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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

#751

Post by _moof »

eloff wrote: post #424
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…

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.…

> My next realization was that it doesn't matter if I have the right of way and am dead.

For precisely this reason, whenever I'm teaching aircraft right-of-way I always emphasize that you do not want to be "dead right."

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

#752

Post by grumple »

Kim_Bruning wrote: post #622
grumple wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a couple takeaways from the first article. The cyclists with helmets are the serious ones riding for sport. I'd also guess commuters who are going long distances wear helmets. These cyclists are putting in far more miles than unhelmeted cyclists. I see the same thing in my city; very casual bikers don't wear helmets. Commuters and sport cyclists do. And those groups are putting in the most miles by far. If ze…

You've got the gist of it. I'm trying to point out how .nl statistics come out funny because the infrastructure has been made so safe. Commuters actually make up the majority of cyclists in the Netherlands, there are a lot of them (cycle commuting is heavily encouraged for all kinds of people at all ages), and they don't wear helmets. Despite the large number of commuters on bicycles, commuting is (apparently) so saf…

What distance are these commuters going?

What I see in those videos looks just like my university, a bunch of people on what we call beach cruisers going a very short distance. Their speed indicates they aren't going far and aren't in much of a rush. Are people in the Netherlands strict about arrival times? Do they usually move at a slower pace?

In my city commuters go fast. We're going a few miles on a commute at least.

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

#753

Post by freedomben »

op00to wrote: post #687
freedomben wrote: post #472

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

yes these are obviously special physics-defying bicycles where if you fall over you don't crack your skull open.

thats a massive strawnan. tfa is not saying accidents dont happen. theyre saing that their data show that wearing helmets has a net negative affect, all things considered. tfa is about statistics of large numbers of situations, and is not making any claims about individual bikes being magical.

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

#754

Post by GekkePrutser »

petre wrote: post #738
gernb wrote: post #737

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you mean to write "they all do not wear helmets"? or does "road cycling" mean something other than just using a bicycle on the road? I see few if any helmets https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbsMKxNORgQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfDVmUD_2eI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJypp7igJho

No, I mean they all wear helmets. Cycling as in road cycling, group rides, as a sport, not for transportation. They're not professional cyclists, they all have other jobs. https://youtu.be/_QUPWs07mKU

I think they use those for aerodynamics also. But yeah they turn up in spring and summer. Not much outside those seasons.

I find them very annoying, they tend to be very inconsiderate. Cycling on the road where bike lanes are available, and when they are on the bike lane they tend to be agressive to normal cyclists if they don't move along as fast as they want.

They're not all like that but many of them are, which leaves a bad taste as soon as you spot these groups of wannabe lance armstrongs :P

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

#755

Post by michaelcampbell »

Widdershin wrote: post #490
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…

You wouldn’t generally exceed 15mph street skating. Competent downhill skaters can reach 50mph+, with world record speeds exceeding 80mph. That alone makes safety gear much more essential for downhill. In addition, if someone shows up to a spot without adequate gear, crashes and badly hurts themselves, it can cause the spot to be blown for other riders. Downhill skateboarding is much easier when you’re on the good si…

> You wouldn’t generally exceed 15mph street skating.

I don't have a dog in this fight, but I wonder what the velocity of one's head hitting the pavement is if you just stand still and fall over.

That's 0MPH, but it still seems like it'd be enough to do damage.

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

#756

Post by iruoy »

akjssdk wrote: post #439
ascar wrote: post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you elaborate? The US has such a high incarceration rate for in European eyes often benign offenses that I find that statement hard to believe even though I don't know the Dutch laws (I'm German). E.g. I can't imagine a Dutch person being incarcerated for injuring a cyclist unless it's on alcohol/drugs. I can totally imagine that for the US though. But I might be totally wrong. Would be really curious for some de…

Cyclists are protected by law, such that even if an accident is the fault of the cyclist, the car driver is still 50% liable. This in combination with the infrastructure, which separates cyclists and cars as much as possible, makes the Netherlands very safe for cyclists. Note that younger children still usually wear a helmet, since they are more likely to have an accident on their own (i.e. falling over).

I live in a small city and have cycled to school since I was 6 years old. At first with a parent, but from about 9 years old I would cycle by myself. I have never seen anyone wear a helmet in that time.

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

#757

Post by samhw »

vegetablepotpie wrote: post #704
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…

Arizona stopped doing the lifetime thing. You have to renew your license in 10yrs now.

As far as I know, we do lifetime licenses in the UK, aside from photo licenses where the photo has to be renewed every 10 years (which can be done online). However, our driving tests are quite different from those in the US, in that they actually test your driving. (When my aunt and uncle moved from London to LA, they did their driving tests while severely jetlagged and still passed...)

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

#758

Post by BurningFrog »

whimsicalism wrote: post #220
BurningFrog wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a big asymmetry of effort in these kinds of requests, that are easily mistaken for winning the argument.

It's pretty easy to win the argument when the opposing side is "studies are meaningless."

It's pointless to argue with someone who doesn't even understand your argument.

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

#759

Post by iruoy »

cush wrote: post #414
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…

I'd bet a Dutch cyclist would wear a helmet when riding on American roads, with American drivers in American cars.

I am a Dutch cyclist and almost got a ticket for not wearing a helmet while under 18 (I was 16 or 17) in San Francisco. The policewoman was nice, though, and let me go.

Keeping in mind that American drivers aren't used to cyclists, it wasn't that bad in my (minimal) experience. But, of course, bikes are a little more prevalent there so that this experience won't stretch too far land inwards.

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

#760

Post by kqr »

staindk wrote: post #405
kqr wrote: post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But if it's about safety, why don't actual car taxi cab companies provide helmets for their passengers? It's easier to get a serious head injury in a car than on a bicycle.

Cars have padded headrests, safety belts and airbags... I don't think helmets would help much inside cars?

IIRC they do (more than on bicycles) but it was a while since I read the studies so I'm open to being wrong.
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