I yelled at a commuter today...

[Geonz]

I am disturbed by the obsession with helmets, and I definitely wouldn't have yelled. (Yes, I wear one, with a light and mirror on it.)

Just one very typical example: Aunt says to child: "You're a safe rider, right? You ****always**** wear your helmet?"

Wearing a helmet has NOTHING to do with riding safely.

It is there to protect against head injury in case of a crash.

Yet, to this lady and countless others, "riding safely" stops there. Too many injuries and deaths happen because of unsafe riding and driving... with undue attention focused on the helmet.

(Again. I wear one. I advocate wearing them. I fit kids with helmets at our "Safe Kids" day. I just don't make it the first thing I talk about when cycling is the issue.)

Here's another angle: as long as helmets are considered absolutely mandatory, it strongly reinforces the idea that cycling is a reckless, dangerous activity - and not because of the infrastructure or the uneducated, careless drivers. Otherwise, we'd focus on that instead of prophylactics.

Saw an ad for a really cute bicycle for little kids. It included a scene wehre the little kid was poking along, figuring out how to ride (but very steadily), and his friend was running wildly on the sidewalk beside him, bare-headed. It was vividly clear she could easily have sustained the more serious head injury - she was going much faster and had further to fall. So, should she have been wearing a helmet?

We choose our risks.

I'm not sure yelling has been an effective persuader, either; I suspect that for everyone it sways, it hardens the resolve of another.

However, just as I think people should feel free to choose their risks... people should also be free to choose what they feel is important to promote. And I very well might have commented to this guy - who had his helmet with him, for cryin' out loud, that "it doesn't work very well back there, dude!"