Only real conclusion was that presenter would keep wearing his helmet.
With a wig on top of it?
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Cycling News
"Is it really safer to wear a helmet when cycling?"
(153 posts)-
Posted 14 years ago #
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Chdot, sounds good to me.
Posted 14 years ago # -
"sounds good to me"
Personal Choice...
Posted 14 years ago # -
What would each one of us do, if a MHL was passed? What might the law say or do to transgressors? Slaps on the wrist? Fines? Jail?
I love to ride my bike, but I also love to pootle along quiet green paths and trails and feel the wind in my hair. Those paths don't start at my front door, and thus I would be stuck with a big lump of polystyrene. I would probably sigh and cycle behelmetted, but only because the convenience and the exercise of riding a bike comes first. There are undoubtedly others for whom riding a bike is 'more optional' and those are the ones whom the law will affect first.
Edit: and that's all I'm going to say on the subject.
Posted 14 years ago # -
"Personal Choice... "
Then i shall try to refrain my self....
Ach one more for Arellcat straw pole. Ride on as usual and if i forget my lid some days then meh i'll try and avoid johnny law.
Posted 14 years ago # -
"Seems no-one listened to the Radio 4 programme I started this thread with.
Quite a lot about the guy who found that drivers came closer when he was wearing a helmet and moved away if he wore a female-style wig. "
I listened to it! Yes, this n=1 study comes up quite a lot. I have found wearing/not wearing doesn't make a blind bit of difference how close drivers pass you. And I am n=1 too so my observations are just as relevant. ;-) Whole article was a bit pointless really since ,as you say, no real cunclusions.
"What would each one of us do, if a MHL was passed? "
Stop wearing a helmet..
Posted 14 years ago # -
"What would each one of us do, if a MHL was passed? "
Nothing - I already wear one
I would however, sign any petition on the no10downingst.gov site against it as it is personal choicePosted 14 years ago # -
MHL wouldn't stop me riding to work, because the alternatives are so dire.
I think it would result in a lot more car use for shorter trips though, things like the shops or going out for food, and I doubt I would let my kids out on their bikes unless they were riding with me, so I could keep an eye on them. Who wants to answer their door to their child accompanied by local policeman and a £60 fine for parental failings after they inevitably dump the helmet in the nearest hedge?
(I don't actually have kids yet, for the benefit of those who know me and are wondering!)
The experiment I described above is still valid even if people don't want to see MHL, by the way. The argument presented here has been that the discouragement of cycling associated with helmet promotion doesn't exist (or at least, that it is only correlated, not causative).
If we lobbied for an MHL bylaw on one of the paths, we could actually test the proposition that having to wear a helmet doesn't reduce - or even increases - the number of people riding there. If the BHRF are correct, promotion of helmets and emphasising possible dangers should always be associated with a fall in participation. Even one example to the contrary would be enough to disprove that.
Posted 14 years ago # -
Sptifire,
So you're really worried about falling over. That can happen when you're not on a bike too you know.
Posted 14 years ago # -
Steveo,
You might want to keep an eye on Mexico city. It's too soon to say what has happened and apparently their law was widely ignored.
I still think you're on a sticky wicket though. Occam would say you are invoking extra identities.
Posted 14 years ago # -
Let's stop now please.
Many apologies to all my friends for contributing to this debate continuing and becoming more nonsensical (if not downright insulting).
Posted 14 years ago # -
Perhaps wfb but to quote House "Sometimes it really is Zebra's."
Posted 14 years ago # -
Never watched House.
Laurie was good in Jeeves and Wooster but there has never been a funnier TV show than Bilko. The complete first season is about to be released on DVD.
Posted 14 years ago # -
@weefoldingbike - yes terrified, in fact I have started wearing a parachute, too. The tailors looked at me funny when I asked for a suit made from bubble wrap.
I now crawl wherever I go and make scrupulous notes to send to my councilors about every uneven paving slab I pass. I get all the free chewing gum and old cigarettes I can chew.Posted 14 years ago # -
Posted 14 years ago #
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spitfire,
You know there was a guy who had a parachute suit. He tried it out on the Eiffel tower.
Posted 14 years ago # -
suits you sir
Posted 14 years ago # -
Is it really safer to wear a helmet when cycling?
Yes it is - the rather heavy car park barrier at work malfunctioned on my way out of the office and came swiftly down on my head as I was going through. I wouldn't have stayed upright and laughed it off with the guard on the gatehouse if I hadn't taken the force of it on my plastic and polystyrene fashion accessory.
Posted 14 years ago # -
You do know that's not a representative test and tells you nothing about hats in collisions?
And, according the purveyors of this nonsense, you need to buy a new one now.
I crashed into a transit van on some ice yesterday and survived. I can only put this down to my wearing a pair Craghopper Kiwi zip offs as that was what hit the van. Had I been wearing different trousering I would be in ICU. Craghoppers saved my life.
Ohhh, and there's this:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/bike-blog/2010/nov/15/killer-driver-sues-over-cycle-helmet
Posted 14 years ago # -
You do know that's not a representative test and tells you nothing?
It tells me that they need to take a look at the barrier mechanism!
Posted 14 years ago # -
There's probably a magnetic sensor in the road. Do you have one of those fancy pants aluminium frames?
Posted 14 years ago # -
I'd agree that people don't mend things enough any more. James May seems to have this right in his Man Lab show and when Dave Gorman was crossing the US in a '70s Ford he lamented that idea that his dad could mend cars but he can't.
The memsahib busted a fan belt on the car today so I went to Halfords only to find that they don't keep fan belts in stock. It's on order for tomorrow. They have stick on bling to tart up a hot hatch but no fan belts. How crazy is that?
On the way to Halfords I'll be stopping off at the post office to pick up the Carradice cape which they couldn't deliver today. Capes don't need to be breathable because they are like a tent on wheels
Posted 14 years ago # -
You do know that's not a representative test and tells you nothing about hats in collisions?
No but it does tell you that the helmet worked for him that day.......... therefore proving that it was safer for him to be wearing the helmet at the moment the barrier failed.
Posted 14 years ago # -
It does tell us that it was probably safer for him to be wearing one at that instant, but strictly speaking (in case of sciencey pedantry) it would only prove it was safer for him to be wearing one that day if there was a control sample kaputnik not wearing a helmet but suffering the same barrier-mishap to compare the results with and if the same outcome resulted from multiple repeat barrier-failure-instances conducted by lots of different people and their identical but un-behelmeted twins. It is very suggestive, though; there are more types of brain injury than just the rotational-where-increased-effective-cranial-radius-might-be-disadvantageous.
Posted 14 years ago # -
taking the question as read:
It is probably safer to wear a helmet when cycling as opposed to when riding a motor bike... (sorry I am in a strange mood today)Posted 14 years ago # -
if there was a control sample kaputnik not wearing a helmet but suffering the same barrier-mishap to compare the results
are you suggesting I need to get my head whacked again with the barrier (but without my lid on) and then repeated a sufficient number of times to build a reliable data set? :)
Posted 14 years ago # -
"are you suggesting I need to get my head whacked again with the barrier"
Presumably in the interests of 'science'.
But you do have free will (probably).
Posted 14 years ago # -
lolz!!!
Posted 14 years ago # -
Back in the day when I did wear one I found I banged the garage door and other things more often than when I didn't wear one.
They do make a handy place to fit a head torch but it's not worth it.
Posted 14 years ago #
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