Bike Helmets: Stupid Hat or Essential Protection?

a year ago by lgsp@feddit.it to c/bicycling

Few topics in cycling inspire as much controversy as helmets. Some people insist they’re essential, calling non-wearers reckless and invoking harsh and violent imagery: “enjoy your traumatic brain ...

crosspostato da: https://piefed.social/post/741601

Few topics in cycling inspire as much controversy as helmets. Some people insist they’re essential, calling non-wearers reckless and invoking harsh and violent imagery: “enjoy your traumatic brain injury”. “You’ll regret it when you’re in a hospital with a feeding tube”. You hear suggestions of denying access to public healthcare. On the opposite end, helmet skeptics argue that they’re a distraction. I’ve actually heard people call them “magic hats” that “don’t offer significant protection (if any at all)”. Helmets dehumanize cyclists and send the wrong message. They’re dorky and uncool, rather than fashionable and European.

So what’s the truth about helmets?

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References:

  1. Protection provided

Bicycle helmets – To wear or not to wear? A meta-analyses of the effects of bicycle helmets on injuries (https://www.sciencedirect.com/...)

  1. Risk compensation

Drivers overtaking bicyclists: Objective data on the effects of riding

position, helmet use, vehicle type and apparent gender (https://www.sciencedirect.com/...)

Bicycle helmet wearing is associated with closer overtaking by drivers: A response to Olivier and Walter, 2013 (https://www.sciencedirect.com/...)

Emotional reactions to cycle helmet use (https://www.sciencedirect.com/...)

Risk compensation theory and bicycle helmets – Results

from an experiment of cycling speed and short-term effects

of habituation (https://www.sciencedirect.com/...)

Risk compensation? – The relationship between helmet use and cycling

speed under naturalistic conditions (https://www.sciencedirect.com/...)

Bicycle helmets and risky behaviour: A systematic review (https://www.sciencedirect.com/...)

  1. Level of risk

Sport-related major trauma incidence in young people and adults in England and Wales: a national

registry-based study (https://injuryprevention.bmj.com/...)

Active Living and Injury Risk (https://www.thieme-connect.de/...)

Epidemiology of injury in professional cyclists (https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/44/Suppl_1/i4.2)

  1. Discouraging cycling

Do the Health Benefits of Cycling Outweigh the Risks? (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2920084/)

Bicycle helmet research [CARRS-Q Monograph Series - Monograph 5] (https://eprints.qut.edu.au/41798/)

The effects of provincial bicycle helmet legislation on

helmet use and bicycle ridership in Canada (https://injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/16/4/219)

Recommend or mandate? A systematic review and meta-analysis of the

effects of mandatory bicycle helmet legislation (https://www.sciencedirect.com/...)

Helmet law makes nonsense of bike hire scheme

(https://www.theage.com.au/...)

  1. Dehumanization

The effect of safety attire on perceptions of cyclist dehumanisation (https://www.sciencedirect.com/...)

  1. Claims bike helmets don't help

https://www.cnet.com/...

https://www.rwcpulse.com/...

  1. Dutch statistics

https://swov.nl/en/fact-sheet/cyclists

https://www.veiligheid.nl/... (English summary included)

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NightShot 12 points a year ago

Most stupid discussion ever. I remember a couple of years ago when there where motorcycle riders protesting a new helmet law ( I think it was NYC). Dude won the Darwin awards smashing his head and it was concluded that he probably had lived if he had a helmet.

path: 0 16998872, hotness: undefined, score: 12, children: 1
Vandals_handle 2 points a year ago

Have a cousin who is a nurse, she mentioned seeing an anti-helmet protest on the news, amongst the protesters were some of here dialysis patients. I guess one way to speed up the transplant queue.

path: 0 16998872 17003932, hotness: undefined, score: 2, children: 0
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