Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute

Some Online Bicycle Safety Videos and PSA's

Summary: Here are the bike safety videos and PSA's on the web that you can download. If you find others, please email us. The newest are on YouTube, but some of them are terrible. We have another page with classroom quality DVDs, some that we can send you free.

Our Current Favorites

• Bike Helmets 101: A Basic Users Guide to Brain Safety
  The only helmet safety video we have ever seen that is fun to watch. It was done by three Manitoba organizations, and features fast cuttings, quirky humor and good information in three minutes. It seems suitable for a wide range of age groups. Short, so it is best used to get a discussion going on specifics of helmet and bike safety. You can access it on Vimeo. We can also send you a copy with our other DVDs (see below). We also have a Study Guide to help get a classroom discussion going. This one is specifically limited to non-profit use by schools and community groups. Note: If the video stops in Windows Media Player at the opening menu screen, just hit Enter to play it.
  
  
• The Danish Road Safety Council has the funniest helmet PSA we have ever seen, titled Helmet has Always Been a Good Idea. It's set in 873 AD, so it's not specific about bicycle helmets and covers bike, motorcycle and equestrian.

DOT Videos

• DOT's Bicycle Safer Journey: a 2014 upgrade of videos, curricula, lesson plans, quizzes, and just about everything you need for classroom instruction of basic bicycle safety, including helmets. Spanish materials included. Links to other sites for more curricula. Not a helmet-specific site, but by far the best thing DOT has ever produced. We can send you the videos on disk if downloading from YouTube doesn't work for you. In 2015 DOT added three short graphic videos without words to help deal with language problems.
  
  
• Four older videos online from DOT. (We can also send them to you on DVD.) You can find low resolution versions on YouTube or we can send them to you on DVD.
  
  
• Ride Smart - It's Time to Start
  One of the best free videos anybody has produced for "tweens" from about 8 to 12. Preaching, but all done by kids. Damaged helmets, jello and egg smashes, good fitting instructions and brief rules of the road. Eight minutes if you ignore the end credits.
  
  
• Bike Safe - Bike Smart. This one covers bicycle safety. Hosted by Celine Yeager. Covers bike types, helmet and fit, lights, bright clothing, bike check, regulations, extensive rules of the road and riding techniques including night riding tips. Reviews rules at the end. All kids, diverse cast. Seven minutes.
  
  
• Bicycle Safety Tips for Adults Covers choosing the right bike, safety equipment, pre-ride safety checks and rules of the road. Eight minutes.
  
  
• Fitting a Bike Helmet. Has a crash scene, some brief bad advice on old standards, and good step by step instructions on fit. Four minutes.
  
  
• Ajuste del casco de bicicleta.
  The bike fitting video above in Spanish. We can't find it on the web, but can send it to you on DVD. Here is another fitting video in Spanish, but not from NHTSA.

Email us if you need the DOT videos on DVD. As noted, the web versions are low resolution.

Other Sources

• Helmet Fitting Cartoon One of the few videos in cartoon format, with helmet advice and fitting instructions. Probably good for six to eight year olds. Well done, by the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.
  
  
• Flipping Physics: How to Wear a Helmet is a unique explanation of helmet impact physics using formulae and cool crashes. The message: strap your helmet on.
  
  
• The League of American Bicyclists has a series of short videos on various topics. We were not that impressed with the helmet fitting video.
  
  
• CPSC Video Clip The Consumer Product Safety Commission has done a video clip of their helmet lab testing. We have info on the video clip.
  
  
• Helmet Bully is a YouTube video PSA called "Bully." A bully rides alongside a kid, harassing him about his sissy helmet. The bully is not paying attention to where he is going, and he suddenly collides with a board sticking out the back of a truck parked in a driveway. It is quite a shock, and most viewers will not realize that the bully got hit mostly in the face with the board, and a normal bike helmet would not have protected his face anyway. We think it is an annoying video.
  
  
• The Bike Month site has a number of PSAs about Bike Month and safe cycling.
  
  
• NHTSA: Bicycle Helmet Fit available on YouTube. A lighter treatment of how to fit a helmet, intended for kids.
  
  
• NHTSA: Chug Bike Safety Video a large download from the DOT site. Animated train engines talk about bike safety and direct kids to a Disney site. One of the best pieces of advice: "Make sure an adult is watching you." Nice graphics, but needs a better script.

YouTube and Vimeo

YouTube and Vimeo have lots of videos, and new ones appear every day, so we can't keep up with them. Here are a few of them:

• Put Your Helmet On Rap video with puppets.
  
  
• Put Your Helmet On Music video.
  
  
• NHTSA: Bicycle Safety Tips For Adults.
  
  
• Cub Scout Bike Safety Video
  
  
• Kids, don't ever get on a bicycle . . . without a helmet.
  
  
• "Keep Your Helmet On" Rap PSA and others by the Oversat Crew.
  
  
• Berkeley Bicycle Boulevard
  
  
• Painting Sharrows
  
  
• Steal this Bike shows Josh Silverman stealing his own bike from seven public place around Portland. But he is a white guy...
  
  

Note: YouTube videos are all over the map. We have seen at least one "how to" helmet fit video where the host's helmet has a very loose strap, so you have to watch carefully. In that one, all the helmets are from the same manufacturer, too.

And more from other sources:

• Michigan State's page on bike safety, including their video on safe campus biking.
  
  
• Perils For Pedestrians
  
  
• Chinese promotion video (mostly in English) David Scott is a teacher at Jiangnan University in Wuxi. He has launched a helmet initiative, beginning with his students. He has produced this well-done video to promote helmets there. Two young men apply for a job. They seem to have equal qualifications, so the hiring managers are undecided . . until they cycle away and one of them puts on a helmet. "We know which one has the brains."
  
  
• Safe Routes to School videos
• Snell Memorial Foundationlab test procedures
  
  

More on StreetFilms

StreetFilms has short films about bicycling and pedestrian issues. We did not find any helmet videos when we looked, but there were lots of others. The link is for their YouTube account.


Let us know if you find anything really good!