Few topics in cycling inspire as much controversy as helmets. Some people insist they’re essential, calling non-wearers reckless and invoking harsh and violent imagery: “enjoy your traumatic brain ...

Few topics in cycling inspire as much controversy as helmets. Some people insist they’re essential, calling non-wearers reckless and invoking harsh and violent imagery: “enjoy your traumatic brain injury”. “You’ll regret it when you’re in a hospital with a feeding tube”. You hear suggestions of denying access to public healthcare. On the opposite end, helmet skeptics argue that they’re a distraction. I’ve actually heard people call them “magic hats” that “don’t offer significant protection (if any at all)”. Helmets dehumanize cyclists and send the wrong message. They’re dorky and uncool, rather than fashionable and European.

So what’s the truth about helmets?

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References:

  1. Protection provided

Bicycle helmets – To wear or not to wear? A meta-analyses of the effects of bicycle helmets on injuries (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0001457518301301)

  1. Risk compensation

Drivers overtaking bicyclists: Objective data on the effects of riding
position, helmet use, vehicle type and apparent gender (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0001457506001540)
Bicycle helmet wearing is associated with closer overtaking by drivers: A response to Olivier and Walter, 2013 (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0001457518309928)
Emotional reactions to cycle helmet use (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0001457512001169)
Risk compensation theory and bicycle helmets – Results
from an experiment of cycling speed and short-term effects
of habituation (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1369847816305666)
Risk compensation? – The relationship between helmet use and cycling
speed under naturalistic conditions (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0022437517307302)
Bicycle helmets and risky behaviour: A systematic review (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1369847818305941)

  1. Level of risk
    Sport-related major trauma incidence in young people and adults in England and Wales: a national
    registry-based study (https://injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/injuryprev/30/1/60.full.pdf)
    Active Living and Injury Risk (https://www.thieme-connect.de/products/ejournals/abstract/10.1055/s-2004-819935)
    Epidemiology of injury in professional cyclists (https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/44/Suppl_1/i4.2)

  2. Discouraging cycling
    Do the Health Benefits of Cycling Outweigh the Risks? (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2920084/)
    Bicycle helmet research [CARRS-Q Monograph Series - Monograph 5] (https://eprints.qut.edu.au/41798/)
    The effects of provincial bicycle helmet legislation on
    helmet use and bicycle ridership in Canada (https://injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/16/4/219)
    Recommend or mandate? A systematic review and meta-analysis of the
    effects of mandatory bicycle helmet legislation (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S000145751830397X)
    Helmet law makes nonsense of bike hire scheme
    (https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/helmet-law-makes-nonsense-of-bike-hire-scheme-20100722-10my2.html)

  3. Dehumanization
    The effect of safety attire on perceptions of cyclist dehumanisation (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1369847823001018#b0200)

  4. Claims bike helmets don’t help
    https://www.cnet.com/science/brain-surgeon-theres-no-point-wearing-cycle-helmets/
    https://www.rwcpulse.com/blogs/peeking-at-plans/2023/09/25/bike-helmets-01/

  5. Dutch statistics
    https://swov.nl/en/fact-sheet/cyclists
    https://www.veiligheid.nl/sites/default/files/2022-06/Rapportage (Snor- en brom)fietsongevallen in Nederland.pdf (English summary included)

  • Zdvarko@lemmy.world
    2·
    1 day ago

    Back in November 2020 I was in a car accident and suffered a TBI followed by 2 weeks in an induced coma, 10 hour surgery for facial reconstruction and a month in rehabilitation.

    Whilst in rehab, I meet many people from varying ages and genders that appeared on the surface to be completely normal functional people. What couldn’t be seen or recognised unless made aware was the impact of their TBI, symptoms that I have dealt with for over 20 years; tangential behaviours, fluctuating emotions, intolerance for the smallest inconveniences, and deep fatigue that comes on way too early after a mental and/or physically difficult day.

    These are the easy side effects.

    For the obvious effects of a TBI, these were clearly seen in Matt; a 19 year old boy that was, for the rest of his short life, stapped to a special wheelchair so he could be mechanically stood upright to look people in the eye. He couldn’t talk, he made sounds that seemed to be communicating but weren’t however, you got the sense he was being a smart ass when he followed up his incoherent noises with his beautiful smile. Matt couldnt fully understand you, or feed himself, or go toilet without the aid of nurses, tell his parents he loved them or ever do anything remotely "normal"ever again.

    All this because he wasn’t wearing a cycle helmet.