-
A funny parody of a fearmongering helmet ad
Listen to this. Contrast it to the original ad. A bicycle activist has created an amusing parody of a fearmongering ad commissioned by a government agency to promote bicycle helmets. The ad makes this extraordinary claim: “Don’t think that little ride to the shops warrants wearing [a helmet]? Well I’ve got news for you. Even on a short ride…
-
Federal government abandons compulsory helmets policy
The Federal Government instigated in 1989 the nationwide policy of compulsion to wear a helmet, by offering ‘black spot’ funding for roads to the states and territories. All complied by 1992. In 2009, CRAG made a comprehensive submission to the Prime Minister calling for the Government’s policy on helmets to be based on sound evidence of…
-
Political parties supporting cycling
In Australia, the Liberal Democratic Party supports cycling through its policy opposing victimless “crimes”. It states about the bicycle helmet law: Mandatory bicycle helmets – not only are such laws offensive to liberty, but they do not achieve their aim. You may not be able to vote for the Liberal Democratic Party for the parliament (local Member of Parliament),…
-
US government drops claim that helmets reduce 85% of head injuries
The US government has dropped its claim that bicycle helmets reduce 85% of head injuries. The claim came from “research” conducted by helmet advocates in 1989. Many researchers have tried to replicate its results, but have been unable to do so. Amid severe criticism, the authors had to re-work their data, and arrived at a lower effectiveness rate. This…
-
Canada: helmet laws have made little difference to head injuries
A recent Canadian study found that bicycle helmet laws had little effect on head injuries. The study analysed 14 years of data, comparing provinces with and without helmet laws. Unlike other studies in this field, it attempts to remove the effect of confounding factors by controlling for background trends and modelling head injuries as a proportion of…
-
History of helmet law in the US
Opinion Here are the reflections and impressions of a US resident who has observed the emergence of bicycle helmets in the United States over the last 40 years. While many of these observations cannot be confirmed without dedicated investigative journalism, they are informed by decades of attention to news articles, bicycling publications, bike organization policies,…
