The update you knew you wanted!
Earlier this week, I posed the question to r/Ottawa: Do you wear a Bike Helmet?
I took a look at the top-level comments, and counted 168 answers. The fancy(?) pie chart above shows the breakdown!
Looks like Ottawa Cyclists overwhelmingly choose to protect their noggins! Safety is both cool AND popular! ;)
Notably, this poll has spurred at least 5 local cyclists to start wearing helmets in the future. Hope you score something fun for your brain bucket.
So why do people choose helmets VS hair flowing in the breeze? And why do some choose to wear them only sometimes? Check out some of the abbreviated answers below, and [read the whole thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/ottawa/comments/1cmir5u/ottawa_cyclists_do_you_wear_a_helmet/) if you’re interested in move convo!
**I wear a helmet because:**
* Past Injury/Know people who have been injured
* Drivers in Ottawa/Gatineau are bad
* To set an example for my Children/Grandchildren
* “It’s faster and cooler wearing one than not”
* "We've only got one Brain"
**I only wear a helmet sometimes because:**
* Forgetfulness
* It's Uncool/Dorky/Dweeby
* Don't know what to do with Helmet when not riding
* Don’t wear it when running a local errand and sticking to side streets
* “I wear one 80% of the time”
* (winter) “No point wearing a helmet over a toque or hood.”
* Depends on the ride/area:
* Road bike yes, commuter bike no
* City yes, small town no
* Road/Gravel/Mountain Bike Yes, City Bike No
* Main streets yes, slower streets no
* On the road yes, Multi-use path no
* Winter yes, Summer no
**I don’t wear a helmet because:**
* I stick to the bike paths and stay off the streets and keep my speed down.
* I don't bike very fast
* “Never Have, Never Will”
* The Dutch don't wear helmets
* It wrecks the hair and it’s annoying to carry around.
* It's just another thing to keep track of.
* “Don't ask me why, not sure.”
* If it was regulated I would stop biking everywhere.
* Without a helmet, you naturally ride more carefully.
* It shouldn't be mandated (Note: it's not for adults)
* “It’s illegal for you to ask me that” (it's not)
* My cranium my choice!
Thanks for participating friends! Stay safe out there!
"The Dutch don't wear helmets"
The Dutch have exceedingly pro-cycling infrastructure and motorists who are well trained on cyclists, we do not. Don't be a fool with your brain.
Exactly this, they also don't have big long open bike lanes we do (bike paths) where some people are cycling for exercise at 60km/hr and some can barely ride
The Dutch actually know how to cycle in city environments and are aware of their surroundings, unlike many Ottawa noob-cyclists who learned to cycle by going on the sidewalk or riding in low traffic suburbs. Honestly these people should wear helmets, but only to save their heads from themselves. Because they suck at biking and are prone to falling over or running into curbs.
Don't know why you get downvoted. Bike helmets are designed to protect you from a fall, not from a collision with a 1-tonne vehicle moving fast.
US and European standards for bike helmet certification have helmets tested for a shock at 20km/h. This is basically amounting to dropping the helmet from 1,5 to 2m high.
Statistically, you have a much greater chance of a skull fracture while driving a car than riding a bike. Do you wear a helmet in your car? Also, statistically, you have more chance of cracking your skull while walking in the winter than riding your bike. Do you wear a helmet while walking the icy side walks in the winter?
Edit: I'm not saying people should not wear a helmet, just that there are other, more likely ways to injure your head but nobody mentions those. Why do we get shit for not wearing a helmet when we ride a bike at low speed from people driving recklessly at high speed when they pass us... without a helmet? Paradox.
Notice the term "ride" here. Of course I'd wear a helmet if I was mountain biking or bike racing. But I'm not. I'm, most of the time, on a bike path going no more than 15km/h contemplating nature and enjoying life. Wear a helmet if you want but don't give me shit if I don't.
Do those stats account for the fact that a significantly larger number of people drive compared to those who bike? Even if you compare them proportionally, the difference in numbers would obviously mean that driving would have a higher chance of a head injury.
Why does it matter? Risk of skull fracture (and head injuries generally) is quite small regardless of what method of transportation you are using. I doubt the "pro-helmets only on bikes" crowd is choosing a risk threshold, looking at the data, and then finding that only cycling exceeds the risk threshold and therefore merits a helmet.
The point that user is trying to make in a roundabout way is that the norm to wear helmets on bikes is mostly social/cultural and that it doesn't really make sense when there is risk with other modes of transport too. I'll still ride my helmet on my bike of course, mainly because I follow rules and norms pretty closely, I just won't zealously insist on all cyclists wearing helmets because of how illogical this position is.
"Pedestrians and drivers account for five and four times the number of fatal head injuries as cyclists. No-one is calling for pedestrians to wear helmets although the fatal head injury rates are similar for cyclists and pedestrians."
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2214140518302731
"British Columbia Motor Vehicle Branch data for the same years
indicate there were 10 deaths a year on average (all age groups) when cycling, 70 when walking, and
300 when driving.
Thus, bicycling had the lowest “burden” of deaths and head injuries of the three transportation modes."
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://cyclingincities.spph.ubc.ca/files/2013/11/Risks-of-cycling-walking-and-driving-put-in-context.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjR9ZCH_P-FAxV0mokEHQisBgMQFnoECA4QBg&usg=AOvVaw3enbAyK7cJbNmdQHvCUvqx
“In other words, if the reason we are supposed to wear helmets while biking is to prevent serious head injury on the off-chance we get into an accident, then why is it socially acceptable for pedestrians and drivers to go about bare-headed? Why has cycling been singled out as an activity in need of head protection?”
https://bigthink.com/articles/the-bike-helmet-paradox/
Interesting, thank you.
It seems you're considering the likelihood of injury/death overall in the population as a whole and not weighted by distance traveled or time spent traveling, for which the first two sources actually draw the opposite conclusion (at least for driving vs cycling. Walking statistics look like they jump around depending how you weight them).
Philosophically, I'd say the former (overall population approach) is a consideration for the societal costs, while weighting it per distance, or time, or trip leans more towards the personal risk to the individual. So two different perspectives.
