Occasional or regular non-bike helmet cyclist?

[Velocivixen]

I am a Speech-Language Pathologist and I have provided cognitive therapy for people who heave brain injuries due to hitting their heads in various ways. Not a nice sight. Some are never normal again. It's not worth it to me. I always wear a helmet. Not wearing a helmet isn't an option for me.

[radacrider]

Yep, I see both on my rides. I have also heard and read all the various comments and arguments on both sides. What is funny is how both sides can use the same basic data and reach such opposite conclusions.

My son and I both wear helmets, we just have always worn a helmet. In Portland, kids under (forget the age now) are required to wear helmets. For my son, it was more than about the law, it was sharing that I had a high-speed, single bicycle crash once. This was back in the lycra covered, foam only helmet days. Hit the ground so hard I blacked out. The helmet was broken in to 3 pieces, but remained together because of the cover.

That convinced me that things happen fast and a helmet seemed like cheap insurance, because you just never know. This is our choice.

If others do, fine, if others don't, fine. We all, as others have said, have to make our own choices.

PS: I have hit the helmet 3 times so I will keep wearing one. I should note, that testing up and down the street I will go helmetless, but anything else, I strap it on.

[Susan]

Over here, the reasoning against helmets is not that they make cycling look dangerous or prevent people from riding a bike (maybe because there actually are a lot of people cycling), but that the risk of being injured while riding a bike without a helmet is lower than the risk of a head-injury while driving a car or walking - still nobody would wear a helmet doing this.
I don't know if this argument comes from twisting the outcomes of some statistics, or if it actually makes sense.
What seems clear to me is that while this may be true, still, if you happen to fall on your head, it's better to wear a helmet while doing so - even if the car driver that runs you over doesn't (guess that's the difference between statistics and reality).

I myself am not sure what to think. Wearing a helmet while biking was unusual when I learned to ride a bike. Until I was grown up, it was never heard of that you could even consider wearing a helmet while cycling. Today, it's still not very common to wear a helmet when riding a bike for errands or into the city (except for kids). But nearly everybody uses them for doing cycling as a sport.
In the last years, helmets (and other protective gear) were heavily promoted for skiing, another sport that wasn't considered dangerous when I grew up.
I am not sure how much of the discussion about protection is just marketing new expensive equipment.

I fell on my head twice. Once while riding my bike on ice (while wearing a helmet) and once while helping my mum in the garden and falling from a stair onto concrete (while not wearing a helmet - 2 weeks in hospital in the midst of summer!). I guess if had been wearing a helmet I wouldn't have hurt myself as bad - but I'm not sure if that means that everybody should wear a helmet while being in the garden

My husband and I are still considering buying helmets for the city. Just in case.

[hebe]

My thinking on this is on the same lines as Pax and JennK. I do wear a helmet about 95% of the time, always in traffic or on rooty/bumpy trails, always when riding with small girl in the trailer, and always when my husband is away for work and I am the solo parent.

I have a background in risk, and feel fairly sure that crossing some of the local roads as a pedestrian is more dangerous than cycling unhelmetted half a mile along a flat traffic-free bridleway with an even surface and clear visibility in both directions, for example. I'll also do a quick spin around the block helmet-free when checking something on the bike - it's a residential area with a 20mph limit and speed-calming measures. It's also very common for children to be playing in the road in this area so traffic is careful. Even my route to nursery is chosen to be as quiet as possible, I generally see no more than 5 or 6 moving vehicles on the road sections.

I did blog about helmets recently. A roadside assistance business here recently polled its (motorist) members and found that a huge majority of them wanted cyclists to wear helmets. The result was this organisation has started a programme of handing out thousands of helmets branded with their logo to cyclists over the country. I remain pretty unhappy about this for a number of reasons. That said, I think it is absolutely down to the individual to decide what level of risk they are happy with and act accordingly. Be informed and know exactly what the capabilities of your helmet are.

[badgercat]

I am a Speech-Language Pathologist and I have provided cognitive therapy for people who heave brain injuries due to hitting their heads in various ways. Not a nice sight. Some are never normal again. It's not worth it to me. I always wear a helmet. Not wearing a helmet isn't an option for me.

*waves* I'm training to become an audiologist--I always feel a bit of kinship when I find out there's an SLP around, given our common roots in communication.

Anyway, back to topic. Helmets were certainly around in my childhood (I'm 25), but NONE of my friends wore them. It was absolutely devastating to me at the time that my parents would not allow me to ride my bike or rollerblade without one. It wasn't so bad when we were out on an MUP as a family, but around the neighborhood? The horror!

