A few days ago I broke my helmet again. This time I was going too fast on some gravel and sped across a turn that was sharper than I was expecting. I flew off my bike. I broke my third helmet. Time to get another.
I’m totally fine, nothing broken, no stitches or anything like that but I’m still pretty banged up. Most importantly though my head is fine. No concussion or head injury at all. Fortunately my partner is a first responder so honestly a great person to be around when you’re in the middle of nowhere injured and they’ve been keeping an eye on me but I’m definitely past any sort of concussion danger period. I wasn’t that worried anyway.
But that helmet gets to go in the trash and join its friends now. Missed but not forgetten.
I’m an experienced biker…and skater and hiker and kayaker and other stuff too. I’ve gotten myself out of stickier situations than this but it was very hot out and very sunny and I’d had a beer and a decent lunch and was near the end of my long bike journey and I goofed. It happens. And it’s not a big deal because I had my helmet on.
The last time was a skating accident. It was wet and I forgot how slippery skates get when its wet. The previous time I thought it would be fun to ride down stairs. It is and I do it all the time but probably you shouldn’t. At least not without a helmet.
I see people out all the time on all sorts of wheeled things without one and I feel so much anxiety for them. I’m not particularly clumsy or anything but if you do something long enough eventually an accident might happen. I wonder if they know the impact it will have on them and their loved ones if the accident happens to them. I wonder if they know how easy it is to prevent it from being as bad as it could be.
All of my accidents were maybe my fault but I know very few bikers who haven’t had similar, either because of something they did or something someone else did. They’re all okay too because they all wear helmets.
So comrades please just put a helmet on. Your brain is valuable because it contains a lot of who you are, and you’re probably more valuable than you think. We all take care of our bodies and minds in so many ways so please don’t neglect this way. Helmets are cheap, adjusted properly they can be very comfortable too. The right kinds can be personalized with stickers and messages and really become something special to you. Hopefully you buy one and you have it for life and you never need to replace it. But if you do need to replace it that’s good too, because a helmet is so much easier to replace than you are.
Anyway I’m looking forward to buying my next helmet and I hope it lasts me longer than this last one. But if it doesn’t I’ll be glad to because hopefully it means I’m okay when I otherwise might not have been.
So please if you’re going to be doing something that could result in a head injury, no matter how unlikely, just put on a helmet. You’re worth it.
So, I’ve seen this claim made before, but usually toned down quite a bit, with a study linked. What’s the actual source study say?
Because there is a study showing a closer passing effect, yes, but its important to evaluate what it can and can’t tell us, and frankly I didn’t think the effect was big enough, to blanket say “don’t wear a helmet in car traffic”
edit: here’s the best analysis of the study I could find (a later paper focusing on statistics and how the original data was interpreted)
https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2018.11.015
I don’t have time to spend ages looking for more studies but this doesn’t look like a big enough effect to say “don’t ever wear helmets in traffic” (drivers averaged like 20cm closer passing with a helmet, but the averages are still firmly in the 1.5m range which is well beyond what’s legally required in my jurisdiction)
frankly close passes may not even be the primary driver of crashes, making the point even more moot. seems like getting doored or squeezed into unsuitable terrain, or completely not seen and hit at an intersection or corner, all are more likely, but thats just in my experience
I’m not an “everyone should definitely have to wear a helmet all the time” person exactly, they aren’t the silver bullet people like to think they are, and shouldn’t be necessary in a relatively safe, calm urban cycling environment (ie not busy streets shared with cars) but in purely safety terms, I don’t think there’s evidence that the potential harms outweigh the benefits.
The firmest stance “against” helmets that I think is supportable is that they should certainly not be mandated, and that riding conditions should be improved by all available means so that they are less and less necessary.
Oh and worth noting, all of this analysis is based on one guy cycling in the UK in 2006. UK cycling and driving culture may not be generalizable to other countries.
People can, and do, die tripping over their cats. You should always wear a helmet regardless of conditions. Taking a spill from a bike is always dangerous, whether you’re bombing down a narrow mountain path at 30mph or you just had a goofball moment and fell off your bike while you weren’t moving. There’s no good way to fall and bounce your head off concrete.
helmets are fine, pretty good actually, but they and their effectiveness have historically been way overemphasized and lied about (the oft cited 85%/88% reduction in injury was never replicated, for example, it’s at best like 60%), and even used to slander injured or killed bicyclists who weren’t wearing one.
They just are not the only safety measure worth pursuing, and overfocusing on them can have consequences in other arenas.
I had a paragraph here about mandatory helmet laws, but I’m not fully confident that it was up to snuff with the latest science so I’ve removed it. Every time I look into this stuff I learn something new. Still not personally in favor of blanket helmet laws though.
There’s a reason almost nobody wears helmets to bike in say, amsterdam, where the infrastructure is almost entirely protected from drivers and parked cars alike, and the majority of people ride a bike daily or nearly so. It’s 100% still possible to get injured in that situation, including head injuries, but the risk is not drastically higher than say, going for a walk or run, and we don’t insist everyone must wear helmets for that. Riding a sports bike in or near car traffic at 15-20mph on the other hand is so much different and merits a different risk assessment.
Personally, I’m fine with the risk of hurting myself from things like falling over while standing still, or biking at a moderate pace in good weather on safe infrastructure. But not so much when cars are in the mix going 25-40+ mph, or when I’m in a hurry, etc. I always have a helmet with me so if things change I can and do put it on. I know it is a risk, but its not an uninformed one and I don’t think its a decision anyone else should be making for me.
I’d much rather focus on things like:
A lot of preventative measures that reduce the risk of accident in the first place would be more effective to focus on than continuing to hammer on increasing helmet use which is already widely accepted. That is the context I say this in.
and for whatever it’s worth, I wear a helmet most of the time and encourage others to do the same, and it’d probably be all the time if I found one that was more comfortable in hot summer weather.
I don’t approve of mandatory helmet laws purely because in order to be enforced they would have to mean increased police interactions and police interactions are their own significant source of danger, but you should always wear a helmet when riding. And having a helmet with you but not wearing it is a distinctly foolish thing to do.
you make your decisions, I’ll make mine.
Agreed re: cops of course. The other potential issue with mandatory helmet laws is that they may reduce cycling overall by giving people the impression that it’s a particularly dangerous activity (like say, motorcycling), when it isn’t, it’s much much closer to walking than motorcycling. When you reduce the number of bicyclists on the road you make it less safe to bike for everyone.