Nerendra Jeet Singh, a Sikh cyclist, went to court in New South Wales (NSW), Australia over a fine for a bicycle helmet. He escaped the fine, after arguing that his identity and his religion are of prime importance. He mentioned that Sikhs have exemptions from wearing bicycle helmets in Canada. In South Australia, Western Australia and Victoria, Sikhs [...]
Archive for the ‘Helmet Law’ Category
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Study reveals increased accidents and injuries after helmet law
February 19th, 2013 
admin A recent study reveals a steady increase in cycling injuries after the helmet law. Between 1991 and 2000, arm injuries doubled (indicating a doubling in accidents), while head injuries increased by 40%. A 1996 cycling survey in Sydney revealed that cycling counts were 48% below 1991. According to the census, cycling in Sydney slightly decreased between 1996 and 2001. This [...]
Calls to repeal the helmet law in New Zealand
January 19th, 2013 admin Cycling Health New Zealand This site is interesting as it presents a broad range of common-sense arguments, taking the perspective of public health. This is broader than the narrow perspective that helmet zealots insists on, claiming that their exaggerated estimates of helmets effectiveness is all that matters, while ignoring the increase in accidents and injuries, [...]
The cobra effect
December 2nd, 2012 admin The cobra effect is where an attempted solution to a problem actually makes it worse. Its origins are briefly described here. In India, the government was concerned about the large number of venomous cobra snakes in the city. It set a bounty for dead cobra snakes. Some people responded by breeding cobra snakes as a way to earn income. Once [...]
Trying to deny that the helmet law reduces cycling
November 11th, 2012 admin Abstract Cycling was rising strongly in Australia before the helmet law, by 10% per year. This uptrend was replaced by a sharp decline of 30 to 40% after the helmet law. A government-funded study has misrepresented a bicycle rally passing through a counting site as a revival in cycling numbers, obfuscating the decline in cycling after the [...]
History of helmet law in Australia
August 21st, 2012 admin Abstract Doctors developed a belief that helmets would be essential to reduce cycling injuries. They lobbied for compulsory helmets, without requiring the necessary controlled trials to assess their effectiveness and side-effects, ignoring their own scientific discipline. Pressured by doctors, politicians set up a committee with a predetermined objective to introduce compulsory helmets. The pre-convinced committee focused [...]
Another attempt to introduce a helmet law defeated
May 27th, 2012 admin In 2010, a politician in Northen Ireland attempted to introduce a bicycle helmet law, after being lobbied by Headway, a charity focused on recovery from brain injury. How ironic that an organisation focused on brain injury lobbies to make mandatory a device that is more likely to cause brain injury than to prevent it. It [...]
Challenging a helmet fine through the courts
March 24th, 2012 admin A fine for not wearing a helmet in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, can be challenged in court. Sue Abbott successfully fought her helmet conviction in August 2010, arguing that wearing a helmet was more dangerous than not wearing one, and thus her actions were protected by a NSW state statute that says people are not [...]
Research on helmet law in the UK
February 26th, 2012 admin In the UK, the helmet law has been debated for a long time, with the usual set of emotional arguments from helmet believers. So far, rationality has prevailed, thanks to the efforts of the Cyclists Touring Club and independent researchers. Here is some of the research that has help sanity prevail. The Hillman report, one [...]
Helmet believers doubtful after increase in injuries
February 18th, 2012 admin Helmet believers do not like to admit that the helmet law was a mistake. A helmet believer from Canada researched this topic and reports a decrease in cycling and an increase in the risk of injury in provinces of Canada where a helmet law has been introduced. “A study that compared six-year periods on either side [...]