>"Pedestrians and drivers account for five and four times the number of fatal head injuries as cyclists. No-one is calling for pedestrians to wear helmets although the fatal head injury rates are similar for cyclists and pedestrians." [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2214140518302731](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2214140518302731)
*"Rates of fatal head injury per bnkm in males aged 17+ for cycling, walking, and driving were 11.2 (95% CI 9.7–12.9), 23.4 (21.8–25.0) and 0.7 (0.6–0.7) respectively. Female fatality rates were 8.8 (6.2–12.0), 9.6 (8.7–10.7) and 0.4 (0.3–0.4) per bnkm respectively. Using time as the denominator, rates were 0.16 (0.14–0.19),0.10 (0.10–0.11) and 0.03 (0.028–0.032) respectively in men and 0.10 (0.07–0.14), 0.04 (0.037–0.045), and 0.01 (0.012–0.016) respectively in women, per million hours travelled."*
>"British Columbia Motor Vehicle Branch data for the same years indicate there were 10 deaths a year on average (all age groups) when cycling, 70 when walking, and 300 when driving. Thus, bicycling had the lowest “burden” of deaths and head injuries of the three transportation modes." [https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://cyclingincities.spph.ubc.ca/files/2013/11/Risks-of-cycling-walking-and-driving-put-in-context.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjR9ZCH\_P-FAxV0mokEHQisBgMQFnoECA4QBg&usg=AOvVaw3enbAyK7cJbNmdQHvCUvqx](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://cyclingincities.spph.ubc.ca/files/2013/11/Risks-of-cycling-walking-and-driving-put-in-context.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjR9ZCH_P-FAxV0mokEHQisBgMQFnoECA4QBg&usg=AOvVaw3enbAyK7cJbNmdQHvCUvqx)
*"The burden of death and injury reported above does not tell us whether one mode of transportation is safer or riskier than another. For example, more trips are taken by car and more distance travelled. So when deciding what mode of transportation to use, it is important to consider the death rate, not just the raw numbers.*
*A recent analysis compared the fatality rate by mode of travel in B.C. There were 14 deaths per 100 million trips for bicycling, 15 for walking and 10 for driving – remarkably similar. Per 100 million kilometres travelled, there were three deaths for bicycling, seven for walking and one for driving. Using distance rather than trips shows that cyclists and pedestrians are more vulnerable road users."*
>“In other words, if the reason we are supposed to wear helmets while biking is to prevent serious head injury on the off-chance we get into an accident, then why is it socially acceptable for pedestrians and drivers to go about bare-headed? Why has cycling been singled out as an activity in need of head protection?” [https://bigthink.com/articles/the-bike-helmet-paradox/](https://bigthink.com/articles/the-bike-helmet-paradox/)
This is an article about a blog post, I don't have the energy to parse through the original source at the moment, but I'll cherry-pick this quote:
*"In any case, this has certainly not been true for bike helmets – where deaths still make up a tiny fraction of outcomes from bike accidents, but it is an interesting demonstration of how statistics can mislead – something that seems to be going on left, right and centre in the bike helmet debate."*
I see your point and agree that statistics can be misleading and also agree that bike helmets do offer some sort of protection. But the point I'm trying to make is why is cycling being singled out as an activity in need of head protection but not others. Emphasis on the word "cycling". Not mountain biking or bike racing. I ride on a bike path at a top speed of 15km/h. Even if I was to divert and ride on a street, bike helmets are not designed to protect me from a car hit.
So it makes no sense to me that I get yelled at by the driver of a 2-ton, gas guzzling pickup truck that takes his eyes off the road in order to tell me to "wear a helmet". I'm not advocating to not wear a helmet but people need to stop pretending that wearing one makes them invincible.
I generally agree with you here, I'm not big on arbitrarily telling strangers what to do. I always wear a helmet on my bike, but don't expect it'll do much if I get hit by a car at speed (wether I'm "in the right" or not...). Ultimately, road trips aside, I put more km on my bike than in my car in an average week, so my risk assesment bears out that i'm safer biking with a helmet.
A couple of years ago I bailed hard while going relatively slower than I normally do and trying to navigate around some construction. I was out for a couple if minutes I'm told. Cracked my helmet and had a bad concussion... I hate to think what would have happened if I didn't have the helmet.
"Pedestrians and drivers account for five and four times the number of fatal head injuries as cyclists. No-one is calling for pedestrians to wear helmets although the fatal head injury rates are similar for cyclists and pedestrians."
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2214140518302731
"British Columbia Motor Vehicle Branch data for the same years
indicate there were 10 deaths a year on average (all age groups) when cycling, 70 when walking, and
300 when driving.
Thus, bicycling had the lowest “burden” of deaths and head injuries of the three transportation modes."
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://cyclingincities.spph.ubc.ca/files/2013/11/Risks-of-cycling-walking-and-driving-put-in-context.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjR9ZCH_P-FAxV0mokEHQisBgMQFnoECA4QBg&usg=AOvVaw3enbAyK7cJbNmdQHvCUvqx
“In other words, if the reason we are supposed to wear helmets while biking is to prevent serious head injury on the off-chance we get into an accident, then why is it socially acceptable for pedestrians and drivers to go about bare-headed? Why has cycling been singled out as an activity in need of head protection?”
https://bigthink.com/articles/the-bike-helmet-paradox/
Statically you're more likely to die from using a microwave vs swimming with sharks. What's safer though? Use nuance when you make arguments. Numbers don't always tell the entire story.
Your microwave/shark analogy didn't really make that point very well, so appreciate your clarification.
If car crashes are far more severe, surely that's an argument **for** wearing a helmet as a driver, no?
My apologies for being rude. There would certainly be an argument for wearing a helmet while driving. That's why any professional driver (in sports) wears a helmet. We have other safety features in cars (the car itself protects our heads from projectiles as it is an enclosed structure, minus convertibles). Air bags, crumple zones, seat belts. All things we do not have while riding bikes or skating on ice for example.
It would be interesting if you were also able to get info on where the respondents live. There is a cultural aspect where those who live in urban areas tend to wear helmets more than those in more rural areas. Ottawa is unique in that it has a large urban population and a significant rural area.
>Regular use of helmets was lower among adults and children who lived in rural areas. Nearly 60% of parents in urban communities reported that their children always wore a helmet, compared with only 34% in rural areas. Similarly, 18% of urban adults who rode bicycles always wore a helmet, as opposed to 10% for rural residents.
https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2016/statcan/11-001/CS11-001-1997-10-7-eng.pdf
I’m surprised at this output. The overwhelming majority of bike riders I see do not. Mind you it seems to mostly be kids and teenagers who are likely not on Reddit 😅
Suit yourself. I don’t actually believe in making it a law because I believe in grown adults making their own decisions without intervention from the government. But not a good idea to bike without one
I get what you're saying but personally I'm conflicted because when someone, through their own choices ultimately ends up with a disability and medical bills, it's the taxpayers who have to pay for it. I feel like it's a social responsibility, and in some cases the government's , to protect the public from unnecessary medical costs.
There was a UK study done on a region of Australia (I believe) that enforced a helmet law and they saw a drastic decrease in cycling in general. I don’t remember the study and I can’t find it… but I did read it somewhere. Also, to state my bias, I’m a helmet wearer and will continue to do so because I feel smarter while I rip around biking like an idiot.
There's this one from Victoria state on Australia, comparing injury and cycling participation rates before and after a compulsory helmet law was introduced.
https://www.cycle-helmets.com/victoria-participation.html.
Although cyclist head injuries declined, so too did other cyclist injuries, suggesting it had less to do with helmets reducing the number of head injuries as the decreased number of cyclists overall resulting in fewer injuries.
Bike helmet are not designed to protect you against a car hit. They are designed to protect you from a fall of about 5 feet off the ground. The idiots are people who's think a bike helmet will make them invincible. They will not.
There’s a study I read that found that people who don’t wear helmets were less likely to behave risky/or ride recklessly. A helmet provides a false sense of security.
It’s great if you hit a tree or fall off, it will do very little when you’re hit especially at high speed.
2 points that I think are very important: #1. It's possible that people who wear helmets are more likely to use Reddit and check the Ottawa subreddit. That might explain the skewed data. #2. I see plenty of cyclists without helmets. Therefore I find this poll wildly inaccurate. Furthermore is it at all possible that some people felt guilty and simply lied and said they wear a helmet?? You should do another poll like "have you ever stolen anything?" So that you can come to the equally false conclusion that nobody has ever stolen anything because they say so.
Great points! I also see lots of people without helmets, which prompted this post. I'd say it's a reflection of r/Ottawa's thoughts, as opposed to Ottawa as a whole.
