This video bring together the two controversial topics of bike helmet laws and bike sharing programs. These issues surrounding these topics collide (apologies for the pun) with the Melbourne Cycle Share Program. This video explores the results tossing around a variety of statistics. It’s my belief that the only appropriate mandate of helmet laws would a coupling of these laws with a very robust government support of cycling. If the government is going to put dampers on the personal freedoms of cycling and how people choose to do it, they should offset the down side of this by investing heavily in cycling infrastructure and making it as easy as possible for everyone to get a helmet.
Can Bike Shares Survive in a Land with Mandatory Bike Helmet Laws?
Provide helmets, and the system will work.Install a small office with an unemployed person handing out helmets might be another idea.
The narrator/interviewer seems fixated on an exemptionto the helmet law–only for users of these bikes. It’s only the interviewees who mention places with no helmet laws, and Mexico, where the helmet law was rescinded.
People younger than 18 are subject to many laws to protect them from their own (supposedly) inferior judgment–not to mention being subjected to years of public safety education. I lean toward requiring bike helmets for anyone under 18.
It’s kind of patronizing to tell adults that they can’t choose for themselves what risks they will or will not accept when the danger (if any) is only to themselves. Given the statistics, rescinding helmet laws for adults should be a no-brainer.
The presence of MHL’s in any nation that does not harshly deal with driving while cell-phoning/texting is an insult to the people of that nation. “Let’s protect our bike riders with a styrofoam cap that’s ineffective above 20kmh, and only protects from the temples on up, but NAAAH, let the devastating distracted drivers mutilate our landscape AND our population!”
Screw the law! If you don’t wear a helmet you are an idiot.