Ensemble makes another play for attention
In another play for media attention, Ensemble is now demanding a law that people under 18 should have to wear bicycle helmets.
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Derek 00:46 on 2019-09-06 Permalink
Why is this bad?
Kate 08:15 on 2019-09-06 Permalink
Because it doesn’t matter what the issue is. Ensemble is grasping for motherhood issues in its attempt to get people on side and get mentioned in the media. They have no program, no vision for the city. This could’ve been sugary drinks or the danger of cannabis edibles that look like candy or any other “think of the children” issue.
Ian 11:22 on 2019-09-06 Permalink
Okay sure, but why shouldn’t kids have to wear bike helmets? For that matter, why shouldn’t everyone? They do improve your chances or surviving an accident pretty dramatically. Even if there were no motorized vehicles people still fall of their bikes all the time for a plethora of reasons, and it’s super easy to bash your head. I’ve done it lots of times myself riding a bike – I biked to work all through my 20s and 30s – and yes,I do always wear a helmet.
One of my good friends took a spill on a nice flat bike path because his groceries shifted and his helmet took a solid enough hit the padding separated from the shell and the shell cracked right at the base of his skull. He was fine besides some road rash.
Tee Owe 12:30 on 2019-09-06 Permalink
If you compare a large enough group of people who wear helmets with an equally large group who do not, over a sufficiently long period of time, you will find fewer head injuries amongst the helmet-wearing group – conclusion – we should all wear helmets, all the time
thomas 12:48 on 2019-09-06 Permalink
Amsterdam does not require helmets for bike, scooters or ebikes use and it is safer than to ride than in Montreal.
DeWolf 13:13 on 2019-09-06 Permalink
Laws requiring all cyclists to wear helmets have been shown over and over again to suppress cycling rates, which is counterproductive in terms of public health. The proven way to improve cyclist safety is to build safe bicycle infrastructure.
If you want to avoid head injuries you should probably wear a helmet from December to March. I’ll bet anything that the simple act of walking around Montreal in the winter is far riskier than cycling responsibly without a helmet.
https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2017/04/how-effective-are-bike-helmet-laws/521997/
Incidentally, helmet laws require enforcement and this seems to break down as soon as you have a lot of cyclists. BC has a provincial helmet law but the proportion of people wearing helmets in Vancouver is about the same as in Montreal because the local police don’t bother enforcing the law. And even when people are ticketed, they don’t bother paying the fine. Over a period of four years, only 16% of helmet fines were paid.
https://bc.ctvnews.ca/vancouver-cyclists-sitting-on-11-000-unpaid-helmet-tickets-1.1321974
Ian 13:31 on 2019-09-06 Permalink
Amsterdam is much smaller, very flat, has much better road maintenance, and has mild winters.
Comparing apples to oranges aside, let’s run a win/loss on this:
Without helmet laws, people are free to smear their brains across the pavement however they want. With helmet laws, people will suffer far fewer head injuries but will have to buy a helmet, of which there are many inexpensive brands at stores in every city and town or available online, same places you buy your bikes.
I’m not really seeing the big deal here, this sounds like arguing against seat belt laws.
Brett 13:54 on 2019-09-06 Permalink
Not quite the same as seat belts, because driving is much more dangerous than cycling. If your real concern is for reducing death by head injury, then it makes more sense to advocate for everyone, pedestrians and motorists included, to wear helmets while out and about. In fact motorists are five times more likely to die of head injuries in a collision than cyclists. Cf https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214140518302731
Michael Black 14:21 on 2019-09-06 Permalink
But Ian’s point about safety holds, helmets aren’t just about danger from cars.
The serious accident I had on a bime was when I was about ten, a pike of branches on the road and my spokes caught on one branch. Stitches on the knee resulted.
Sewr grates not put back properly might trip up bicycles. I think I said before, someone riding their bike off a sidewalk, their front wheel came off. No seriius injury, but it could have been. Another time I pointed out to a cyclist that the bungee cords hanging off her rack were close to her spokes, I wouldn’t like the results if they caught a spoke.
It’s been years since I’ve been on a bike, but as an adult I always wore a helmet.
Traffic should be a bigger concern than helmet laws for new cyclists. Probably is, but others can point to helmet laws as a reason that people don’t ride bikes. It’s a meme, gets high travel, but few seem to question it.
Too many cyclists propagate tge memes but in practice too often seem cafeless as they cycle. Riding on and off the sidewalk through red lights and no light at night, I once saw a cyclist doing all that in sequence, is setting up for an accident. A helmet may not save them, but they have already shown that safety is not a consideration, though maybe they would say cars are dangerous. Too many never seem to grow up as cyclists, but perhaps these are actually the novice cyclists who are the ones who think helmets are a deterent from cycling.
Folk wisdom often means people don’t queztion.
Michael
Ian 16:43 on 2019-09-06 Permalink
Hey, if you guys think this is hilarious and don’t care about your kids enough to make them wear helmets while biking, there’s no law yet, that’s your call.
qatzelok 18:14 on 2019-09-06 Permalink
Australia was the first country to see mandatory helmet laws for kids and adults, and these laws have been very successful in keeping people off of bikes, and off of the roads so drivers can have them all to themselves.
Car companies are the biggest promoters of bike helmets.
Ensemble seem to have no program and no overall vision, only soundbites and hand-me-down political ideas.
qatzelok 18:15 on 2019-09-06 Permalink
And Ensemble’s recent soundbite shows that car companies aren’t only dangerous because of their products, but also because of the way they use their money to sway (bribe) politicians.
Kate 18:20 on 2019-09-06 Permalink
https://usa.streetsblog.org/2018/02/14/how-americas-bike-helmet-fixation-upholds-a-culture-of-unfettered-automobility/
Ian 19:25 on 2019-09-06 Permalink
Yes, you’re right, bike helmets are clearly a conspiracy against bikes. We’d better make sure we release bicyclists from any safety requirements whatsoever lest it impede their desire to ride freely. Let’s lift the applicability of road laws to bicyclists too, as others have suggested here before.
Talk about reductio ad absurdum.
Ant6n 22:20 on 2019-09-06 Permalink
“Talk about reductio ad absurdum.”
Uh, that’s what you just did