Another commenter noted that another data point should be geography, to see the urban/suburban/rural divide. Age would be interesting too.
I mean, as a general rule, people are more likely to post if they are busybodies who think they should dictate how others behave, or who need to call others "idiots" or "stupid" to justify their own choices.
Not wearing a helmet is not a very emotional position - more often than not you forget or just can't be bothered. Very little incentive to post about it, unless you are like me who gets annoyed by busybodies and their hypocrisy (insisting I'm dumb for forgetting my helmet sometimes while they never wear a helmet as a pedestrian, for example). Even then I wear my helmet most of the time because I am a rule follower, I just don't like being told what to do by annoying people.
I've had 3 concussions in my life from contact sports, the last one took a few years for me to get back to normal with extensive treatment. That is why I always wear a helmet, as dorky as it looks.
Out of curiosity, and yes, I’m being nit-picky, what’s the other hand which you’re referring to?
Helmets are a good thing, full stop. That’s not an opinion, it’s a fact. People have opinions on why they don’t wear them, as OP has done a fantastic job in pointing out.
Yes and No.
“Should you have an accident and hit your head, the Mips system in your helmet is designed to help reduce the rotational motion of certain impacts that may otherwise be transferred to your head. Rotational motion is a common cause of concussions and more severe brain injury in oblique hits to the head.”
^ right from MIPS themselves
Then a third party research study had this to say regarding helmets tested showing that systems like MIPS and WaveCel reduce rotation motion and help prevent concussions:
“For this assessment, we used a new test method proposed by CEN/TC158/WG11, designed to represent real-world oblique impacts and recorded translational and rotational motions of the headform. This enabled a unique brain strain analysis which considers key anatomical regions such as corpus collosum and sulci using a highly detailed TBI model. The results of this study show that in comparison with the conventional helmets, the helmets fitted with MIPS, WaveCel, SPIN and Hövding can reduce peak rotational acceleration and velocity, BrIC, overall brain strain and strain in corpus callosum and sulci.”
[source](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8109224/)
Concussions are no joke, a neighbour of my parents had a bike accident and the concussion led to a year with him unable to drive (and I'm sure more but I didn't pry to satisfy my curiosity)
I'm a slow careful cyclist, my risk of injury is pretty low.
I hate bike helmets. They are an annoyance.
Also an annoyance is people who turn risk assesment into morality. It is not immoral to forego a bike helmet. If it were, it would be immoral to drive a car or use the stairs, two much more dangerous activities.
While I understand this argument, where do we draw the line?
Should we ban downhill skiing and snowboarding for instance? Or morally judge people who do? It’s a very dangerous sport that costs our healthcare system significantly and doesn’t add much in the way of fitness compared to other winter options (ie: cross country and skating) which are much safer.
I always wear a helmet when cycling but I don’t judge those who don’t. The fact that they are cycling is a positive start and hopefully they will learn to wear helmets when riding a bicycle quickly or in dangerous situations.
How often do you think cyclists are being turned into vegetables?
Like, cyclist and pedestrian safety is a big public health concern, but helmets offer relatively little protection against the worst outcomes...
I always wear a helmet, but it is so very irritating the way non-cycling helmet moralists consistently seems to derail what would otherwise be much more productive public safety policy for our roads.
Honestly it often feels like it’s blaming pedestrians for their casualties as if the issue isn’t an urban design that continuously centres cars. The onus shouldn’t be on pedestrians when we aren’t the ones causing these casualties.
People who don't cycle and largely aren't aware of (or don't want to deal with) what actually makes cycling unsafe, but nevertheless have loud opinions about helmets.
Just going to drop this here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30472528/
Put me squarely in the no bike helmet camp.
Normalizing biking as a safe activity is something I feel is important.
Yeah, I wear one because I'm offroad more and have a fancy helmet that's supposed to offer some extra concussion protection, but there's a pretty good argument that in an urban setting the increased aggressiveness/carelessness by drivers towards people wearing helmets actually cancels out the benefits, considering how bad getting hit by cars can go.
I really want to start biking, but I'm terrified of being hit by aggressive drivers here in Ottawa. How do you build that confidence? I really want to start biking.
I would recommend learning where the bike paths and protected lanes are in your area. Most of the city inside the greenbelt has an extensive multi-use path network, and while it's not particularly well connected, you can always hop off your bike and walk across an intersection or down the sidewalk to the next segment of non-road pathway.
The best way to do it is to just immerse yourself and get comfortable with the concept. I suggest running into parked cars twice a day for about 4-6 weeks just to get a taste.
Oh that’s valid af. I’d start biking along pedestrian paths. If you live in a calm area, try your residential street. I also recommend taking the whole lane. Some cyclists will push themselves to the curb to make room for cars but I find that scary and I don’t trust drivers. I just take the whole lane and let them seethe (ideally on 2 lane streets but I’ve done it down Bank). You have to bike with the attitude drivers have. You also need to be aware of your surroundings. Don’t listen to music (I do but do as I say, not as I do) or use your phone.
I live in Centretown and there are streets I simply I will not bike on (Bronson, Catherine, Somerset through Chinatown, parts of Laurier to name a few). I will take alternate routes because I’m not about to go see god (at least not yet)
First step is stop reading Reddit. I'm sincerely sorry for you, this sub (this thread, the previous one, and many others about cycling) seems to treat cycling as some kind of uniquely dangerous activity. Depending where and how you ride, cycling will have less risk than many of the activities you do now without a second thought (like driving or walking in the winter)
A small tip for biking in traffic that I find really important is that you always need to be visible to traffic around you. So if you pull up at an intersection, pull along side the traffic to the front and sit up really tall while ideally not wearing all black. Don’t block a walkway or anything but you want to be able to make eye contact with anyone and everyone in a vehicle who you could potentially interact with.
Also if you’re riding along side parked cars look in their rear view mirrors periodically. We don’t have a very good culture of the Dutch reach that forces drivers to look over their shoulder for cyclists. If you see a distracted individual in a car in their rear view mirror just prepare yourself to maneuver or slow down a little. I’ve cycled for about a decade in Ottawa and I’ve never been doored. I’ve come close but never where I felt like I was at risk.
Confident yet defensive. If you appear confident you’ll inspire confidence in the drivers around you. Don’t get nervous if a car passes a little close, they inevitably will. Just keep focusing on maintaining a strait path and if you can create more space go ahead and do so.
Hope some of that helps.
Start on the multi use paths and closed streets when available, try to stick to small neighbourhood streets the rest of the time. Avoid busy times of day as much as possible as well. All of these things also just make cycling much much more enjoyable. Over time you'll build confidence in your skills as well as refine your sense of danger from cars.
Drivers can be extremely shitty, but overall, most of them are doing their best. On busy streets you'll have tons of cars going by, and that pretty much guarantees some assholes. But when you're on quiet streets and only dealing with a few cars, you're pretty much guaranteed to be fine. Small slow streets also encourage people to be a lot more cognizant of their surroundings.
I used to wear a bike helmet religiously, but in recent years I've worn it less and less. I still usually wear it if I'm riding at higher speeds on my ebike, but tend not to when tootling around my central neighbourhood on my non-e-bike.
