Should wearing helmet be optional?

[chunk]

Crazy as it sounds I could understand pro bull riding not wearing a helmet, looks like that would give you whiplash OTOH everyone understands the risks from this extremely dangerous occupation, bike riding doesn't have to be dangerous.

This guy could have used a full face helmet of some kind. Smashed his face good on the bulls head.

 

[john peck]

Living or dying has always been optional

 

[tomjasz]

Fortunately the more passionate gas bke forums don’t allow helmet discussions. They turn online friends into snarks if one disagrees. Some peer reviewed studies indicated helmet wearers tend to take more risks. Our unprotected lower face accounts for a high percentage of injuries in MC crashes. I mitigate some risk and helmet up, but not in all riding situations. Riding among cages on busy roadways, absolutely. A bike FF helmet would be great should someone finally make one less goofy looking.

 

[Comfortably Numb]

I think that if helmet companies made more stylish and comfortable helmets, more people would wear them. Thoughts?

I don't agree. Some people will still not wear them. Heaven forbid someone takes their freedom away.
CN

 

[Comfortably Numb]

If you're helmet less when riding your donor-cycle, please make sure that you are indeed an organ donor. Thanks.
-society

What would save more lives is to make organ donor "opt-out" on driver's licenses. Make donation standard, and if someone really doesn't want to, they can opt out.

/tangent

Here, it's organ donor Opt-In.
Bike helmets are also mandatory here and have been for ages. I alway wear one, but after decades of riding motorcycles I feed 'naked' without one. However....for the most part I always wear one on my bicycle mostly to avoid being the SOLE guy the police feel fit to pull over despite the majority not wearing them. It's really loosely enforced, yet I don't want to be that one guy. If I were ticketed for the one time I went without I'd fight it. If it's law, you have to enforce it on everyone, or not at all. CN

 

[Taylor57]

I found this interesting video.. do you think mandatory helmet law is actually deterring people from cycling?
I know some people don't want to use bike share because of mandatory helmet.

I always ride with a helmet after a good friend was killed riding a bicycle in college. Car made a left in front of him and he hit the windshield...

 

[Comfortably Numb]

In my state there is no helmet law for adults.

All I wish to stand for is our individual freedom to make good or bad choices for ourselves,

when the choices are not against the law. In this case, in my state, an adult need not wear a helmet.

I agree with you given there is no helmet law in your state.
Hence, you are free to make the choice for yourself. CN

 

[Kayakguy]

I own three helmets, one motorcycle (not DOT approved) and two bicycle. They make nice wall hangings. I don't like any person or government telling me what to do, especially for my own good. I smoke and own guns (not saying how many). I like my freedom even the ones the government was so gracious to dole out to me. The second amendment says we have the right to defend ourselves against oppressive governments, even our own.

It has lately become clear what you need to do if it should be necessary to shoot someone: just say "I felt threatened." Seems to work every time.

 

[Kayakguy]

I have mixed feelings about this issue so I haven't posted yet. I've read everyone's posts and there is something to be said for every one of them.

Being aware that we have an international community on this forum, let me say that my comments refer to the USA. It's been almost 50 years since I lived in France, and I was only in high school then, so I have no useful information or opinions on other countries.

Should it be illegal to ride without a helmet? My instinct is to say no.

I don't especially like the fact that there isn't a switch to turn off the air bag in my car. I just might have a good reason for wanting one. Back when airbags were being developed, Joan Claybrook at the NHTSA got the manufacturers to put in powerful airbags because she wanted them to work even if seat belts weren't being worn. The auto companies wanted to see airbag and seat belt as a system, which would have meant less impact from the airbag. Who doesn't know someone who was injured by an unnecessarily violent airbag deployment?

So as far as freedom and rights go, I lean towards "that government is best which governs least." (Thomas Jefferson)

Yet there are laws that we have, and most of us accept, that govern individual behavior like this. Laws that say you have to cross a street at a crosswalk, for instance. They don't protect automobiles!

More to the point, please consider laws requiring children to wear bike helmets. A strong case could be made that this should be the parent's decision. Most states require children of some age to wear a helmet, but no one has voiced any serious disagreement about that.

So that's the legal stuff.

On the other side, there's personal choice. I wear a helmet on most every ride regardless of speed or distance. It has nothing to do with the calculation of odds. The odds are I won't have an accident involving my head, seeing as how I haven't had one in 65 years.

But here's what I've learned from playing poker, and from the absence of any such references, I gather there are not a lot of gambling folks on this forum. One simple dictum that every serious gambler must learn, and most amateur gamblers never do: you never gamble what you can't stand to lose. Even if I'm sitting there with a full house I don't gamble the rent money, because someone else might have four of a kind. And I don't take chances with my head, because it's the only one I've got.

The quote is from Henry David Thoreau, not Jefferson.

 

[Gordon71]

Interesting article about a mandatory helmet law repealed due to racially discriminatory enforcement.

Seattle Bike Helmet Rule Is Dropped Amid Racial Justice Concerns

In Seattle, home to one of the largest populations of bike commuters in the country, officials have overturned a decades-old regulation requiring cyclists to wear helmets because of discriminatory enforcement of the rule against homeless people and people of color. The King County Board of...

www.yahoo.com

 

[yatin324]

i usually wear, but it depends....!!!!!!

 

[Gordon71]

One thing I've noticed in my area is that every bicycle rider that I've seen wears a helmet but only about 50% of the motorcycle riders wear one.

 

[Nomad]

Umm. No US state requires an adult to wear a bicycle helmet.

there are some cities that do thou. I don't think it should be a law for adults but do think one should wear one.

 

[Tom@WashDC]

I am for anything that will thin out the herd. Therefore, wearing a helmet should be optional!


Had a major wreck this winter traveling 20mph. I was slammed on my side, and skidded 20-30 feet along a basket ball court, with a roaring noise in my left ear caused by my helmet protecting my skull and face, in front of crowd of youngsters. One little boy ran up to me and exclaimed, "Mister, you sure are lucky you were wearing a helmet!"

 

[rjathon]

The quality of the helmet matters, not just if you are wearing one or not. D. O. T. motorcycle helmets are the best. How many are willing to wear one on a bicycle?

 

[teskow]

Most likely your body will heal but not your brain. Don't be a burden on society should you damage your brain. Just wear the damn helmet.

 

[chunk]

Knee and elbow protection, and a helmet on a bicycle, and full riding gear (jacket, pants, boots, and gloves along with a full coverage helmet) on a motorcycle for me.