Why Not Wear A Helmet
Summary: Reasons not to wear a helmet from an Australian opponent of helmet laws.
Subject: Re: Friendly helmet discussion
From: psvansch@pcug.org.au (Peter van Schaik)
Date: Mon, 26 May 1997 12:08:17 GMT
>I don’t want to start any flame wars here because that isn’t right, but
>can anyone give me good reasons NOT to wear a helmet?
* I’ve heard many people claim that their head gets too hot when wearing a helmet, sometimes to the point that it is unbearable. This only seems to affect a relatively small minority of people.
* Some Ladies have hairstyles which make a helmet impractical.
* Inconvenience. For example if you ride to the shop you have to either carry the helmet around with you or lock it to your bike.
* Freedom. One of the reasons many people ride their bikes is for the freedom it offers them, with the wind in their hair etc. Helmets can certainly detract from that. Make them wear helmets, and cycling suddenly loses much of it’s appeal. No longer fun. Goodbye bicycle, hello V8 Commodore…
* Vanity. There is no doubt many people don’t like the way they look with a helmet on. Bring in a law to make them wear one and, once again, goodbye bicycle, hello V8 Commodore.
* Cost. Although you can get cheap helmets, there are nevertheless many people who can barely afford to spend money on a helmet. For example a Uni student, who might rather spend the $30 or 30 pounds or whatever on text books or food. But more likely on bar night.
* Finding a helmet that fits. Not a problem for most people, but some people with very large or oddly shaped heads can find it difficult to find one that fits, especially given that the things only come in 3 or 4 sizes. Lets not forget that a badly fitting helmet does not offer much protection. Or at least that’s the excuse the helmet crowd usually offer for the abject failure of the helmets law in Australia and New Zealand.
* Level of risk. For many people the risk of head injury is so low that a helmet is not considered necessary. They’d just be converting an extremely small risk into… an extremely small risk. And don’t forget that bicycle helmets can only prevent a limited percentage of injuries anyway, and probably won’t help you much in a severe impact with a car or truck.
* Risk compensation. A cyclist who suddenly starts wearing a helmet is likely to take more risks once they have the extra protection of a helmet. I reckon the biggest risk I face on bicycle paths is from helmeted riders who aren’t watching where they’re going, or seem to think they’re invincible and can ride at 40kph through a narrow part of the track when you’re coming the other way. I doubt they’d be so brave without their helmet.
* Most people naturally think or assume that helmets prevent serious brain injury. However there is not a lot of evidence to support that. Some hospital case-studies have found benefits for helmets in this regard, however these studies suffered from small numbers of serious BI in their samples, along with apparent discrepancies between the characteristics of helmeted and unhelmeted riders in their samples (it seems that the unhelmeted riders were having more severe crashes) and not to mention the inherent pro-helmet bias of the researchers themselves. Data from Australia since the introduction of helmet legislation, when helmet wearing increased from about 30% to over 80% of cyclists, has failed to show any reduction in the incidence of serious BI, except through reducing the numbers of cyclists! The thing is that serious BI is likely to be caused by shearing forces on neurons due to rotational forces on the head after impact. So by increasing the size and mass of the head, helmets can increase rotational forces and therefore actually increase brain injury.
>I don’t feel stupid, and it isn’t an >irritant, nor does it disturb my concentration from the road. >Are there any reasons why I shouldn’t wear one?
Probably not. You’re happy with it, so keep on doing it. You probably wear a helmet because of your own perceived level of risk. So as long as you don’t overestimate the protective value of your helmet, it is only likely to be beneficial for you.
>Anti-helmet people – give me your reasons.
I object strongly to that term – “anti-helmet people”. Personally, I’m anti-MHL. To me, an anti-helmet person is someone who is trying to stop other people from wearing helmets. I don’t know of anyone who is trying to do that. If you want to wear a helmet, I’ve got no problem with that.
–
Peter van Schaik, psvansch@pcug.org.au
Canberra, Australia
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