Silly cyclists!! To be fair you can't call anyone cycling without a helmet silly as it is really personal choice and the helmet offers a very limited amount of protection. Although cyclists, at night, without lights are mental.
On ASL's, the majority of cases I see of cars in the ASL are as Splash described, but I just think that it is not reasonable to ticket drivers for that as there are legitimate cases of non cyclists being in the ASL.
http://forums.hexus.net/sports-exerc...le-helmet.htmlOriginally Posted by The_Wheelhouse
So there's a four way cross roads, in the center of which is a 50 pound note. At one of the roads is a law abiding cyclist. At another is a smelly car-hating hippy who's never heard of the highway code and wouldn't follow it anyway. The other roads have Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. Which one picks up the 50 pound note?
A helmetless Santa Claus will hop in quickly on a bike and ignore the highway code. But get the pony x 2. Yay, go me!
A helmet would not have prevented those injuries.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13730774
Story's gaining some steam!
Correct. Helmets introduce a greater possibility of rotational neck injury too which is one of the reasons why the jury is still out on whether cyclists should wear them or not.
Wanted to weigh in to the helmet discussion, but TA makes an even better point here that I'll pick up on.
There's a lot of debate about whether helmets *for adults* are worthwhile. Helmets for children definitely are, because children tend to have accidents at much lower speeds and have the kind of accidents that helmets are actually useful for. Apparently at the speeds most adults have accidents there are serious doubts that the helmet helps. There's also been research done (although I don't have any linkys to hand) that suggests adults ride *less carefully* if they're wearing a helmet, and so are more likely to be involved in accidents. I currently don't wear a helmet, but only because my last one got nicked and I've got a big enough head that finding a comfortable helmet is actually quite tricky for me: and the discomfort of an ill fitting helmet is sufficient to distract me from my cycling - and I'd rather be fully attentive than helmeted but distracted
But the number of people in Manchester who ride dark coloured bikes, wearing dark coloured clothing, with no hi-vis, no lights.... it boggles the mind. I can only assume that these people are volunteering to be part of the big population cull that would come in handy...
None of them: a BMW driver chews straight through the middle of the junction and runs them all over
IANA Pathologist, but:
http://www.ctc.org.uk/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabID=5260
It is very hard to say if they are required by efficiency. Its often a case of they will save your life if hit in just the right way. I would be skeptical and careful about saying not to wear them because of the rotation excuse. Having see someones skull cracked open thou, I'll wear mine when I'm going on a busy road thanks, but I'll also wear gloves, and knee covering shorts which have helped before when a mate nocked me off when on a cycle path... passing me back a waterbottle.....
But helmets do reduce your drag, and there is little evidence of them harming users, so good idea!
(even thou the evidence of real world helping is little too)
throw new ArgumentException (String, String, Exception)
How do helmets reduce drag? From what I've seen, there will be very little laminar flow over a helmet, surely there is a benefit to turbulent flow to delay separation? A naked head, provided there is some hair, probably has less form drag. Baldies I could see benefiting greatly, if only through looks.
All the racing types wear them because they are able to have a better form for speed than the hair!
Unless they've all got it wrong, it would be typical of cycle helmet debate if they were all actually slowing themselves down....
throw new ArgumentException (String, String, Exception)
Some interesting links about helmet effectiveness http://www.cyclehelmets.org/1139.html http://www.cyclehelmets.org/1209.html http://www.cyclehelmets.org/papers/c2023.pdf
Pros only wear them because its more space for sponsorship
That's funny but sad at the same time, when it is such a good point that it shows that it is actually obstructed and that sometimes it isn't the safest place to be, and that they do actually grab the wrong end of the stick, so instead of fining the bicyclists they should fine the blockers of the path, anyway good video!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3Xf3wXRfbc
Just in case you were wondering what the problem is.
mycarsavw (15-06-2011)
I wear a helmet mostly for low-speed accidents. If you get hit by a car, odds are your helmet is not going to make much difference. Besides the fact that you're likely to be hit at body level - impact with the bonnet - you may well be hit at such speed that the lower level damage is enough to kill you (internal bleeding, collapsed lung, etc). If you hit a car head on and slapped your face into the windscreen, I'd bet a helmet would make it hurt a damn lot less. If you get hit hard enough that you suffer brain damage, or haemorrhage, etc your helmet probably wasn't going to save you anyway.
Where a helmet does come in handy is if you just fall off - in which case having a bit of plastic to shield your noggin is damn useful. The articles make a good point that in most serious incidents the helmet wasn't much use, but I challenge you to fall over onto a pavement with something on your head and without and tell me which one hurts more; if anything it provides an inch around your face and ears so that it impacts with the concrete first. Even if the styrofoam doesn't compress, having something in the way should be better than nothing.
As the site says: "Cycle helmets provide best protection in situations involving simple, low-speed falls with no other party involved. They are unlikely to offer adequate protection in life-threatening situations."
I've fallen off my bike an infinite many times more than I've been hit by cars (one, and it was parked) and I'll keep wearing my helmet!
Last edited by Whiternoise; 15-06-2011 at 05:33 AM.
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