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Stanford students are more likely to wear masks on bicycles than helmets

stanfordreview.org

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Re: Stanford students are more likely to wear masks on bicycles than helmets

#131

Post by seanmcdirmid »

jimmaswell wrote: post #108
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I wonder if those places still see joggers wearing masks. In Palo Alto it’s definitely possible. A friend of mine who lives in nearby Atherton was complaining about joggers not wearing face masks (so I’m guessing he was while out running).

He's actually still complaining about people not wearing masks at this point, after the vaccine is widely available? I guess some people are going to be stuck in 2020 for the rest of their lives, like people who grew up in the depression and could never stop hoarding food.

Californians are pretty strict about both compared to the rest of the USA.

Re: Stanford students are more likely to wear masks on bicycles than helmets

#132

Post by seanmcdirmid »

thinkingemote wrote: post #96
retrac wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you sure? Just falling over on the bike while stationary (I admit I've managed this before) without being able to partially break your fall. could outright kill you if your head hits the pavement. (An uncontrolled fall from standing height to concrete such as by fainting can kill.) Even if you don't die, head impacts are really bad for the brain.

Bike helmets are mainly for falling off a bike by yourself, not being hit by a car, generally. it's why bicyclists don't wear the same helmets as motorcycle riders. The risk remains the same

Then you would expect the Netherlands to have a lot more injuries than the USA, since the number of miles biked without helmets is a lot higher. For some reason, it isn’t. They actually found in the 70s that yes, the problem is cars.

Re: Stanford students are more likely to wear masks on bicycles than helmets

#133

Post by seanmcdirmid »

detaro wrote: post #43
ramraj07 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any good mask will make it very hard to breathe under strenuous activity. N95 masks also get blocked after an amount of air passes through them so they become ineffective. Best not to wear them if you’re gonna be in the wind.

But we're talking about biking across campus, not biking for sports. So not really "strenuous activity" where you'd notice that. (even just because you don't want to be sweaty at the other end either)

Uw is a bit different than Stanford in that it is built in a hill. So if your next class is on upper campus, you might not have any choice but to sweat.

Re: Stanford students are more likely to wear masks on bicycles than helmets

#134

Post by dwaltrip »

cratermoon wrote: post #112
dwaltrip wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You honestly think COVID is more dangerous to a college student than a head injury?

That's not what I said.

I’m sorry, I did misquote you. You said they are roughly equivalent, which still seems completely false for college students.

The one real caveat is that COVID is contagious and head injuries are not, so it is more complicated to calculate the overall effect.

Re: Stanford students are more likely to wear masks on bicycles than helmets

#135

Post by cratermoon »

dwaltrip wrote: post #134
cratermoon wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not what I said.

I’m sorry, I did misquote you. You said they are roughly equivalent, which still seems completely false for college students. The one real caveat is that COVID is contagious and head injuries are not, so it is more complicated to calculate the overall effect.

Head injuries are not, but as with COVID, victims of head injuries can take up hospital beds and other health care resources, not to mention the costs to society, both monetary and not.

Re: Stanford students are more likely to wear masks on bicycles than helmets

#136

Post by bradlys »

taeric wrote: post #124
bradlys wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a trivially small amount of people. If it wasn’t - people wouldn’t even bother with learning how to clip in. They’d be like, “oh no, clipless pedals is what killed my pa back in ‘04.”

I have yet to meet anyone that hasn't at least come close to falling on clipless peddles.

Falling != death.

Re: Stanford students are more likely to wear masks on bicycles than helmets

#137

Post by taeric »

bradlys wrote: post #136
taeric wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have yet to meet anyone that hasn't at least come close to falling on clipless peddles.

Falling != death.

This seems a bit of a non-sequitur. Falling from a bike is enough to cause head trauma. The claim here is that a helmet is useful and effective, not just from a moving bike, but from a stationary one. Adding to that, merely mounting a bike is already a greater risk of falling than most folks do.

Is it a certainty? Of course not. But, by that same argument, seatbelts are useless the vast majority of the time. Indeed, on most moving vehicles I'm on (busses/trains), I don't wear them. Not even offered in many cases. I still support and recommend them where they are available. Same for helmets.

Re: Stanford students are more likely to wear masks on bicycles than helmets

#138

Post by weird-eye-issue »

cratermoon wrote: post #67
weird-eye-issue wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The lack of bad anecdotes on that page combined with the fact 13k people daily ride their bike on campus would only serve to make me not feel like wearing a helmet there... Yes that first story is unfortunate but I'd bet she just wasn't that great on a bike

> I'd bet she just wasn't that great on a bike Literally blaming the victim. Not a good look.

Likely it was her fault - are we not allowed to be realistic and say that anymore? Also, she wasn't wearing a helmet so isn't that her fault as well?

It's not like somebody attacked her and I'm blaming her. She fell off her bike without a helmet on. It's a different situation

Re: Stanford students are more likely to wear masks on bicycles than helmets

#139

Post by weird-eye-issue »

AlbertCory wrote: post #101
weird-eye-issue wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The lack of bad anecdotes on that page combined with the fact 13k people daily ride their bike on campus would only serve to make me not feel like wearing a helmet there... Yes that first story is unfortunate but I'd bet she just wasn't that great on a bike

Last sentence: really bad look for you there. Even if you're right, that "just wasn't that great" person could run into you , ace bicyclist that you are. Whenever I talk to private pilots and mention people I know who've gotten killed flying a plane, they invariably say "I've looked at all those accidents and I'm confident I wouldn't have made that mistake." Right. It's other people who have those accidents.

A couple weeks ago I was on a motorcycle for the first time on a small island in Thailand. I was going slowly and had no incidents.

On the way, two girls on a motorcycle passed me the other direction going way too fast (and they were positively beaming - I was thinking "they are having a little too much fun")

A few minutes later we turned back and happened across them shortly after they fell off their bike going around a turn with nobody else around.

There is a reason they had an accident that day and not me. Yes of course things happen all the time that are out of our control but... Not always, especially when it comes to falling off your bike when nobody else is around.

Another story... I know somebody who got in a bike accident near a college campus somewhat recently. They never maintained their bike and their front tire had basically come apart while they were riding it. That was also their fault.

I know these are anecdotes but so is that story that prompted this discussion. In life it's important to focus on what you can control because those are the things most likely to impact you on any given day.

Flying a small plane is a totally different topic... There are several orders of magnitude more factors outside your control than riding a bike through a college campus

Re: Stanford students are more likely to wear masks on bicycles than helmets

#140

Post by ramraj07 »

detaro wrote: post #43
ramraj07 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any good mask will make it very hard to breathe under strenuous activity. N95 masks also get blocked after an amount of air passes through them so they become ineffective. Best not to wear them if you’re gonna be in the wind.

But we're talking about biking across campus, not biking for sports. So not really "strenuous activity" where you'd notice that. (even just because you don't want to be sweaty at the other end either)

I wear N95s in india every day and even the slight breeze can definitely start blocking the mask faster. Also even slightly increased breathing starts producing more aerosols and that starts blocking the masks as well. Unless of course even while cycling your heart is at resting rate, then kudos to your health.
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