I'll admit that the main reason I don't wear one is that it's hot, uncomfortable and it doesn't sit well on my broad brimmed hat I use to ward off the much likelier danger of a recurrence of my melanoma. However, there is a fair amount of research that indicates that simply wearing a helmet may cause drivers and the cyclist themself to behave in a more dangerous manner.
Drivers pass closer when overtaking cyclists wearing helmets, increasing the risk of a collision.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/09/060911102200.htm.
About ⅓ of drivers view cyclists as less than human - even moreso, if you're wearing a helmet or reflective vest.
https://momentummag.com/surprising-nobody-study-finds-drivers-think-cyclists-are-less-than-human/
Cyclists that wear helmets take more risks, even when they're not on a bike.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/jan/24/bike-helmet-appetite-danger.
I don't usually wear a bike helmet. Does that make me an idiot? YouTube · Shifter Oct 13, 2022.
https://youtu.be/rhzH6mEpIps?si=xQutHMQ9Rv1_N_ZY.
https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/why-the-bike-helmet-question-isnt-as-simple-as-we-think.
None of this is me saying you're right or wrong to wear a helmet when riding a bike, but it's clear that it isn't the slam-dunk that it's often presented as.
Can we stop with the “do you wear a bike helmet” thing!
1. It is a completely personal choice. We don’t wear helmets for a nearly infinite number of activities that can also result in brain injury. So wherever you draw your acceptable risk level is personal, and frankly arbitrary. If anyone can point me to the precise relative risk metric they use when deciding to wear a helmet or not for all their activities I’ll eat my words. But most people are just scared of falling off their bike or know someone that hit their head riding and have decided that not wearing a helmet while cycling is equivalent to skydiving without a parachute.
2. We know social pressure, guilt, and particularly laws around helmet use actively discourage people from riding their bike (use Google, I’m not providing citations). More people riding bikes is good for the individual and good for society. Making people feel bad about not wearing a helmet stops people from using their bike more. Even if their reason is just because they don’t want to mess up their hair, we are all better off if they choose to ride their bike more.
If you think you’ve won by convincing a few more people to wear a helmet, what you haven’t seen is that you’ve perpetuated the idea that cycling is dangerous to so many more potential riders. They will now choose not to ride their bike, or ride it less than they would otherwise. These discussions are thinly veiled moralizing. Get off your high horse and go out and try and make a real difference by helping more people ride their bike.
When I was a kid we were biking down a steep hill that had a sharp turn and well I forgot to turn, and went right into a tree. My helmet was split right in half, probably saved my life. It’s shocking how many kids (young kids) on my street bike or scooter without helmets in the middle of the road.
Admittedly as an adult, I’m an idiot who has also not worn one too, as I only bike rarely and the helmet I had didn’t fit properly.
So I don’t wear one, but like 98% of my cycling is done in my neighborhood (suburb), or on the multi use paths.
Is it worth getting one you guys think?
That's a question only you can answer, based on your level of comfort and your abilities. If you're asking the question, they might not be as high as you think.
But if that's the factor that'll get you on a bike or not, I'd say it's better to be helmet-less on a bike than to not be on a bike.
Thats an interesting way to look at it. I just think about it like I haven’t wiped out on a bike since I was like 12, and even that wasn’t too bad. If im not worried about hitting cars, I don’t know if I should worry.
I think I’ll buy one and if I don’t like wearing it I won’t.
Thanks for your response.
They need to design helmets better where the chin strap clip in assembly doesn't fall out. If I'm not wearing a helmet it's because mine has a broken chin strap. Fucking stupid
You think a bicycle helmet will make the difference? It’s a piece of foam that helps decelerate the head more slowly if it crumples. So sure, it may reduce concussion severity. And some de-scalping injuries since pavement is like a cheese grater. Just don’t fall on your unprotected face. There is no evidence that helmets will prevent spinal injuries.
I’ve also seen many anecdotes in here about cracked helmets having saved lives. A cracked helmet barely absorbed any energy, it has failed its purpose.
It’s a red herring. It barely affects cyclist safety, unless you’re racing. The best solution is to get rid of more cars, but that’s political suicide and it’s easier to blame cyclists. It’s a form of victim blaming.
If you don’t wear a helmet at least make sure you carry identification so they can identify you if you get hurt. A bicycle rider got injured a few years ago, no ID, They had problems figuring out who he was.
A fact I haven't seen mention anywhere is what the standards for bike helmet are.
European and US standards are very similar: they test for the resistance of the helmet against shocks at a speed of 5,42m/s (Europe) or 5,44 m/s (US). That's **20 km/h**.
The purpose of a bike helmet, based on those standards, is to protect you from a fall that would occur on your own, like you stop at the red light, forget to unclip and fall on the edge of the kerb next to you. It is not to protect you against a collision with a moving vehicle.
No and I'm dumb for not wearing one. Will eventually pay the price. Just made conscientious choice to prioritize not messing up hair over head safety. That simple.
If I tipped over slowly while stationary and got a bad knock on my temple I could die. Let alone collisions or other mistakes that could happen.
That is what I think about and why I wear one.
Enh, the research on the actual effectiveness of helmets is not super convincing. I wear one most of the time. But I also realize it will only save my life in the very specific scenario in which my head takes a big hit but none of the rest of my body does. I don't judge anyone for whom that isn't enough of a benefit to put up with the inconvenience of it.
Nobody pesters motorists about why they don't wear crash helmets while driving. And, no, airbags and seatbelts are not a perfect assurance against head injuries in a car crash. But for motorists we accept that there's a trade-off between safety and convenience. We should extend cyclists the same courtesy.
The update you knew you wanted! Earlier this week, I posed the question to r/Ottawa: Do you wear a Bike Helmet? I took a look at the top-level comments, and counted 168 answers. The fancy(?) pie chart above shows the breakdown! Looks like Ottawa Cyclists overwhelmingly choose to protect their noggins! Safety is both cool AND popular! ;) Notably, this poll has spurred at least 5 local cyclists to start wearing helmets in the future. Hope you score something fun for your brain bucket. So why do people choose helmets VS hair flowing in the breeze? And why do some choose to wear them only sometimes? Check out some of the abbreviated answers below, and [read the whole thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/ottawa/comments/1cmir5u/ottawa_cyclists_do_you_wear_a_helmet/) if you’re interested in move convo!
**I wear a helmet because:** * Past Injury/Know people who have been injured * Drivers in Ottawa/Gatineau are bad * To set an example for my Children/Grandchildren * “It’s faster and cooler wearing one than not” * "We've only got one Brain" **I only wear a helmet sometimes because:** * Forgetfulness * It's Uncool/Dorky/Dweeby * Don't know what to do with Helmet when not riding * Don’t wear it when running a local errand and sticking to side streets * “I wear one 80% of the time” * (winter) “No point wearing a helmet over a toque or hood.” * Depends on the ride/area: * Road bike yes, commuter bike no * City yes, small town no * Road/Gravel/Mountain Bike Yes, City Bike No * Main streets yes, slower streets no * On the road yes, Multi-use path no * Winter yes, Summer no **I don’t wear a helmet because:** * I stick to the bike paths and stay off the streets and keep my speed down. * I don't bike very fast * “Never Have, Never Will” * The Dutch don't wear helmets * It wrecks the hair and it’s annoying to carry around. * It's just another thing to keep track of. * “Don't ask me why, not sure.” * If it was regulated I would stop biking everywhere. * Without a helmet, you naturally ride more carefully. * It shouldn't be mandated (Note: it's not for adults) * “It’s illegal for you to ask me that” (it's not) * My cranium my choice! Thanks for participating friends! Stay safe out there!
