There is another side here though: there is a shortage of quality organs. Young/fit people trashing their heads are perfect donors for hearts, livers, kidneys etc. So actually they might do society a favor by recklessly riding with no helmet.

What's is more stressing on health care is obese people, people that smoke and people that drink.

In this perspective I'd suggest you call out all fat people and applaud helmetless biking...

Sam

I have this image of a middle aged man in an ill-fitted Ironman branded tri-suit and bright compression socks cruising on his TT bike yelling at fat people that they need to stop eating because it will take 2 hrs averaging 300 watts, 350 watts if they are on a Wahoo Kickr or using a single sided power meter, to burn off the calories. Slowtwitch-man the pretentious life guard that everyone ignores. That has made my day.

Try that in The Netherlands :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqQSwQLDIK8

yeah, If i'm just putzing around my town to do an errand, I don't wear a helmet.

This would be a yes and no answer for me... riding down the road, bike trail, whatever I'm going to let them do them. Not going to helmet shame them in the brief time we're in contact with one another. I'm not likely to have an impact on them other than being some preachy stranger.

If we're having a conversation I might share with them how I'd been in a pretty bad accident and if not for my helmet might not be standing there. Even then I wouldn't hold it against someone if they chose not to or look down on them... it's their choice.

Cycling with your kid, or even 2, on your bike without helmets?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVhYcJH_m5o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfLJ876lXsQ

“If they would rather die,” said Scrooge, “they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.” - A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Do you let your kids run around without body armour? What a reckless, irresponsible parent you are!
Get it?

I grew up in The Netherlands, I am Dutch: biked to school, tennis, football, swimming all my youth, never wore a helmet. But I also lived in 5-6 other countries and nowhere do you really see kids cycling to school like in The Netherlands, or people cycling in general, maybe in some countries I'm not familiar with (Belgium, Denmark). I always wear a helmet when cycling to work in the UK, but still never wear a helmet when cycling in The Netherlands. While that might be not so smart when going to a pub and knowing you will cycle back, I just don't have a helmet in The Netherlands, and none of the people I stay with have helmets I could borrow (most don't road cycle though). I know plenty of people who cycle 30+ one way to work on electric bikes doing 30+ kph with no helmets, it's just not a thing. Remember that not too long ago the helmets in professional road cycling were a joke or non-existent. And why do you think it's a coincidence that in the one Dutch dominated Olympic sport, where athletes move with speeds of over 50kph through corners, speed skating, the athletes don't wear helmets? The Dutch and helmets don't get along. Yes, you know see quite a few wearing helmets when jumping on a road bike, but many of those same people wouldn't wear one when they zoom along speed skating on frozen canals. And 9 out of 10 I encounter without helmets on skiing slopes in the Alps: Dutch, and the Dutch aren't great at skiing. Do I confront them? Hell no!
But if the TS wants to scream his lungs out yelling at people to wear helmets when cycling, he should just go to The Netherlands, randomly pick a town, find a cross road between 7 and 9 AM and he'll have a grant yelling party but be exhausted of the screaming in the space of 10 minutes. :D

I think I perhaps misinterpreted your previous post. I thought you were saying it was shocking that these people in the videos you linked were riding with a kid or two on the bike without helmets. But perhaps you were instead simply saying, look this is normal life, it's not such a big deal, and they don't need to be demonized. I got it backwards?

I have mixed feelings. I always ride with a helmet, and I think it's wise, but I also see the hypocrisy in making a huge issue of helmets when they are a tiny element of cycle safety, have some disadvantages for mass adoption of cycling, and are not seen as essential for many other fairly comparable activities. I'm sure the OPs intentions are good. He feels everyone has a responsibility to wear helmets and that it's his civic duty to try and push this belief, but I think his thinking is misguided.

I don't say anything.

I did see an old woman biking with her helmet on backwards.....the little circle clicky thing to tighten the webbing was in the middle of her forehead. Really wanted to say something, but kept my mouth shut. At least she had good intentions.

Making fun of busybodies is making a comeback. Well, it is if said busybody is a white woman named Karen.

That video is so scary. I expect someone to burst into flames at any moment.

