We knew helmets were a controversial subject in cycling, but we didn’t expect so many people to feel quite so strongly about it!
Across the Ride25 blog and social media channels there were a whopping 82 comments on our post about whether you should wear helmets.
We pulled together a select few comments to show just how heated the spectrum of opinions is:
The blunt
The hedging-your-bets
The reasoned-argument
The it’s-not-a-binary-issue
And the graph below shows how diverse people’s opinions are. While the majority are pro-helmet, there are more people than we expected who were anti (although very few were strongly anti).
(Note: the comments were categorised quite subjectively, the graph is just intended to give a gist).
Compulsory helmets?
At risk of alienating people who don’t wear them (these posts are just a bit of fun after all!) we found a clear case of a situation where being strongly pro-helmet reduces engagement with cycling by a troubling amount.
In Australia helmets were compulsory in some states before 1996, then a nationwide law was enacted forcing people to wear helmets when cycling. The graph below is admittedly quite confusing, but shows how this law affected cycling engagement rates:
To explain:
- The dots show years when censuses were carried out in Australia. These take place every 5 years. One of the questions asked people whether they cycled to work.
- The red lines show states where helmets were compulsory before 1991
- The blue lines show states where helmets became compulsory in 1996
- The red lines declined from 1986 onward
- The blue lines showed sharp declines when helmets became compulsory in 1996
- Only one state recovered to pre-compulsory helmet levels since the ban
A full analysis of this graph and data can be found here.
Fewer helmets, more cyclists
In another case, cyclists in the world’s most famously cycling-friendly culture rarely wear helmets at all.
It’s hard to find an exact number, but estimates say that just 0.5% of cyclists regulary wear helmets in the Netherlands. A detailed discussion on the TedX website gives some interesting reasons.
Of course The Netherlands can’t be directly compared with the UK because the overall attitude to cycling is so much more accepting, and the infrastructure is set up to compensate for this. Cyclists and cars rarely share the same roads and, when they do, drivers are more patient and understanding.
So, this all raises some interesting questions…
Pro-helmet people, would you feel differently about wearing helmets if the UK’s cycle network was bigger and safer? Would you keep wearing one if you were forced to by the law, or would that put you off?
And anti-helmeters, would you stop riding if a law came in forcing you to wear a helmet, or would you begrudgingly keep it up?
Answers on a postcard! Or, preferably, in the comment box ↓