Today I found a refreshing article that shows the waste of energy spent on trying to force cyclists to wear helmets and why that energy should be focused instead on making streets safer for cycling. Here’s a fun excerpt: “That’s more or less what the infamous helmet debate has become,” Hussey lamented. “Shouty strangers shouting at other shouty strangers for choices that don’t affect the first shouty stranger’s life. It’s a bit weird, definitely a waste of energy, and not a fun place for cyclists to share space in.” As Boardman noted, in the Netherlands, perhaps the least perilous country fo ..read more

As I posted on this blog in March 2017, Bosnian activists were some of the first in the world to successfully campaign to repeal a bicycle helmet law. Now, activists there need your help. For the past four years, I have had the honor of working with activists in this war-battered country. Along with my colleagues at the Center for Environment (CfE), our partner in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), we have guided activists from all over BiH to improve their communities through bicycling and environmental campaigns. Now the project needs many people to step up and help. Our funder for the project ..read more

 As readers of this blog know all too well, once a bicycle helmet law has been passed, it is next to impossible to have it repealed. Law makers wipe their hands of the concern, blame is now on the bicyclists, so they simply will not discuss it. That is why any repeal of such a law is a reason for celebration. So sound the horns and lift a glass to Tacoma, Washington - well done! Read the story here ..read more

Here's an interesting new study that shows a clear increase in injuries as bicycle helmet wearing increases. From the article: New research suggests that wearing a helmet may put cyclists more at risk of being injured in a road traffic collision. The findings are set out in a paper entitled Effects of bicycle helmet wearing on accident and injury rates presented at this week’s National Road Safety Conference in Telford(link is external). Former Cycling UK councillor Colin Clarke and author and journalist Chris Gillham analysed overall changes in accident risk with increased helmet wearing ..read more

This recent article summarizing a new study reveals disturbing attitudes toward cyclists. Many people in the study actually saw cyclists as less than human, which justified their aggressive driving behavior. Sometimes they justified their behavior to the point of doing harming to cyclists. Comments during the study so often referred to cyclists as insects that the researchers had to create a new evolution chart using insects so that subjects could point to where they believed cyclists fell. The final paragraph of the article reveals a disturbing link to bicycle helmets: "The research team ..read more

The data are clear. People in motorized vehicles suffer far more head injuries then bicyclists. Find just a few of the charts available here. Over my many years of pushing back against overzealous bike helmet promotions, I’ve enjoyed suggestions by level-headed people that car occupants should wear helmets before any more bike helmet promotions or laws are allowed. That was always an amusing and soothing concept for me. But I had no idea that motoring helmets were ever actually manufactured. This recent article in Forbes by Carlton Reid, a very level-headed author and bike advocate, reveals ..read more

Over the years, there have been noteworthy attempts by journalists and media channels to capture the problem with bicycle helmets. Most will fixate on one particular element of the problem such as scaring people away from cycling or police harassment. Others will make a gallant effort to touch on all the concerns, usually in list form. Unfortunately, the one thing that most of these articles, news clips, and videos have in common is a concluding plea for cyclists to always wear a helmet, as if they hadn’t paid attention to what they had just presented. Today I was pleased to find an excepti ..read more

I’ve worked with bicycle advocates all around the world who are pushing back against rampant bike helmet promotions, most of which lead to threats for mandatory helmet laws. This blog touches on many of these cases with articles labelled Fraud & Deception. I take pride in all these efforts and yet I live in the most helmet-obsessed country in the world. That can be tough at times as I see too many horrific bike helmet promotions to even respond to, including the one pictured here from the nearby city of Phoenix. So embarrassing as an Arizonan and so horrific as a bike advocate to imagine ..read more

A ..read more

A ..read more