- Wearing a bike helmet makes you safer in case of a crash — but may lead to more accidents.
- Not surprisingly, Katrina has taken a nose-dive as a girl’s name.
- I had no idea that Firefox had a cute anime logo, Foxkeh.
- The best way to protest a law is to enforce it to the hilt and let the public protest. Hence librarians cranking up proposed censorware to 11 to show how goofy it is.
- Smoking is now a factor the MPAA will consider in whether to rate a movie “R.” Huh? How about, as Les notes, drinking and unsafe driving, too? Or eating transfats? Or just acting like an idiot? Not that I’m a huge fan of smoking, by any means, but, yeesh.
- The real Deadwood, 1888..
- Spielberg and Jackson to take on Tintin. Hmmmm. I’ve honestly never been into the Tintin thang — but I know that it’s iconic sort of stuff that will take special handling (and will doubtless run into sensibilities issues between lovers of the original and despisers of the new, not to mention the whole European-vs-American thang).
- Remarkably, now that they’re in power, Democratic legislators seem a lot less eager to reform lobbying.
- Remember, never use the words “Family Feast” — it’s trademarked, you scoff-law piratical terrorist!
- Lileks visits Disneyworld. Fun. He went to the Caribbean Resort, twin to the ones we’ve gone to. “You’d have to have a heart made of coal and an utterly incurious mind not to find this place fascinating.”
- Zombie Last Supper. It’s so wrong, yet so good …
- I mistrust the romanticization of gangster lore — but this article about Mothers Day and the Mob is, if at all true, interesting as hell.
- Because, remember — if you tell your kids about Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy, they will turn into mass murderers, reject Jesus, and burn in hell forever. You have been warned.
45 view(s)
Bike helmets are of more than passing interest to me. Do they really make you safer? (or are there counterintuitive effects such as unconsciously changing the way you ride or making drivers behave differently – or some combination) Should they be required? Are there any that don’t make you look like the King of the Mushroom People?
I wonder if helmet guy wore that massive chain around his waist for all his tests. Lots of people would drive further away from the bike because they’d be afraid of their cars getting scratched up as his body skidded across the hood. (No, really – I think that may be true) And how did he account for possible changes in his own riding? Hard to do a really controlled study of this kind of thing.
In research I did on helmets some time ago (while recovering from my accident) I found considerable ambiguity in bike-related injury states surrounding helmet laws in the UK and Australia – along with huffy denials from those who supported the laws in the first place.
I got used to wearing a helmet after my neurologist told me head injuries are cumulative and I have had too many already, which MrsDoF says explains a lot.
“Take, eat… this is my body…”
Of course, I grew up without a bike helmet — but, then, I never crashed into anything or hit my head in a bike accident (despite many scrapes and abrasions). On the other hand, we have Katherine wearing one regularly whenever she rides her bike, and it seems to be pretty well accepted amongst her age cohort as just the thing to do (and another way to be fashionable/pretty).
(‘Xactly)
It’s interesting that Katherine’s age group thinks that helmets are fashionable and pretty. Those who grew up without them (like DOF, presumably) rarely find them stylish or attractive. I think it’s great that those who grew up with bike helmets won’t have to get over their aesthetic revulsion to wear a helmet — they can make the decision on more rational grounds.
I ride a lot, and I never ride without a helmet. I remember reading that a fall from 6 feet is enough to scramble your brains, and most of my falls have not involved a car. So I’m wearing the helmet to protect myself from falls. If it also protects me if I get hit by a car, that’s a bonus, but I’m not counting on it because cars are big and fast and a bike helmet isn’t much protection from such a large speedy object.
Two events helped me come to the view I’ve outlined above.
I was hit by a car while on my bike just a couple of weeks after moving to Colorado. I was very lucky to escape with only scrapes and bruises. My bike was messed up badly, but I was ok. My helmet might have protected me from hitting my head during that accident, I’m not sure. I never found any scrapes or dings on the helmet after the accident. That accident helped me learn that bicyclists have got to ride defensively. I regard my rear-view mirror and my brain as more important in protecting me from cars than my helmet.
A local guy crashed on a high-speed descent here in Fort Collins last year (or maybe it was two years ago now). He lost control in a sharp corner at the bottom of a steep hill and hit one of those metal rails that are often by the side of the road. He apparently hit it with his head, and was in the hospital with some fairly bad brain injuries. Given what I’ve heard about his accident and his recovery, I think the helmet probably kept him from being a vgetable. No car was involved in his accident.
So this is just anecdotal evidence, but I think it’s consistent with everything else I’ve heard and read about cycling accidents. I’ve gotten to the point where I feel uncomfortable if I get on a bike without a helmet. Someday, I hope there will be protective clothing for cyclists that does not cause the cyclist to overheat and yet protects the cyclist from road rash and hard impacts. Until then, I’ll rely on my helmet, my mirror, and defensive riding.
Anecdotal evidence doesn’t amount to much, at least not for policy. But it does influence our personal choices. I read a news item the other day where a guy lost control of his bike, fell in front of a truck, and the truck ran over his head. It crushed the helmet, which squirted his head out like a cherry pit – he was banged and scraped but otherwise OK. Very impressive.
On the other hand, my son was once riding with a helmet I insisted he wear. He rode under a tree branch he’d gone under many times; the helmet struck the tree branch, knocking him off the bike and his neck was sore for a week. Thanks, dad.
I could be considered a rider of above-average skill, but my accident happened while riding a perfectly maintained bike on a straight course on a quiet street on a nice day. While I do not remember the accident and there were no witnesses, the best reconstruction that we can make based on the scene and my injuries is that someone turned right in front of me, and I must have gone down trying to make the turn with them to avoid being hit. I regained consciousness in the ER some time later.