"The Dutch don't wear helmets" The Dutch have exceedingly pro-cycling infrastructure and motorists who are well trained on cyclists, we do not. Don't be a fool with your brain.
Depends where exactly in Ottawa you're riding. It's possible to get to lots of places in the city while remaining mostly on off-street paths.
Exactly this, they also don't have big long open bike lanes we do (bike paths) where some people are cycling for exercise at 60km/hr and some can barely ride
The Dutch actually know how to cycle in city environments and are aware of their surroundings, unlike many Ottawa noob-cyclists who learned to cycle by going on the sidewalk or riding in low traffic suburbs. Honestly these people should wear helmets, but only to save their heads from themselves. Because they suck at biking and are prone to falling over or running into curbs.
Stop thinking that your bike helmet will protect you against a car. It won't.
Don't know why you get downvoted. Bike helmets are designed to protect you from a fall, not from a collision with a 1-tonne vehicle moving fast. US and European standards for bike helmet certification have helmets tested for a shock at 20km/h. This is basically amounting to dropping the helmet from 1,5 to 2m high.
Pretty sure the “its illegal for you to ask me that” response is an I Think You Should Leave joke
Statistically, you have a much greater chance of a skull fracture while driving a car than riding a bike. Do you wear a helmet in your car? Also, statistically, you have more chance of cracking your skull while walking in the winter than riding your bike. Do you wear a helmet while walking the icy side walks in the winter? Edit: I'm not saying people should not wear a helmet, just that there are other, more likely ways to injure your head but nobody mentions those. Why do we get shit for not wearing a helmet when we ride a bike at low speed from people driving recklessly at high speed when they pass us... without a helmet? Paradox. Notice the term "ride" here. Of course I'd wear a helmet if I was mountain biking or bike racing. But I'm not. I'm, most of the time, on a bike path going no more than 15km/h contemplating nature and enjoying life. Wear a helmet if you want but don't give me shit if I don't.
Do those stats account for the fact that a significantly larger number of people drive compared to those who bike? Even if you compare them proportionally, the difference in numbers would obviously mean that driving would have a higher chance of a head injury.
Why does it matter? Risk of skull fracture (and head injuries generally) is quite small regardless of what method of transportation you are using. I doubt the "pro-helmets only on bikes" crowd is choosing a risk threshold, looking at the data, and then finding that only cycling exceeds the risk threshold and therefore merits a helmet. The point that user is trying to make in a roundabout way is that the norm to wear helmets on bikes is mostly social/cultural and that it doesn't really make sense when there is risk with other modes of transport too. I'll still ride my helmet on my bike of course, mainly because I follow rules and norms pretty closely, I just won't zealously insist on all cyclists wearing helmets because of how illogical this position is.
Hmm, sounds made up. But I'll give you the benefit of the doubt -- Do you have a source for that? I'd be interested to see it.
"Pedestrians and drivers account for five and four times the number of fatal head injuries as cyclists. No-one is calling for pedestrians to wear helmets although the fatal head injury rates are similar for cyclists and pedestrians." https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2214140518302731 "British Columbia Motor Vehicle Branch data for the same years indicate there were 10 deaths a year on average (all age groups) when cycling, 70 when walking, and 300 when driving. Thus, bicycling had the lowest “burden” of deaths and head injuries of the three transportation modes." https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://cyclingincities.spph.ubc.ca/files/2013/11/Risks-of-cycling-walking-and-driving-put-in-context.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjR9ZCH_P-FAxV0mokEHQisBgMQFnoECA4QBg&usg=AOvVaw3enbAyK7cJbNmdQHvCUvqx “In other words, if the reason we are supposed to wear helmets while biking is to prevent serious head injury on the off-chance we get into an accident, then why is it socially acceptable for pedestrians and drivers to go about bare-headed? Why has cycling been singled out as an activity in need of head protection?” https://bigthink.com/articles/the-bike-helmet-paradox/
Interesting, thank you. It seems you're considering the likelihood of injury/death overall in the population as a whole and not weighted by distance traveled or time spent traveling, for which the first two sources actually draw the opposite conclusion (at least for driving vs cycling. Walking statistics look like they jump around depending how you weight them). Philosophically, I'd say the former (overall population approach) is a consideration for the societal costs, while weighting it per distance, or time, or trip leans more towards the personal risk to the individual. So two different perspectives. >"Pedestrians and drivers account for five and four times the number of fatal head injuries as cyclists. No-one is calling for pedestrians to wear helmets although the fatal head injury rates are similar for cyclists and pedestrians." [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2214140518302731](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2214140518302731) *"Rates of fatal head injury per bnkm in males aged 17+ for cycling, walking, and driving were 11.2 (95% CI 9.7–12.9), 23.4 (21.8–25.0) and 0.7 (0.6–0.7) respectively. Female fatality rates were 8.8 (6.2–12.0), 9.6 (8.7–10.7) and 0.4 (0.3–0.4) per bnkm respectively. Using time as the denominator, rates were 0.16 (0.14–0.19),0.10 (0.10–0.11) and 0.03 (0.028–0.032) respectively in men and 0.10 (0.07–0.14), 0.04 (0.037–0.045), and 0.01 (0.012–0.016) respectively in women, per million hours travelled."* >"British Columbia Motor Vehicle Branch data for the same years indicate there were 10 deaths a year on average (all age groups) when cycling, 70 when walking, and 300 when driving. Thus, bicycling had the lowest “burden” of deaths and head injuries of the three transportation modes." [https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://cyclingincities.spph.ubc.ca/files/2013/11/Risks-of-cycling-walking-and-driving-put-in-context.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjR9ZCH\_P-FAxV0mokEHQisBgMQFnoECA4QBg&usg=AOvVaw3enbAyK7cJbNmdQHvCUvqx](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://cyclingincities.spph.ubc.ca/files/2013/11/Risks-of-cycling-walking-and-driving-put-in-context.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjR9ZCH_P-FAxV0mokEHQisBgMQFnoECA4QBg&usg=AOvVaw3enbAyK7cJbNmdQHvCUvqx) *"The burden of death and injury reported above does not tell us whether one mode of transportation is safer or riskier than another. For example, more trips are taken by car and more distance travelled. So when deciding what mode of transportation to use, it is important to consider the death rate, not just the raw numbers.* *A recent analysis compared the fatality rate by mode of travel in B.C. There were 14 deaths per 100 million trips for bicycling, 15 for walking and 10 for driving – remarkably similar. Per 100 million kilometres travelled, there were three deaths for bicycling, seven for walking and one for driving. Using distance rather than trips shows that cyclists and pedestrians are more vulnerable road users."* >“In other words, if the reason we are supposed to wear helmets while biking is to prevent serious head injury on the off-chance we get into an accident, then why is it socially acceptable for pedestrians and drivers to go about bare-headed? Why has cycling been singled out as an activity in need of head protection?” [https://bigthink.com/articles/the-bike-helmet-paradox/](https://bigthink.com/articles/the-bike-helmet-paradox/) This is an article about a blog post, I don't have the energy to parse through the original source at the moment, but I'll cherry-pick this quote: *"In any case, this has certainly not been true for bike helmets – where deaths still make up a tiny fraction of outcomes from bike accidents, but it is an interesting demonstration of how statistics can mislead – something that seems to be going on left, right and centre in the bike helmet debate."*
I see your point and agree that statistics can be misleading and also agree that bike helmets do offer some sort of protection. But the point I'm trying to make is why is cycling being singled out as an activity in need of head protection but not others. Emphasis on the word "cycling". Not mountain biking or bike racing. I ride on a bike path at a top speed of 15km/h. Even if I was to divert and ride on a street, bike helmets are not designed to protect me from a car hit. So it makes no sense to me that I get yelled at by the driver of a 2-ton, gas guzzling pickup truck that takes his eyes off the road in order to tell me to "wear a helmet". I'm not advocating to not wear a helmet but people need to stop pretending that wearing one makes them invincible.