Junior high came around, and still I was the only kid in the neighborhood wearing a helmet. "But, you're the smartest kid in the neighborhood," my parents would say. 13-year-olds do not respond to this kind of logic, so my parents acquiesced and said I was old enough to decide to not wear a helmet if I didn't want to.

I didn't really ride during high school (it was too far away to ride to school, and it wasn't "cool" to ride around anymore). But the bike came to college with me for transport. I rode for that first year without a helmet until a woman I volunteered with (who went for THIRTY-MILE rides on the weekends, which seemed just unfathomable to me then) told me about two cyclists colliding on a slow-moving local MUP and one died. That was enough to push me back into the helmet camp, and when I was home that summer I went to a LBS and bought a helmet. I got a very stylish red and black one.

Long story short, I went through a "rebellious" phase (I use that very loosely, as I certainly accept that it's your choice to wear one or not), but now I never, ever, ride without one. Ever.

[Crankin]

I still don't get why one would think that wearing a helmet means the activity should be banned. To me, it just doesn't make sense. I have no problem with someone telling me what to do if safety is involved. I guess this is unusual?
I am not a downhill skier, but everyone I know who is wears a helmet. Adults. Same for horseback riders.
I grew up in the 50's, 60's, went to college in the 70's; of course I didn't wear a helmet then. There weren't any. My 2 kids even learned to ride without helmets in the late 80's. They were 7 and 9 when we bought helmets for all 4 of us, even though DH and I hardly rode. Once I caught my older son riding ddown a huge hill with his helmet hanging from the handlebars when he was 12. I was in one of those rental car pick up vans, so he didn't know it was me driving by... I scared the cr*ap out of him when he got home and I said, "Helmet on the handlebars does not protect your head."

[Kerry1976]

I didn't grow up wearing helmets, but I do now. The below story is not the reason why, but if I ever had doubts it serves as a very real reminder.

About 11 years ago, an 11-year-old child of a friend died in a bicycling accident. She was thrown head first over the handlebars on a family bike ride. Her death was tragic not only in the loss in general, but the way the media chose to handle it. A large area newspaper did a full-page story on her death and blamed it squarely on her parents not making her wear a helmet. This was horrific for them. These were not negligent parents. They adored their child. I think everyone understood the newspaper was trying to take a loss and make it into a learning experience, but at the time it felt almost cruel. However, if the story made one person stop and think about the wearing of helmets, I suppose it was worth it.

[hebe]

I find the Health Insurance discussions interesting as we have health care that's free to all at the point of delivery here (though we all pay for it through our taxes). The understanding that I have is that the risk of a serious bike accident (and associated medical costs) is significantly mitigated across the population by the benefits (and savings) that accrue because regular cycling hugely reduces deaths by heart disease, for example.

Interesting discussion, thank you.

[Kerry1976]

I find the Health Insurance discussions interesting as we have health care that's free to all at the point of delivery here (though we all pay for it through our taxes). The understanding that I have is that the risk of a serious bike accident (and associated medical costs) is significantly mitigated across the population by the benefits (and savings) that accrue because regular cycling hugely reduces deaths by heart disease, for example.

Interesting discussion, thank you.

That makes a lot of sense. I had kind of thought of the same thing. I think in terms of running as that is my primary sport. I had two stress fractures last year so it was a bad year in terms of seeing the doctor. However, I am healthier overall so the overall impact should be less.

[lph]

hmmm.... I'm a regular helmet-wearer, and used to be pretty dang dogmatic about it, but discussions like this one have made me think things over a bit.

Risk: yes, I've landed on my head a couple of times and split my helmet, and it probably saved my life or at least saved me from injury and a lot of pain. The way I ride (commuting in traffic, mtbiking on trails), a helmet is obviously a good idea. That doesn't mean that every cyclist in the country rides the way I do. And I'm not going to go bug-eyed if granny pedalling along slowly on the sidewalk and dismounting at every crosswalk doesn't want to mess up her hair and isn't wearing a helmet. For certain riding styles, cycling is no more dangerous than ordinary, everyday life. But then again - risk is notoriously hard to gauge correctly.* The only time I have ever seen my dh ride without a helmet we toodled down to a local school, he felt the urge to ride over a tiny skateboard jump, fell on his head, cracked it open, needed 8 stitches, a night at the ER and was home for a week with a bad concussion.

Habit: I want to wear a helmet for most riding. I know I could skip it for certain rides, i.e. my risk assessment tells me I would be safe "enough" doing so, but I'm a creature of habit, and when it comes to safety I like to keep it simple. So I wear a helmet all the time. Only time I don't is when I'm wrenching, and just ride down the block and back to check the bike.

