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Author: admin

  • Helmet manufacturer ordered to pay $3 millions as compensation for brain injury

    US helmet manufacturer Riddell had to pay US$3 millions in compensation to an injured football player. Rhett Ridolfi suffered severe brain damage, as well as paralysis, despite wearing a helmet. A Colorado jury found Riddell negligent in failing to warn players about concussion. This is one of many lawsuits about brain injury while wearing a…

  • Study reveals increased accidents and injuries after helmet law

    Abstract The injury rate has tripled since the helmet law. By increasing the risk of accidents, helmets have made cycling more dangerous.  blank 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…

  • Barefoot running and cycling

    An interesting analogy between barefoot running and cycling: For years it has been ingrained in to folk that go hill-walking that it is *essential* to wear “stout footwear with proper ankle support”, with the latter taken to mean a high lacing cuff and the phrase really meaning big, stiff hiking boots. In more recent times…

  • Calls to repeal the helmet law in New Zealand

    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 surprising impact of helmets on safety

    Abstract Contrary to popular belief, helmets main impact on safety has not been the protection they provide, but the increased in the risk of accident associated with them. Helmets protect, but not enough to compensate for the increased risk of accident. Although the motivation for wearing a bicycle helmet is to reduce the risk of death &…

  • Share your story

    Did you stop cycling after the helmet law?  Did that mean you did less physical exercise, and might be suffering health problems as a result? Did you believe the hype that “helmet save lives”, then started to take more risks when riding, until you had a crash?  Would you have had such a crash without the…

  • The cobra effect

    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

    Abstract Cycling was rising in Australia by 10% per year until the helmet law. Afterwards, it dropped by 30%. A government commissioned “study” has misrepresented a bicycle rally as a revival in cycling. blank Bicycle travel in Australia was increasing by 10% a year from 1986 to 1989, before the helmet law. After the helmet law, surveys showed cycling…

  • Help restore cycling as a mode of transport

    Cycling in Australia has significantly declined since the helmet law was imposed 20 years ago. Most casual cycling has disappeared. Fear, superstition, and ignorance, fueled by fearmongering campaigns like this one have scared most people off cycling. Many people have had enough of a counterproductive policy whose main result has been to reduce cycling, at the detriment of…

  • Misguided doctors or marketing agents?

    Abstract In the 1980′s, Bell, a helmet manufacturer, was keen to expand the market for bicycle helmets, its most profitable product. It approached the Snell foundation and offered funding for research on bicycle helmets. The Snell foundation chose avid helmet lobbyists to conduct this “research”. The helmet lobbyists initial “research” claimed that helmets reduce 85% of…