Comment 65696

By moylek (registered) - website | Posted July 07, 2011 at 10:17:51 in reply to Comment 65694

If mandating wearing a helmet stops someone from riding their bike then they were not serious about riding it in the first place.

Quite the contrary, Mr. Meister. I don't wear a helmet because I am serious about my cycling.

I cycle to work, to the grocery store, to the library, to the pizza place around the corner, to the bank a few blocks away: I cycle as part of my everyday life, not just as a hobby or for recreation. I would not bike so seriously (as a way to get around all the time) if I had to worry about schlepping a helmet around.

When I drive, I pretty much always wear a seat belt because the seatbelt is not an inconvenience - even if I'm just moving the car to the driveway, it's no effort to buckle up, so I do generally so.

The seat-belt analogy is appealing but it's not useful: helmets have not the effectiveness of seat belts, nor do seat belts affect people's driving habits.

Perhaps if I just toddled on bike paths of a weekend for some fresh air or bounded down wooded trails for fun, I helmet would make sense and be no bother. But for this serious cyclist, my helmet (which hangs in the garage with my road bike) would be a hindrance.

Comment edited by moylek on 2011-07-07 10:30:12

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