The thing is I wouldn't be alive without bicycle helmet. Same goes to my aunt. So what if I get concussions if the alternative is loosing consciousness and getting driven over by a car.
Bicycle helmets do almost nothing to prevent concussions
41–50 of 100 posts
Re: Bicycle helmets do almost nothing to prevent concussions
#42With massive deceleration at the core of the problem I don't see how anything more than incremental improvements in mitigation can be achieved with a sufficiently thin helmet..
The army faces the problem of massive deceleration and new solutions for tank armor are being thought up constantly. Those solutions are also required to be sufficiently light and thin (while stopping the much more massive deceleration of rockets and bullets).
Yes, but the army is using directional explosives to solve that issue. I'm not sure that would work for a cyclist.
Re: Bicycle helmets do almost nothing to prevent concussions
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would say the reduction in cycling is a pretty significant effect. I love cycling, but I am far too scared (or wise) to ever consider riding on a street shared with cars and trucks. In the end if anything goes wrong the driver will feel sad and I won't feel anything.
I'd be so annoyed by the helmet, it messes up my hair, makes my head sweaty, I have to put it somewhere or keep it with me the whole time. It would really make me bike less. Then again I hardly ever have to share the street with cars and trucks and if I do it is with a lot of other bikers. This is not at all uncommon during rush hour: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-AbPav5E5M
It is so great that video looks completely normal to me. Dutch cities and towns are full of bikes. It's the best way of transportation. Clean and healthy. I have no car, just a bike and I always take public transport or bike. Sometimes I'll rent a car. Rain and wind are rarely an issue. I can recommend anyone to aim to live in place where biking is safe and easy. It adds daily fun to your life.
Re: Bicycle helmets do almost nothing to prevent concussions
#44The article's title is "Senseless". HN's title, I believe, is bound to distort one's impression of helmets' usefulness.
Yes, an early quote from the article: The $40 helmet is one of the great success stories of the past half-century. Like seat belts, air bags, and smoke detectors, bike helmets save countless lives every year. They do a stellar job of preventing catastrophic skull fractures, plus dings and scrapes from low-hanging tree branches and other common nuisances. Helmets are good. The author is wondering why they aren't bett…
New paper helmets help prevent concussions because they have a crumple zone that make the deceleration more gradual.
"If you crash at 15 miles per hour in a normal helmet, your head will be subjected to around 220G [G-force], whereas the new design absorbs more of the impact and means you experience around 70G instead," says Surabhi.
Re: Bicycle helmets do almost nothing to prevent concussions
#45Besides being useless, there are also some negative side-effects: helmet limits field of vision significantly and distracts from perceiving audio- and visual- information properly. I feel blindfolded in a helmet, even in a very light one.
I'm not sure I understand. Exactly what part of the world does your helmet block you from seeing? I can't see mine at all when it's on properly. Considering that a lot of people use in-ear headphones or casually check their texts while biking in Copenhagen, the added distractions of a helmet still seems like a net win.
Helmet reduces the side vision to something that feels like 20% less then normal. And yes, I cannot also tolerate any hats, hoods and such.
As for the potential Darwin prize winners with earplugs - this is something that should be a matter of legislation first, not the stupid useless helmets.
Re: Bicycle helmets do almost nothing to prevent concussions
#46As a space for cycling campaigner ( http://www.cyclebath.org.uk ) helmet articles are an interesting problem that tend to identify cycling as a dangerous activity without extolling the health benefits of cycling itself. In places like New York, where their Citi Bike scheme has had huge success without helmets (23 million miles of riding, no deaths), utility cycling (commuting) has been made safe through a huge invest…
In Australia there are places ideal for cycling schemes. Neighbourhoods and smaller cities, especially if universities contribute significantly to the population are decent cycling areas. Even big cities like Melbourne have some great bike routes going mostly through green belts. You can get from the 10-20km radius of the centre to ~2-5 from the centre ("inner suburbs like Richmond or Brunswick or Fitzroy, in Melbourne parlance where many people work fairly safely and pleasantly very often.
Many Ozzies cycle recreationally.
Helmet laws are definitely a major impediment to cycling as transport. Distances, and infrastructure issues are an impediment too. It's not Amsterdam where most journeys are <5km on flat roads on cycle lanes, but it could work for more people than it does work for.
Re: Bicycle helmets do almost nothing to prevent concussions
#47Besides being useless, there are also some negative side-effects: helmet limits field of vision significantly and distracts from perceiving audio- and visual- information properly. I feel blindfolded in a helmet, even in a very light one.
I'm not sure I understand. Exactly what part of the world does your helmet block you from seeing? I can't see mine at all when it's on properly. Considering that a lot of people use in-ear headphones or casually check their texts while biking in Copenhagen, the added distractions of a helmet still seems like a net win.
I perceive that I am much less likely to turn my head (to check the traffic behind me) when I'm wearing a helmet. It's perceptibly less comfortable to do that. I will turn my head if I absolutely need to, but I don't make it a habit. Without a helmet, on the other hand, turning my head to check the road behind me is absolutely habitual.
On this basis and on other points, I believe the helmet causes me far more danger than the helmet protects me from. I am speaking personally: I don't know if this applies to other people and I would personally not dare to use headphones or check texts while cycling.
I obviously will never know for sure if I'm right about this, but generally not wearing a helmet is the decision I believe is correct for me.
Re: Bicycle helmets do almost nothing to prevent concussions
#48Discussions of cycle helmets are usually very one sided, focusing on head trauma and completely ignoring other kinds of trauma as well as the positive health effects of cycling. Wearing the helmet doesn't just add a certain amount of padding to the head without any negative side effects: For example, motorists keep less distance while overtaking you [1] and making helmets mandatory reduces cycling by up to a third [2…
Regarding the reduction is cycling: the share of cycling as a transport mechanism fell by almost the same amount in a number of jurisdictions with no mandatory helmet laws over the same time period[1]. People in the transport strategy field generally seem to think the cause of this change was more dual-car families. However, I used to be strongly in favour of mandatory helmet laws. Now I tend to think they need to be…
The idea being that a) cyclists should fuck off, b) pedestrians deserve no space or protection and c) the burden of mitigating danger needs to be placed on those most vulnerable to it, not those introducing it in the first place (cars).
This is thinking from the 1950s. All of these things have failed dramatically.
Re: Bicycle helmets do almost nothing to prevent concussions
#49Sounds like many of the commenters here did not actually read the article. It's not about "should you wear a helmet or shouldn't you."
It is very strongly pro-helmet. NOWHERE in the article does it suggest you should not wear a helmet.
It's about how to make helmets work better, specifically against concussions. Summary: pay more to get a helmet equipped with something called MIPS.
"The new rotation-dampening systems may not be perfect, but they are the biggest step forward in decades. The choices cyclists make with their money matter. You can pretend to protect your brain, or you can spend more money and get closer to actually doing it."
Re: Bicycle helmets do almost nothing to prevent concussions
#50Discussions of cycle helmets are usually very one sided, focusing on head trauma and completely ignoring other kinds of trauma as well as the positive health effects of cycling. Wearing the helmet doesn't just add a certain amount of padding to the head without any negative side effects: For example, motorists keep less distance while overtaking you [1] and making helmets mandatory reduces cycling by up to a third [2…
I have an anecdotal evidence to support the [1]: when wearing a green neon west on a motorbike, drivers stop respecting my right of way in Berlin. Probably classifying me as a novice rider (here the driving school students always wear one).