CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 16years old!
Well done to ALL posters
It soon became useful and entertaining. There are regular posters, people who add useful info occasionally and plenty more who drop by to watch. That's fine. If you want to add news/comments it's easy to register and become a member.
RULES No personal insults. No swearing.
I know there have been problems on here when the H word has been mentioned.
CCE 'rule' now is that it's personal choice - and pointless to criticise other people with different choices from you.
I saw this yesterday and didn't bother to post.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/30/sunday-review/to-encourage-biking-cities-forget-about-helmets.html
A Public Health person with whom I have discussed helmets in the past with has just sent it to me - so it is being noticed.
Discuss.
At first I thought that the author's argument here is that you take your lid off, it will make cycling safer. Actually, it is that if you take your lid off, you will make the perception of cycling safer. It doesn't actually get any more or less safe (beyond the arguments and counter-arguments about how safe or otherwise a lid makes your head)
People put their lid on because they don't feel safe, either through their own experiences of cycling or because of "propaganda" or because of some sort of social obligation. It's a choice, even if it's being made for the "wrong" reasons. People may end up wearing helmets purely because other people are wearing them and like most humans they want to just fit in and follow the crowd. However some people will wear them because they want to and their own personal risk assessment is that they feel safer with one on.
However, no amount of helmet taking off actually will make cycling safer (even if it isn't unsafe to begin with!) Surely if you make cycling safer, people taking their lids off will follow. The best way to make cycling safe is to actually make it safe! (By which I mean, it's not to launch some glossy campaign saying that it is safe, when it's not).
Yes. Chicken. Meet egg.
I actively whince when I see a parent that has plonked an adult-sized lid onto the head of their dear child. That, in my opinion IS dangerous. As is the badly fitted one (which I hate to say is usually women/girls with a particular hairstyle) perched off the back of the head and actually not covering the front of your skull at all. I personally performed my own risk assessment of the "Bern" type fashion lids based on skateboarding ones, with the plastic peak moulded into the shell. They failed the test, my thinking being if you strike your head on a solid surface with one of those on, surely it actually focusses the impact of the blow, rather than disspating it. Most other cycling headwares have a detachable peak, which I have always assumed is to prevent the above situation. I was told by someone who is into horseriding that is the same reason that horseriding hats have no peak any more, but you can pull a fabric or velvet cover over them with a soft peak.
In those cases, a lid seems to be actually more dangerous to me than not wearing it.
I usually wear a lid. But not always. Both times I've properly come off my bike have been entirely my fault. Once was ice related and once was rogue cycling infrastructure related. Both times I've come down at a slow-ish speed over onto my side and thumped my head off some concrete. It didn't save my life, but it certainly helped avoid a headache. Both times I was also wearing "cycling" gloves and both times they saved my palms getting a cheesegrating against the tarmac.
If people ask me about wearing lids "I want to start cycling, do I need a lid?" I will tell them it's up to them, but will seriously recommend that they get some sort of glove/mitt - if you're going to come off your bike it's most likely you're going to come off forwards or at least to the front - and you're probably going to instinctively put your hands out to protect yourself. Better to let a few quids-worth of fabric take the impact than your own skin.
Perhaps cycling mitts are discouraging cycling use too.
There. I entriely avoided using the H word. I think.
Skinned my finger on Friday because of a failed trackstand - really need to bodge something to protect it until the cold puts me in full fingers anyway.
I dont wear a helmet most weeks of the year.
But I do use one in the dark winter mornings as I wanted somewhere else to mount an additional rear light.
so, taking kaputniks point - it doesnt improve or otherwise the relative safety of my commute - although I believe it does serve a purpose as a placement for a head level light - hence making my commute safer?? I dunno.
It is a pain going home though - not dark enough (yet) but the most convenient place to carry it is on my bonce.
My protégé nearly didn't try riding to work due to a lack of helmet, which was ultimately solved by a long car journey at midnight the night before. (In case anyone needs reminding, this is to pootle along the canal then down the railway path).
It's a cultural thing rather than a considered one. Bike hire schemes give me hope for the future, that's for sure.
Any glove would probably do? Inused to wear heavy duty motorcycle gloves made of leather in the winter, heavy but quite warm. I have completely walloped my head off a kerb due to ice. I had a foam wrap on at the time which took the force of the blow, protection. The onlooker was gobsmacked to see me stand up and get back on the bike. need to get new batteries if I am to use it a la Nelly as a light holder. Meant to ord them this weekend.
What happens when you enforce helmet wearing. How to discourage people from cycling?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/bike-blog/2012/nov/13/helmets-australia?intcmp=122
"Objecting to Australia's ridiculous bicycle helmet laws has led to my licence being suspended and property seized"
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