miss_s_b: (feminist heroes: oracle)miss_s_b ([personal profile] miss_s_b) wrote,
@ 2012-08-03 10:00 am UTC
Entry tags:the blood is the life

(Read 8 comments) - (Post a new comment)
(Flat) (Top-level comments only)

freddiefraggles: (chicks dig scars)


[personal profile] freddiefraggles
2012-08-04 03:12 pm UTC (link)
Re: first link: Given the choice, why would you not wear a helmet? IF I fell off or were knocked off, it would give me a better chance of not being brain damaged and therefore being able to make a full recovery. And why on earth would me wearing a helmet take more risks than me not wearing a helmet?

That article (and I stupidly read the comments!) really pissed me off.

(Reply to this)  (Thread) 



[personal profile] bagpuss
2012-08-04 06:20 pm UTC (link)
wearing a helmet doesn't make you take more risks but does appear to make the drivers around you take more I thought (I haven't read the article)

(Reply to this)  (Thread from start)  (Parent) 


ext_51145: (National Pep)


[identity profile] andrewhickey.info
2012-08-04 06:23 pm UTC (link)
I don't cycle myself, but I've had people tell me that helmets make it less easy for them to hear.

It's also a fairly well=confirmed fact that safety measures instill an over-confidence in people, so that the more safety measures are taken, the more accidents increase. Hopefully those accidents that do occur are less damaging, but there *is* a trade-off there.

Right now, people *do* have the choice, and a lot of people *do* choose not to wear a helmet. If you want to make helmets for cyclists compulsory, why not helmets for pedestrians, too? After all, they can get knocked over crossing the road, and far more pedestrians get killed by cars than cyclists do -- thousands a year, to the hundred or so cyclists.

And more people than that die from accidents in the home. Perhaps we'd better make helmets compulsory indoors, too?

(Reply to this)  (Thread from start)  (Parent) 


miss_s_b: (feminist heroes: oracle)


[personal profile] miss_s_b
2012-08-06 09:24 am UTC (link)
Given the choice, I wouldn't wear a cycle helmet because most of them provide cosmetic protection at best, and there are not only the trade-offs that other people mentioned, but the fact that if you land anything other than straight on your head the sliding makes weird torsions on your neck and you can end up paralysed from the neck down.

Wearing my motorbike helmet on a pushbike would provide better protection, but would have concomitant reductions in visibility and audibility of traffic...

Incidentally, there is a LOT of research that shows that the wearing of protective gear (not just helmets, but elbow/knee pads, etc) makes riders of both pushbikes and motorbikes engage in more risky behaviour. Also, airbags/rollbars in cars do it to car drivers too. People think that if an accident DOES happen they won't get hurt, so it matters less preventing an accident.

(Reply to this)  (Thread from start)  (Parent) 


(Read 8 comments) - (Post a new comment)
(Flat) (Top-level comments only)