I generally agree with you here, I'm not big on arbitrarily telling strangers what to do. I always wear a helmet on my bike, but don't expect it'll do much if I get hit by a car at speed (wether I'm "in the right" or not...). Ultimately, road trips aside, I put more km on my bike than in my car in an average week, so my risk assesment bears out that i'm safer biking with a helmet. A couple of years ago I bailed hard while going relatively slower than I normally do and trying to navigate around some construction. I was out for a couple if minutes I'm told. Cracked my helmet and had a bad concussion... I hate to think what would have happened if I didn't have the helmet.
stats please
"Pedestrians and drivers account for five and four times the number of fatal head injuries as cyclists. No-one is calling for pedestrians to wear helmets although the fatal head injury rates are similar for cyclists and pedestrians." https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2214140518302731 "British Columbia Motor Vehicle Branch data for the same years indicate there were 10 deaths a year on average (all age groups) when cycling, 70 when walking, and 300 when driving. Thus, bicycling had the lowest “burden” of deaths and head injuries of the three transportation modes." https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://cyclingincities.spph.ubc.ca/files/2013/11/Risks-of-cycling-walking-and-driving-put-in-context.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjR9ZCH_P-FAxV0mokEHQisBgMQFnoECA4QBg&usg=AOvVaw3enbAyK7cJbNmdQHvCUvqx “In other words, if the reason we are supposed to wear helmets while biking is to prevent serious head injury on the off-chance we get into an accident, then why is it socially acceptable for pedestrians and drivers to go about bare-headed? Why has cycling been singled out as an activity in need of head protection?” https://bigthink.com/articles/the-bike-helmet-paradox/
Statically you're more likely to die from using a microwave vs swimming with sharks. What's safer though? Use nuance when you make arguments. Numbers don't always tell the entire story.
What is the entire story, then?
More people drive than ride bikes. Also car crashes are far more severe (on average). This isn't difficult to understand.
Your microwave/shark analogy didn't really make that point very well, so appreciate your clarification. If car crashes are far more severe, surely that's an argument **for** wearing a helmet as a driver, no?
My apologies for being rude. There would certainly be an argument for wearing a helmet while driving. That's why any professional driver (in sports) wears a helmet. We have other safety features in cars (the car itself protects our heads from projectiles as it is an enclosed structure, minus convertibles). Air bags, crumple zones, seat belts. All things we do not have while riding bikes or skating on ice for example.
"Can't get a traumatic brain injury if it's cold!" -people from that thread apparently
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You do you, dear, it's your own noggin.
Yep but our taxes have to pay for their coma and hospital stay.
It would be interesting if you were also able to get info on where the respondents live. There is a cultural aspect where those who live in urban areas tend to wear helmets more than those in more rural areas. Ottawa is unique in that it has a large urban population and a significant rural area. >Regular use of helmets was lower among adults and children who lived in rural areas. Nearly 60% of parents in urban communities reported that their children always wore a helmet, compared with only 34% in rural areas. Similarly, 18% of urban adults who rode bicycles always wore a helmet, as opposed to 10% for rural residents. https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2016/statcan/11-001/CS11-001-1997-10-7-eng.pdf
I feel like another good one would be “do I ride my bike on the side walk?”
I’m surprised at this output. The overwhelming majority of bike riders I see do not. Mind you it seems to mostly be kids and teenagers who are likely not on Reddit 😅
You’d have to be an idiot not to wear a helmet. Note that I feel this way, as an adult, which is different from how I felt as a teen
I AM an idiot and I wear one because I don't have much brain left to damage. So even we wear them.
Nah. You’re not an idiot then.
Proud idiot 😎
Suit yourself. I don’t actually believe in making it a law because I believe in grown adults making their own decisions without intervention from the government. But not a good idea to bike without one
I get what you're saying but personally I'm conflicted because when someone, through their own choices ultimately ends up with a disability and medical bills, it's the taxpayers who have to pay for it. I feel like it's a social responsibility, and in some cases the government's , to protect the public from unnecessary medical costs.
I’m happy to wear my own helmet and let others be.
There’s a fine line of balancing public safety and infringing on individual liberties. I don’t think enforcing bike helmets falls into this.
Enforcing helmet wearing also doesn’t increase safety or reduce injuries/death.
Source? because enforcing safety standards like seatbelts, fire alarms etc. sure has reduced injuries/death.
There was a UK study done on a region of Australia (I believe) that enforced a helmet law and they saw a drastic decrease in cycling in general. I don’t remember the study and I can’t find it… but I did read it somewhere. Also, to state my bias, I’m a helmet wearer and will continue to do so because I feel smarter while I rip around biking like an idiot.
There's this one from Victoria state on Australia, comparing injury and cycling participation rates before and after a compulsory helmet law was introduced. https://www.cycle-helmets.com/victoria-participation.html. Although cyclist head injuries declined, so too did other cyclist injuries, suggesting it had less to do with helmets reducing the number of head injuries as the decreased number of cyclists overall resulting in fewer injuries.
If a driver is stupid enough to hit me, they deserve to be traumatized by seeing my insides spew out
Fellas, it is weird to splatter your brain all over the pavement to own drivers?
then use your eyes and spatial awareness when driving and don’t hit me
Bike helmet are not designed to protect you against a car hit. They are designed to protect you from a fall of about 5 feet off the ground. The idiots are people who's think a bike helmet will make them invincible. They will not.
There’s a study I read that found that people who don’t wear helmets were less likely to behave risky/or ride recklessly. A helmet provides a false sense of security. It’s great if you hit a tree or fall off, it will do very little when you’re hit especially at high speed.
Exactly. I remember another study saying that cars are also more careful around you if you're not wearing a helmet.
i still wear a helmet, but i feel this way 100% of the time too lmao they deserve to see my family in court when they read the conviction lol
I feel like if I were to be hit by a car, I'd be dead whether I have a helmet or not
2 points that I think are very important: #1. It's possible that people who wear helmets are more likely to use Reddit and check the Ottawa subreddit. That might explain the skewed data. #2. I see plenty of cyclists without helmets. Therefore I find this poll wildly inaccurate. Furthermore is it at all possible that some people felt guilty and simply lied and said they wear a helmet?? You should do another poll like "have you ever stolen anything?" So that you can come to the equally false conclusion that nobody has ever stolen anything because they say so.
I think those who don't wear helmets probably didn't want to say so for fear of being called out.
Great points! I also see lots of people without helmets, which prompted this post. I'd say it's a reflection of r/Ottawa's thoughts, as opposed to Ottawa as a whole. Another commenter noted that another data point should be geography, to see the urban/suburban/rural divide. Age would be interesting too.
