Most stupid discussion ever. I remember a couple of years ago when there where motorcycle riders protesting a new helmet law ( I think it was NYC). Dude won the Darwin awards smashing his head and it was concluded that he probably had lived if he had a helmet.

Even if you exclude injuries from automobiles, head injuries are far and away the most common serious injuries people get while cycling. This entire debate is idiotic. Wearing a helmet is such an easy thing to do and has basically zero downsides.

I have seen far enough people died who could have survived if they wore a helmet. I rather keep wearing one. The same thing when in any two wheeled vehicle.

Here’s the thing…yes, wearing a helmet is less safe than having bike infrastructure. No doubt about it.

But I don’t fucking HAVE safe bike infrastructure. Also, I am very involved in bike safety advocacy, so I’m not exactly just shirking all safety responsibility onto a silly hat and expecting things to be fine.

We can throw off the dualistic thinking for a second and acknowledge that, yes, helmets are a very imperfect solution that puts the onus of protection onto riders. Also, it’ll save your goddamn life.

If I didn’t wear a helmet, I never would have gotten married and my kiddo would never have been born. I’d have died on a sidewalk (or in an ambulance) on the side of a residential street on a multi-use path where a dumbass teenager was going 35mph the wrong way on an electric scooter at night.

This video is a great example of a seemingly simple topic having more nuance than you might expect.

When I was a teenager I had a bad wipe out cycling off road doing about 30mph that resulted on me landing on my head. I was knocked out, swallowed my tongue, and if it wasn’t for my friends stopping myself from choking to death I would have been dead, as it was I had a concussion and an overnight stay in hospital. But if I had not been wearing a helmet I would have been dead on impact. I think its pretty telling that all my friends invested in helmets after that.

Even in non car areas you can fall from relatively low speeds and have a bad time.

What I do not like is that a significant number of other road users are more likely to see you as less human for helmet wearing than not: https://road.cc/content/news/cyclists-wearing-helmets-seen-less-human-301661 This has a negative impact on how they treat you on road.

Ever since I learned in motorcycle training that having your head go into a immovable surface (curb, tree, etc) at just 10mph can easily kill you, I wear one while skiing and bicycling. Just like seatbelts in a car, I don’t feel safe enough anymore without wearing one. I’ve always worn ‘heavy’ helmets for the motorcycles anyway, so the lighter ones for bikes and skiing are barely noticeable.

@lgsp I’m a fan of requiring them over 25kmph. Yes this is largely unenforcable, so no one will be fined. But it still gives the message that if you go fast you should wear one.

But it also gets out of the way of people riding to the corner store for milk

This shouldn’t even be a question.

Two bicycle accidents here, both involving cars who couldn’t be bothered to look around them when circulating. In both cases the helmet saved my life.

When I see hipsters on their brake less fixie with no helmets to make sure their hair don’t get messed up, it makes me shiver. It’s such a simple thing to do that brings a maximum of protection.

As a BMX flatland rider (not in traffic), I’ve found that helmets cause the rider to be unnaturally top heavy, which affects the abilities of the rider to perform a lot of tricks, particularly the many one wheel tricks the sport has to offer.

If anything, in BMX flatland, elbow pads, knee pads, shin guards, and perhaps gloves, offer the most necessary protection for the sport. Pretty much all flatland riders ditched helmets back in the 90’s for the very reason I mentioned, it affects the balance while performing complex tricks.

Now as far as regular road commuting, even though I’m not one to wear a helmet, I would tend to recommend a helmet for the average rider. Vehicles are big and heavy, and plenty of drivers out there don’t pay nearly enough attention to bicycles or pedestrians.

And that in itself brings up another question:

If bicycle riders should wear helmets, then shouldn’t pedestrians also wear helmets…?

Having used my helmet multiple times it’s fairly obvious to me they actually performa a useful function. As far as I’m concerned the only controversy is whether they should mandatory or not (and I don’t think they should). But otherwise, if you choose to wear one I think you ARE doing yourself a favor wearing one.

For me, the truth is I barely notice I’m wearing a helmet, and cars barely notice me as a cyclist even exists.

So even if a helmet only does half of what it claims to do, I’ll take that chance in an accident with a giant metal box on the road.

Biking is safe whether or not you wear a helmet. The life-extending advantages of biking outpace the life-shortening risks either way. If wearing a helmet makes you more comfortable and you bike more, then that makes a bigger difference than the helmet itself.

I would be dead a few times if not for my bike helmet.

I really like Oh The Urbanity; been watching them since perhaps early on in the pandemic. Not Just Bikes also