reading it. Much strength to you and your sister.

One thing I've noticed is that it doesn't really matter whether cars indicate or not, you should just treat them as hostile whether they are going to intersect with you or whether it seems like they won't.

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

#573

Post by sharkweek »

jasonkester wrote: post #475
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…

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 watchin…

It’s a style thing (as dumb as that is in practice).

You just don’t look “cool” switch back smithing down hollywoood 16 wearing a helmet.

I skated a ton growing up and it was beaten into you at skateparks how dumb you looked wearing a helmet. No major head injuries but definitely had some close calls. I look back and cringe and how stupid that was.

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

#574

Post by jules »

988747 wrote: post #365
anonymousab wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the Netherlands and several other European countries, there is presumed/strict liability on the part of the automobile driver. Regardless of fault, a car driver has responsibility for any accident between their car and a bicycle. There is of course more nuance to this, but that's the basic overlying principle. A joke I heard a few times was "If a bike fell out of the air onto a parked car, the car owner is going t…

Which sounds terrible, and goes against "innocent until proven guilty" rule. Also, in some situations it gives the driver perverse incentive to finish the cyclist off (and therefore get rid of the only witness), instead of, say, calling an ambulance.

No. The maximum prison sentence in such a case would be 8, 6, or 2 months in the Netherlands, depending on how reckless the driver was (and up to 4 years if drunk). If you then kill the cyclist you're looking at a maximum of 25 years.

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

#575

Post by gorgoiler »

GVIrish wrote: post #569
gorgoiler wrote: post #471

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

We already do. Crash safety standards, seatbelts, and mandatory air bags dramatically decrease injury and death in crashes, and numerous other safety mandates reduce the chance of a crash in the first place.

Thanks for the reply. I hadn’t thought of airbags-as-helmet-substitutes in that way.

Are helmets the bicycle equivalent of air bags then? Isn’t that quite a third rate equivalent?

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

#576

Post by kevinpet »

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…

Helmets, even the light helmets bicyclist wear, are very effective at reducing the severity of head injuries. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24686160/

That isn't to say that a policy of requiring helmets is good on net (because people may ride less), but in any accident that you hit your head, you would greatly benefit from wean a helmet.

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

#577

Post by supertrope »

usrusr wrote: post #544
supertrope wrote: post #404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well now we go down a rabbit hole of a complex social problem. People don't drive just to joyride. They so because many areas are zoned into car dependency. When faced with no legal way to drive: (1) Keep driving anyway without a license or with a suspended license. (2) Use public transit that takes two or three hours one way. When the bus is late again one day they get fired possibly setting off a downward spiral an…

(4) Zoning would change for less car dependency, and more demand would allow better transit (lines served more frequently and a wider selection of lines leading to less changes)

That's my wish too. People will not use low quality public transit. It will remain low quality as long as it's starved of funding relative to the free* roads, free* parking, and restrictive zoning iron triangle. Funding will remain a trickle until a critical mass of voters demand it. People think because it's low quality now it's not worth spending more taxes on.

*Free to motorists, not the taxpayers and real estate consumers.

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

#579

Post by u801e »

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.

You can largely avoid right hooks by riding in the primary position/take the general purpose lane by default rather than riding towards the edge or in the bike lane.

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

#580

Post by taeric »

michaelt wrote: post #391
taeric wrote: post #330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious to know what your data is. Offhand, sounds more like most riding is with helmets, so will dominate the numbers. But it's being interpreted as causal? Feels unlikely. What is the mechanism?

> Offhand, sounds more like most riding is with helmets My impression is: 1. Dutch-style utility riders using a bike to get around town for errands -> Rare helmets 2. Lycra-clad competitive cyclists with drop handlebars -> Widespread helmets 3. City cycle hire scheme users -> Rare helmets 4. Parents cycling with young children -> Widespread helmets 5. Poor people commuting on beat-up mountain bikes -> Rare helmets 6.…

My exposure is mainly commuters. Who largely wear helmets where I am. Any organized ride, too.

But fair, I don't have numbers.

Post reply on HN