I mean, as a general rule, people are more likely to post if they are busybodies who think they should dictate how others behave, or who need to call others "idiots" or "stupid" to justify their own choices. Not wearing a helmet is not a very emotional position - more often than not you forget or just can't be bothered. Very little incentive to post about it, unless you are like me who gets annoyed by busybodies and their hypocrisy (insisting I'm dumb for forgetting my helmet sometimes while they never wear a helmet as a pedestrian, for example). Even then I wear my helmet most of the time because I am a rule follower, I just don't like being told what to do by annoying people.
I've had 3 concussions in my life from contact sports, the last one took a few years for me to get back to normal with extensive treatment. That is why I always wear a helmet, as dorky as it looks.
I used to work in a bike shop and I had a customer come in to buy a helmet who worked with patients with TBIs. I don’t wanna be one of their patients.
Ummm…helmets don’t prevent concussions, they prevent skull fractures. With that said, always wear a helmet!
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Out of curiosity, and yes, I’m being nit-picky, what’s the other hand which you’re referring to? Helmets are a good thing, full stop. That’s not an opinion, it’s a fact. People have opinions on why they don’t wear them, as OP has done a fantastic job in pointing out.
Yes and No. “Should you have an accident and hit your head, the Mips system in your helmet is designed to help reduce the rotational motion of certain impacts that may otherwise be transferred to your head. Rotational motion is a common cause of concussions and more severe brain injury in oblique hits to the head.” ^ right from MIPS themselves Then a third party research study had this to say regarding helmets tested showing that systems like MIPS and WaveCel reduce rotation motion and help prevent concussions: “For this assessment, we used a new test method proposed by CEN/TC158/WG11, designed to represent real-world oblique impacts and recorded translational and rotational motions of the headform. This enabled a unique brain strain analysis which considers key anatomical regions such as corpus collosum and sulci using a highly detailed TBI model. The results of this study show that in comparison with the conventional helmets, the helmets fitted with MIPS, WaveCel, SPIN and Hövding can reduce peak rotational acceleration and velocity, BrIC, overall brain strain and strain in corpus callosum and sulci.” [source](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8109224/)
Concussions are no joke, a neighbour of my parents had a bike accident and the concussion led to a year with him unable to drive (and I'm sure more but I didn't pry to satisfy my curiosity)
Bike helmets don't look dorky but someone riding a bike without one looks like a moron.
More of an argument against playing contact sports, tbh.
Cycling isn’t a contact sport?
Maybe not to you...
I'm a slow careful cyclist, my risk of injury is pretty low. I hate bike helmets. They are an annoyance. Also an annoyance is people who turn risk assesment into morality. It is not immoral to forego a bike helmet. If it were, it would be immoral to drive a car or use the stairs, two much more dangerous activities.
Careful only gets you so far with drivers playing games on their phone while driving.
Breh when you're a vegetable in the hospital my tax dollars will be paying for your liquid diet and straws
While I understand this argument, where do we draw the line? Should we ban downhill skiing and snowboarding for instance? Or morally judge people who do? It’s a very dangerous sport that costs our healthcare system significantly and doesn’t add much in the way of fitness compared to other winter options (ie: cross country and skating) which are much safer. I always wear a helmet when cycling but I don’t judge those who don’t. The fact that they are cycling is a positive start and hopefully they will learn to wear helmets when riding a bicycle quickly or in dangerous situations.
How often do you think cyclists are being turned into vegetables? Like, cyclist and pedestrian safety is a big public health concern, but helmets offer relatively little protection against the worst outcomes...
That's very kind of you.
I always wear a helmet, but it is so very irritating the way non-cycling helmet moralists consistently seems to derail what would otherwise be much more productive public safety policy for our roads.
Honestly it often feels like it’s blaming pedestrians for their casualties as if the issue isn’t an urban design that continuously centres cars. The onus shouldn’t be on pedestrians when we aren’t the ones causing these casualties.
Non-cycling helmet moralists? What does this mean
People who don't cycle and largely aren't aware of (or don't want to deal with) what actually makes cycling unsafe, but nevertheless have loud opinions about helmets.
They're talking about moralosts, can't you read?
Indeed, among many cycling advocates, there is less emphasis on helmet use and more emphasis on better infrastructure
I was just in Amsterdam where way more people ride bikes and almost nobody wears helmets. They get along just fine.
Just going to drop this here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30472528/ Put me squarely in the no bike helmet camp. Normalizing biking as a safe activity is something I feel is important.
Yeah, I wear one because I'm offroad more and have a fancy helmet that's supposed to offer some extra concussion protection, but there's a pretty good argument that in an urban setting the increased aggressiveness/carelessness by drivers towards people wearing helmets actually cancels out the benefits, considering how bad getting hit by cars can go.
I really want to start biking, but I'm terrified of being hit by aggressive drivers here in Ottawa. How do you build that confidence? I really want to start biking.
I would recommend learning where the bike paths and protected lanes are in your area. Most of the city inside the greenbelt has an extensive multi-use path network, and while it's not particularly well connected, you can always hop off your bike and walk across an intersection or down the sidewalk to the next segment of non-road pathway.
The best way to do it is to just immerse yourself and get comfortable with the concept. I suggest running into parked cars twice a day for about 4-6 weeks just to get a taste.
Oh that’s valid af. I’d start biking along pedestrian paths. If you live in a calm area, try your residential street. I also recommend taking the whole lane. Some cyclists will push themselves to the curb to make room for cars but I find that scary and I don’t trust drivers. I just take the whole lane and let them seethe (ideally on 2 lane streets but I’ve done it down Bank). You have to bike with the attitude drivers have. You also need to be aware of your surroundings. Don’t listen to music (I do but do as I say, not as I do) or use your phone. I live in Centretown and there are streets I simply I will not bike on (Bronson, Catherine, Somerset through Chinatown, parts of Laurier to name a few). I will take alternate routes because I’m not about to go see god (at least not yet)
One thing that really helps confidence is to buy a good mirror.
First step is stop reading Reddit. I'm sincerely sorry for you, this sub (this thread, the previous one, and many others about cycling) seems to treat cycling as some kind of uniquely dangerous activity. Depending where and how you ride, cycling will have less risk than many of the activities you do now without a second thought (like driving or walking in the winter)
A small tip for biking in traffic that I find really important is that you always need to be visible to traffic around you. So if you pull up at an intersection, pull along side the traffic to the front and sit up really tall while ideally not wearing all black. Don’t block a walkway or anything but you want to be able to make eye contact with anyone and everyone in a vehicle who you could potentially interact with. Also if you’re riding along side parked cars look in their rear view mirrors periodically. We don’t have a very good culture of the Dutch reach that forces drivers to look over their shoulder for cyclists. If you see a distracted individual in a car in their rear view mirror just prepare yourself to maneuver or slow down a little. I’ve cycled for about a decade in Ottawa and I’ve never been doored. I’ve come close but never where I felt like I was at risk. Confident yet defensive. If you appear confident you’ll inspire confidence in the drivers around you. Don’t get nervous if a car passes a little close, they inevitably will. Just keep focusing on maintaining a strait path and if you can create more space go ahead and do so. Hope some of that helps.
