Why the fighting over bike helmets does not help

"You are so stupid, how can you ever believe that." My friend and I stared at each other, both uttering with slight variations the same insulting arguments. We were 13 and found ourselves in a heated debate over our "belief systems." She was a Christian and I an Atheist and suddenly nothing seemed more important than the question of believing or not in a supreme being. We appeared to have completely forgotten our beautiful friendship in the attempt to convince each other off the absolute truth only one of us could possess. As quickly as we started this fight, we abandoned it. We both realized it was destructive and not important, we focused on what we had in common and stopped trying to convert each other.


Likewise, is the bizarre, almost hateful debate over the wearing of Bicycle Helmets destructive and counterproductive. We need instead to recognize that all of us want a safer and better cycling environment and have different ideas on how to get there. Without converting each other or plainly mandating our beliefs. How can we do this, you might wonder? Let's start looking at the whole situation. 

 There are many different reason people use the bicycle and as many arguments for it. 

• Cycling is an active way of transportation, with many health benefits (fitness, weight loss, stress reduction)

• It gets us outside, in direct contact with the weather, making us more robust

• it is cheap, easy, social, and good for the environment

What gets in the way of more people cycling more?

• the biggest hindrance is the lack of infrastructure. There often seems to be no place for bicycles or the existing roads are too dangerous. Many ways have become too long.

• many laws and costumes favor cars over bikes

• storage problems - where to park your bike at home, work, school, train stations or shopping.

• in many societies cycling lacks status - people who bike to work are considered strange, poor, or unsuccessful

• warped and twisted discussions over the dangers of cycling 


Cycling is great for Individuals and Societies but has some problems to overcome.
 Since safety is the biggest concern, let’s talk about accidents. By far the highest number of people get injured through the involvement of cars. One could state, being on the same road as a car, or having to cross motor vehicles is the main cause of road accidents. The logical conclusion is that cars need to be separated from cyclists and pedestrians.

Recent studies have also shown, that road safety increased dramatically for cyclists, when their numbers go up. 
Since walking and cycling is better for individuals and society, plus motor vehicle are causing the most serious injuries, preference needs to be given to the former. Wearing a helmet does nothing to reduce the number of accidents. In fact, some statistics show, that wearing a helmet makes cyclists behave riskier and drivers react more aggressively towards them. By far the bigger problem is, that mandating or even promoting helmets too much, decreases the number of cyclists dramatically since cycling itself gets perceived as a dangerous activity.



Wow, what else do I not know?


One of the unfortunate results of having the whole discussion circle around the use of helmets is "victim-blaming." By reporting "was not wearing a helmet" about cyclists involved in a traffic accident, we make them the guilty party, at least through being reckless. Most serious head injuries are caused by car to car accidents, but nobody tries to force helmets on the passengers or drivers. As well we do not blame pedestrians when they get hit by a car for not wearing protective armor.



Are you saying that helmets are bad?


No, helmets can sometimes reduce the seriousness of injuries. Especially head injuries might end up being less dangerous. Helmets make sense when people race their bikes. Sometimes they might be good for learning how to bike. Everybody should be allowed to choose to wear a helmet or not. Some people hate the idea of wearing a helmet for a personal reason, like messing up one's hair (yes this might be an issue if you bike to work) or feeling limited in your freedom. Helmets should be an option, and nobody should be ridiculed for wearing them. Just don't mandate them.



Well, what should be mandated? 


Creating infrastructures that support cycling and walking. This might include building more, separate bicycle paths and reduce car traffic. It could be teaching how to cycle in traffic in schools. It could be to promote cycling through incentives actively. Bike share programs, bicycle racks, a compartment in trains for bicycles - some cities are farther ahead than other, we could learn from them.



But, I would never let my child bike without a helmet.


That is fine, nobody will or should force you. As a parent, you will be aware, that there are many ways of keeping your children safe and happy, as well as different risk assessments. We make our own decisions but accept in general that most other parents want to keep their children as safe and happy as we do. We as well might be aware of certain mistakes that sneak into our discussions. One of them is taking personal experiences as the argument for or against evidence shown through statistics. 

Let me illustrate this common mistake in the context of bicycle helmets.
"I wrote my bicycle without a helmet for 40 years, without ever injuring myself." or " My friend had a cycling accident, he crashed into a car and assured me, that the helmet saved his life." Both statements do not prove anything, all they do is, to charge up the whole conversation emotionally.

 And here is an example of a mandatory helmet law going sideways.
 Australia introduced this in 1992. As a result, the absolute number of head injuries for cyclists went down, but so did the number of people using a bike. All taken together, the law caused more harm than good.



Summarizing, helmets neither decrease the number of accidents nor harm people wearing them. 
Both opponents and proponents of mandatory bike helmet laws want more people to enjoy the healthy activity of cycling safely. There should be nothing to stop us then from achieving this goal by creating the right environment for it. The argument over Bicycle helmets plainly distracts from this.