Public Health Professor advocates repeal of mandatory helmet laws

coolbeans

Here's an interesting article written by a Professor of Public Health advocating the repealing of mandatory helmet laws in Australia. It's written in an accessible journalistic style so worth the read. I do urge everyone to actually read it though to prevent mindless rants that serve only to wind us all up. Oh yeah, it's Friday* here in Oz so it's OK .



*It's not really

dave.obrien

Well written, followed by plenty of proof-by-assertion comments on how helmets are important... As a helmet user, I would like to ask other helmet users to stop being so hard headed.

mgmt

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPjvZlAl_js

Cycling in Australia is dead because of the helmet law.

DirkVoodoo

mgmt wrote: »

Cycling in Australia is dead because of the helmet law.

From a 2009 report (I hope things haven't taken a dramatic downturn since then):

Really? There have been more bikes sold in Australia than cars for every year between 2000 and 2009.

For every 4 children's bikes sold there are 7 adult's bikes sold.

Cycling is ranked 4th for participation of all physical activities in Australia.

$40 million national bike path plan. From the national cycling strategy 2011-2016 info:



Not dead, but not amazing either.

coolbeans

mgmt wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPjvZlAl_js

Cycling in Australia is dead because of the helmet law.

Well, not really, cycling is popular here but their free bike schemes are undoubtedly struggling and it's largely put down to the helmet laws. If you hypothesise a little further it's not a stretch to to say that there is a certain cohort of people not cycling because of the mandatory requirement. The crunch comes when officials trade off the public health gains derived from mandatory helmets against the proven health benefits accrued to regular exercise derived from cycling with or without helmets. If you balance the two, with the goal being to maximise public health, mandatory requirements make little sense.

coolbeans

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

From a 2009 report (I hope things haven't taken a dramatic downturn since then):

Really? There have been more bikes sold in Australia than cars for every year between 2000 and 2009.

For every 4 children's bikes sold there are 7 adult's bikes sold.

Cycling is ranked 4th for participation of all physical activities in Australia.

$40 million national bike path plan. From the national cycling strategy 2011-2016 info:



Not dead, but not amazing either.

I think the point we can agree on is that mandatory laws preclude a large swathe of society from even considering cycling. This is undesirable. Cycling is undoubtedly popular in Oz though but it could be more so.

DirkVoodoo

coolbeans wrote: »

I think the point we can agree on is that mandatory laws preclude a large swathe of society from even considering cycling. This is undesirable. Cycling is undoubtedly popular in Oz though but it could be more so.

Absolutely, I'm against any kind of mandatory helmet law, like the man says it creates an image of inherent danger. Indeed, talking with family about taking up cycling to get around, the argument is always "Oh no, it's far too dangerous".

I also agree with your assessment of the public bike scheme. It would have fallen flat on its head here (no pun) if people were required to buy a helmet to take part in it.

petethedrummer

Sensible UK cycling minister.

http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/uk-cycling-minister-defends-right-not-to-wear-a-helmet-29874

tomasrojo

petethedrummer wrote: »

Sensible UK cycling minister.

http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/uk-cycling-minister-defends-right-not-to-wear-a-helmet-29874

bikeradar is wrong about a helmet law being underway in Northern Ireland. That bill has expired with the dissolution of the Local Assembly and will have to begin again from scratch, if anyone wants to raise the issue again.

tomasrojo

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

From a 2009 report (I hope things haven't taken a dramatic downturn since then):

Really? There have been more bikes sold in Australia than cars for every year between 2000 and 2009.

For every 4 children's bikes sold there are 7 adult's bikes sold.

Cycling is ranked 4th for participation of all physical activities in Australia.

$40 million national bike path plan. From the national cycling strategy 2011-2016 info:



Not dead, but not amazing either.

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2010-08/19/cutting-uk-transport-carbon-emissions-
It says there that 2% of journeys are undertaken by bike in the UK, rising to 5% in London. Not great, but more than Australia. Perhaps this is hair-splitting.

Apparently cycling participation in Australia has now reached levels comparable with those before the helmet law. Which means it has taken twenty years to make up for the fall in cyclists that followed the mandatory helmet law. I'm not sure whether this participation is expressed as total number of cyclists, or percentage of the population who cycle. I'll try and find out.

tomasrojo

http://www.cyclehelmets.org/1194.html

The mandatory helmet laws were brought in in 1991 in most states.
Census data:
Cycling to work in the whole of Australia
1976: 1.12%
1981: 1.56%
1986: 1.68%
1991: 1.56%
1996: 1.24%
2001: 1.21%
2006: 1.24%

So I guess the participation is expressed as a percentage (Australia's population has grown since 1991, so total numbers might have returned to pre-law levels now).