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Calls for more of the same failed policy after increase in cycling injuries
A recent increase in cycling injuries in Western Australia has resulted in the typical calls for “more helmets” as if it was the solution to cycling safety: One-fifth of cyclists who have been treated over the past four years were not wearing a helmet. In Western Australia, more than 30% of cyclists are not wearing…
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Parliamentary inquiry calls for helmet law reform
A parliamentary inquiry into cycling issues in Queensland, Australia, recommends reforms to wind back the controversial helmet law that has harmed cycling for 20 years. The report makes two key recommendations in regards to the helmet law: Recommendation 15 The Committee recommends that the Minister for Transport and Main Roads: introduce a 24 month trial…
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Meanwhile, the bureaucrats commission another “study”
Abstract The failure of the bike share scheme in Brisbane led to calls to exempt it from the helmet law. The government response was to commission a study to defend its controversial legislation. Bureaucrats even edited the “study” in favor of the legislation. Such “research” should not be misrepresented as science. blank A strange “study” The…
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Official misrepresentation of Australia’s bicycle helmet law
Abstract The helmet law has failed to achieve its stated goal of reducing the cost of cycling injuries. Several government agencies have obfuscated this disappointing result through misrepresentation. The information below is an extract from CRAG submission to the Prime Minister in 2009. Following this submission, the federal government abandoned its policy of supporting compulsory bicycle helmets. blank Federal…
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The myth that cycling is dangerous
You’ve heard it again and again: “Cycling is dangerous” When we keep hearing the same statement again and again, we end up believing it. This is a well-known manipulation technique, mentioned by Daniel Kanheman in his acclaimed book “Thinking fast and slow“: “A reliable way to make people believe in falsehoods is frequent repetition, because…
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The art of politics, and its unintended consequences
Economic vs political decision making For those frustrated after dealing with uncompromising bureaucrats and politicians who refuse to acknowledge the damage they have caused, the field of economics can explain how such disasters can happen, and the built-in incentives that prevent corrective action. There is a strange discrepancy between economic and political decision making, that…