I never wore a bike helmet until about 1994, and since then I'd feel sort of naked riding without one. But I'll let others make their own choices.

However, what's up with people riding bikes on the "wrong" side of the road? (Riding against vehicle traffic.). It may be related to having some "new" cyclists on the roads these days, but I've had this happen several times recently, even on bike lanes with cyclists riding in the opposite direction to the arrows pointing in the "correct" direction. I haven't had any head on collisions (yet), but I will point out that they need to ride in the same direction as the vehicle traffic. I'm guessing they're remembering the "walk facing traffic" advice they got from their parents, and they're applying this to riding a bike. But these people need to have something said to them, for everyone's benefit, more so than the folks without helmets.

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"Human existence is based upon two pillars: Compassion and knowledge. Compassion without knowledge is ineffective; Knowledge without compassion is inhuman." Victor Weisskopf.

I know I give an average joe riding a bike more room than someone all kitted up and riding. I figure the latter is far less likely to suddenly swerve out into the road or something.

Which if I remember correctly, ironically a helmet probably wouldn't have helped.

That has an actual name in the road biking community - "Salmoning."

I used to only see it once in a while, usually by men wearing work cloths and riding an old beat up bike, but since the virus I see more and more adults on fairly nice and new bikes doing it and it baffles me. You are riding against traffic, you can not see your stoplight, you can't get in the correct turn lane, and people pulling out of driveways and making right turns on red are not going to be looking for you.

I saw 2 women doing it last night on a not very busy residential street and a cop drove right by them and said nothing. I'm not big on cops stopping people for silly things, and I'm sure she felt that it wasn't worthy of her time, but it is extremely dangerous. A polite warning/general instruction would have certainly been warranted.

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"...the street finds its own uses for things"

In the US it's often recommended and is sometimes the law to walk/run into oncoming traffic when in the street, maybe this results from that (people assuming it's the same for bikes)?

unfortunately in the united states, the car culture is so aggressive that helmets are a must and reflective vests is what police recommend for pedestrian safety. there are few places that understand how a walkable, bikeable town or a city functions. being able to ride around town safely without a helmet (for all ages) should be the goal and some places are starting to get it.

for us in the states, it's generally the opposite of this: https://twitter.com/...691359329878018?s=20



that said, bombing down mountains at 60mph is a different issue.

Stick with your first instinct, which was to mind your own business.

x2

I biked around the world in one country had my helmet stolen at night so the next day, biked towards a city where I could replace it. A busy body girl stood off her bike to yell at me for not wearing a helmet. She didn't know the first thing about my situation and that I had worn a helmet every day for the last 2.5 years, but she had to point it out. I told her to mind her own business. You never know if someone is in a similar situation, or they forgot it or just don't care because it's their life.

People don't tell you to wear a helmet because they care about you, they do it to feel superior.

Road cycling is not safe in the United States. Riders are involved in accidents every day whether wearing helmet or not. Maybe that is what some honking drivers are trying to tell those of you who still ride on streets instead of on zwift in the safety of you house. They are saying that they should not subsidize the emergency treatment of cyclists who are involved in accidents on the road.




Personally, I wear helmet when training. When riding beach cruiser on errands, I don't wear a helmet.

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It doesn't really matter what Phil is saying, the music of his voice is the appropriate soundtrack for a bicycle race. HTupolev

When it comes to collisions with cars, it's probably pretty rare for a helmet to make much difference.

So you think it's acceptable to reduce the space allowed just because someone's wearing lycra?
That's dangerous and idiotic logic.
Please re-think it!

It's especially worrying that someone on ST, presumably familiar with cycling, is making such ignorant decisions...

What can we expect from the uninitiated?

Until the USA goes to a single-payer-healthcare, taxpayer-funded system, I couldn't give two sh*ts if people wear helmets or not.

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"The person on top of the mountain didn't fall there." - unkown

also rule 5

Where I live (Switzerland), the public bike scheme includes a helmet. When you rent the bike, the helmet is in the basket on the bike. You aren't required to wear it, but at least the complaint about not having a helmet or having to carry it around all day is eliminated.

Jason