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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…
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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…
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Research on helmet law in the UK
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…
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Helmet believers doubtful after increase in injuries
A helmet advocate researched Canadian provinces with a bicycle helmet law. What he found shocked him. Provinces with a helmet law experienced relatively more injuries. “A study that compared six-year periods on either side of the helmet laws in the four provinces that have them calculated a reduction in fatalities of 37 per cent and a reduction in…
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Research on helmet law in Australia
Bill Curnow: Bicycle helmets and public health in Australia The efficacy of bicycle helmets against brain injury Bicycle Helmets: A Scientific Evaluation The Cochrane Collaboration and bicycle helmets Bruce Robinson: Is There Any Reliable Evidence That Australian Helmet Legislation Works? Dorothy Robinson: Safety in numbers in Australia: more walkers and bicyclists, safer walking and bicycling…
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Bicycle helmets and public health in Australia
This is a summary of an article by William J. Curnow published in Health Promotion Journal of Australia 2008 : 19 (1) 10-15 The Federal Government adopted the policy of compulsory bicycle helmets in 1989 to minimise the public cost of accidents and it induced the states and territories to pass the world’s first laws for…