Comments on: Should we have cycle helmet legislation? NOT the same question as “should we wear helmets”!

By: JB

JB — Tue, 21 Mar 2017 18:32:51 +0000

Another keen cyclist here in the era when the law came in, almost no one wore helmets, it certainly wasn’t on our radar and most of us were very annoyed that we would have to wear these horribly dorky things that were available in those days….

By: CMH

CMH — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 21:02:12 +0000

Antoine: yes I’d agree (almost) no-one was using cycle helmets in the 1980s but by 1994 when the legislation came in, a lot were. I started wearing mine at least some of the time in the early 90s, when it became more common to see cyclists in helmets.

Alistair – thanks – I haven’t seen that study – it would be good to see it repeated – say in Australia.

I still think that if we are really serious about cycle (and pedestrian) safety we would be working on things that Clearly make a difference like slower speeds in urban areas etc. I just don’t think that the evidence FOR helmet legislation is in any way conclusive. We’d be better putting our efforts into measures that are.

By: Antoine

Antoine — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 12:05:19 +0000

Nicely summed-up. I’m surprised you haven’t been bombarded with opinion for daring to mention the subject!

“Most cyclists were already wearing helmets”, is that really true, did they get popular in the 80s?

I was born in 1966 and was a regular cyclist from 1971 to 1982 (before picking it up again in 1993) and I don’t recall even seeing a “cycle” helmet as a young man.

By: Alastair

Alastair — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 05:18:31 +0000

“Figures across the world show that making cycle helmet wearing compulsory leads to drops of about 33% in cyclist numbers. ” Most of these studies simply compare cycling rates before and after helmet legislation, ignoring other factors such as cheaper cars, increasingly congested roads, etc.

In contrast, a Canadian study compared ridership in different provinces, which had different legislation, thus isolating the effect of the helmet laws. They concluded that “Helmet legislation is not associated with changes in ridership”

Dennis, J., Potter, B., Ramsay, T., & Zarychanski, R. (2010). The effects of provincial bicycle helmet legislation on helmet use and bicycle ridership in canada. Injury Prevention : Journal of the International Society for Child and Adolescent Injury Prevention, 16(4), 219-224

By: Anne

Anne — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 07:27:35 +0000

Great common sense post that teases out some of the factors that people often subconsciously confound. Thanks and keep up the good work!