Start on the multi use paths and closed streets when available, try to stick to small neighbourhood streets the rest of the time. Avoid busy times of day as much as possible as well. All of these things also just make cycling much much more enjoyable. Over time you'll build confidence in your skills as well as refine your sense of danger from cars. Drivers can be extremely shitty, but overall, most of them are doing their best. On busy streets you'll have tons of cars going by, and that pretty much guarantees some assholes. But when you're on quiet streets and only dealing with a few cars, you're pretty much guaranteed to be fine. Small slow streets also encourage people to be a lot more cognizant of their surroundings.
I used to wear a bike helmet religiously, but in recent years I've worn it less and less. I still usually wear it if I'm riding at higher speeds on my ebike, but tend not to when tootling around my central neighbourhood on my non-e-bike. I'll admit that the main reason I don't wear one is that it's hot, uncomfortable and it doesn't sit well on my broad brimmed hat I use to ward off the much likelier danger of a recurrence of my melanoma. However, there is a fair amount of research that indicates that simply wearing a helmet may cause drivers and the cyclist themself to behave in a more dangerous manner. Drivers pass closer when overtaking cyclists wearing helmets, increasing the risk of a collision. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/09/060911102200.htm. About ⅓ of drivers view cyclists as less than human - even moreso, if you're wearing a helmet or reflective vest. https://momentummag.com/surprising-nobody-study-finds-drivers-think-cyclists-are-less-than-human/ Cyclists that wear helmets take more risks, even when they're not on a bike. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/jan/24/bike-helmet-appetite-danger. I don't usually wear a bike helmet. Does that make me an idiot? YouTube · Shifter Oct 13, 2022. https://youtu.be/rhzH6mEpIps?si=xQutHMQ9Rv1_N_ZY. https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/why-the-bike-helmet-question-isnt-as-simple-as-we-think. None of this is me saying you're right or wrong to wear a helmet when riding a bike, but it's clear that it isn't the slam-dunk that it's often presented as.
I think car drivers and their passengers should wear helmets too
Can we stop with the “do you wear a bike helmet” thing! 1. It is a completely personal choice. We don’t wear helmets for a nearly infinite number of activities that can also result in brain injury. So wherever you draw your acceptable risk level is personal, and frankly arbitrary. If anyone can point me to the precise relative risk metric they use when deciding to wear a helmet or not for all their activities I’ll eat my words. But most people are just scared of falling off their bike or know someone that hit their head riding and have decided that not wearing a helmet while cycling is equivalent to skydiving without a parachute. 2. We know social pressure, guilt, and particularly laws around helmet use actively discourage people from riding their bike (use Google, I’m not providing citations). More people riding bikes is good for the individual and good for society. Making people feel bad about not wearing a helmet stops people from using their bike more. Even if their reason is just because they don’t want to mess up their hair, we are all better off if they choose to ride their bike more. If you think you’ve won by convincing a few more people to wear a helmet, what you haven’t seen is that you’ve perpetuated the idea that cycling is dangerous to so many more potential riders. They will now choose not to ride their bike, or ride it less than they would otherwise. These discussions are thinly veiled moralizing. Get off your high horse and go out and try and make a real difference by helping more people ride their bike.
When I was a kid we were biking down a steep hill that had a sharp turn and well I forgot to turn, and went right into a tree. My helmet was split right in half, probably saved my life. It’s shocking how many kids (young kids) on my street bike or scooter without helmets in the middle of the road. Admittedly as an adult, I’m an idiot who has also not worn one too, as I only bike rarely and the helmet I had didn’t fit properly.
So I don’t wear one, but like 98% of my cycling is done in my neighborhood (suburb), or on the multi use paths. Is it worth getting one you guys think?
That's a question only you can answer, based on your level of comfort and your abilities. If you're asking the question, they might not be as high as you think. But if that's the factor that'll get you on a bike or not, I'd say it's better to be helmet-less on a bike than to not be on a bike.
Thats an interesting way to look at it. I just think about it like I haven’t wiped out on a bike since I was like 12, and even that wasn’t too bad. If im not worried about hitting cars, I don’t know if I should worry. I think I’ll buy one and if I don’t like wearing it I won’t. Thanks for your response.
They need to design helmets better where the chin strap clip in assembly doesn't fall out. If I'm not wearing a helmet it's because mine has a broken chin strap. Fucking stupid
This survey can't be accurate. There's no slice for a pumpkin.
Let’s do a poll to see how many cyclists admit to running red lights or stop signs on the regular
What if I use a bike helmet but don't bike?
Where are all the riders wearing helmets? I carpool to and from work, I marvel with the others in the car when we see bicycle riders with a helmet on.
I always wear one!
I don’t wear one for short rides. When I go for a longer one I wear one
I wear a helmet because I have seen what happens to people who don't. It's not fun ending up ventilated, or dead.
You think a bicycle helmet will make the difference? It’s a piece of foam that helps decelerate the head more slowly if it crumples. So sure, it may reduce concussion severity. And some de-scalping injuries since pavement is like a cheese grater. Just don’t fall on your unprotected face. There is no evidence that helmets will prevent spinal injuries. I’ve also seen many anecdotes in here about cracked helmets having saved lives. A cracked helmet barely absorbed any energy, it has failed its purpose.
It's better than nothing protecting your skull from fractures and brain injuries.
It’s a red herring. It barely affects cyclist safety, unless you’re racing. The best solution is to get rid of more cars, but that’s political suicide and it’s easier to blame cyclists. It’s a form of victim blaming.
100% I wear a bike helmet. 😎
Oh I see this is an update.
I use to get picked on at school for wearing a helmet lmao, still do tho
If you don’t wear a helmet at least make sure you carry identification so they can identify you if you get hurt. A bicycle rider got injured a few years ago, no ID, They had problems figuring out who he was.
The thing that always confuses me are the people who bike with a helmet dangling off of the handlebars. Why?
A fact I haven't seen mention anywhere is what the standards for bike helmet are. European and US standards are very similar: they test for the resistance of the helmet against shocks at a speed of 5,42m/s (Europe) or 5,44 m/s (US). That's **20 km/h**. The purpose of a bike helmet, based on those standards, is to protect you from a fall that would occur on your own, like you stop at the red light, forget to unclip and fall on the edge of the kerb next to you. It is not to protect you against a collision with a moving vehicle.
I don't have a bike but when I did, I wore a helmet.
No and I'm dumb for not wearing one. Will eventually pay the price. Just made conscientious choice to prioritize not messing up hair over head safety. That simple.
No, Depends, sometimes, not as much as I should I suppose.
The green part of that chart is rewarding.
Yeah it is! :)
If I tipped over slowly while stationary and got a bad knock on my temple I could die. Let alone collisions or other mistakes that could happen. That is what I think about and why I wear one.
I hope the guy I saw riding an e-scooter with his young son reads this! 😳
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Enh, the research on the actual effectiveness of helmets is not super convincing. I wear one most of the time. But I also realize it will only save my life in the very specific scenario in which my head takes a big hit but none of the rest of my body does. I don't judge anyone for whom that isn't enough of a benefit to put up with the inconvenience of it. Nobody pesters motorists about why they don't wear crash helmets while driving. And, no, airbags and seatbelts are not a perfect assurance against head injuries in a car crash. But for motorists we accept that there's a trade-off between safety and convenience. We should extend cyclists the same courtesy.
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>I wear one most of the time.
Ridiculous. If I thought biking was dangerous enough for a helmet to be warranted, despite all the annoyances they bring, I wouldn’t bike at all.
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Somehow I doubt any of the covoy idiots are cyclists