Principle/image/whatever: I think of myself as a serious cyclist. I have a son, and live with a lot of kids around me. I try to live a bike-heavy and car-light lifestyle, and show it. I spend a lot of energy at work convincing others to ride to work. For all these reasons I'll wear a helmet even when I don't necessarily absolutely have to. If it makes the neighbours and the other kids' parents think "ooh, she's pretty cool, and looks like she's got a handle on things" rather than "oh gawd, another one of those insane suicidal idjits" - well, it's a good thing.

And no, I don't think about all this every time I go out I just put the darn thing on and forget about it. But I do go fix every crooked child's helmet I see. I want them to be comfortable, and feel cool, and then go ride.

*PS. I have the feeling that the most avid helmetwearers probably overestimate the risk, and the most avid non-wearers underestimate it. So how many people have I annoyed now?

[alice]

*PS. I have the feeling that the most avid helmetwearers probably overestimate the risk, and the most avid non-wearers underestimate it. So how many people have I annoyed now?

I agree!

I would describe myself as a closet-helmet-choice-nonjudgmentalist. (Ha! How's that for using too many words?) I wear a helmet about 80% of the time; the other 20% I don't feel like it and I assume the risk for the type of riding I'm doing that day/time. Not wearing one when I don't want to keeps me from being bitter about "having" to wear it the rest of the time, because I know that every time I put one on (or don't) it's because I'm choosing to. I try not to judge other people for never (or always) wearing a helmet, and I hope other people don't waste their time judging me.

As a related side note, hair really is a big issue for some people (like me). My helmet wearing percentage of trips increased dramatically when I cut off all my hair and putting on/taking off a helmet now no longer requires five minutes of undoing/redoing my hair.

[shootingstar]

lph: *PS. I have the feeling that the most avid helmetwearers probably overestimate the risk, and the most avid non-wearers underestimate it. So how many people have I annoyed now?

This is probably true on the over-estimation and under-estimation scale. However, I just continue to wear my helmet. Once you get into a habit, it's like brushing teeth or putting on a pair of shoes. I don't think about it.

On the rare occasion, I have forgotten to wear my helmet and cycled 3 kms. down the road. My head felt naked and unprotected. To me, it wasn't a great feeling. I'm not interested in someone else convincing me hard and long about feeling safer without the helmet.

So it makes me a nerd among some helmetless folks.
This isn't new to me..and extremely pale and minor: being judged on superficial reasons...for how I look, how I appear or what I wear. There have been WAY more serious barriers/misunderstandings in my life for being wrongly judged who I am. Wearing a helmet is such an easy thing for me and shrug, if it puts me in a minority over time to wear a helmet: so what?

I value my life and its quality over a long period of time. Not for a short period of time to feel breeze in my hair.

Would I be impeding movement to encourage more cycling, by wearing helmet? If I am, I have been all along doing the countermeasures in the past few years: I write about cycling to promote cycling for transport, health and tourism..... plus just ride the bike often and volunteered for various cycling advocacy organizations. And not have a car for decades.

Also we shouldn't waste our energy to de-regulate bike helmet wearing legislation in various jurisidictions that have such laws. Instead teach people yea, ok wear street clothing, build communities that allows use of more alternative transportations, yaddydada, etc.

It would be nice North America find its own strengths and benefits in cycling culture that is and will be different from Europe. We should learn from Europe where it's practical and where it fits our culture and our huge expanses of land mass with roads crossing for hundreds of kms...with less dense population spread across the continent. It's different terrain, extreme climates, more inhospitable because of less amenities for food, shelter in between (I really noticed this when cycling in Germany, etc.). Get real and hence, cycling culture and practices must be geared to fit with this continent, but also fit within North American society, where cars still will be around because we have longer distances to traverse between cities, towns, states/provinces ...unless we start builidng more rail lines, etc.

Over time, we have to get over the feeling that North American cycling culture/infrastructure is a shadow of Europe.

We have to also remember not all parts of Europe are cycling intensive. It's like North America. Being in Prague, Czech. I certainly felt that way, despite being surrounded by medieval and rennaissance architecture.

[Mr. Bloom]

*PS. I have the feeling that the most avid helmetwearers probably overestimate the risk, and the most avid non-wearers underestimate it. So how many people have I annoyed now?

well said. I think helmet use should be a choice, not a requirement.

Most of the US laws I've reviewed (admittedly not all) only require helmets for certains ages or on certain types of roads (like state highways...but not neighborhood streets).

However, I will never ride without one, even though I've only had 1 minor accident in nearly 9,000 miles. I would miss my helmet mounted mirror too much