I know this can be an emotional issue for a lot of us, but my goal here is to get us thinking about what really makes cycling safer. If you choose to wear a helmet or not wear a helmet, the world is a better place if more of us choose to ride a bike more often. ❤
Four weeks ago, I have no doubt a helmet saved my life, or at least stopped my life from changing drastically. I was on a bike path beside a side walk. I was not going fast. There was no other cyclists or pedestrians near me. I commute, I don’t mountain bike, race, or otherwise trick ride. I was coming back with some birdseed from the pet store. I crashed. Hit a rut that got my tire and down I went. My head hit the pavement. I had bruising on my face despite wearing a helmet. The helmet was destroyed. The foam cracked in two places, the helmet shell cracked in one place. In the last four weeks, my road rash has healed. The bruising on my face has healed. My shoulder is still healing. A head/brain injury would have been a different story. I do agree that helmets may influence drivers of motor vehicles to be more aggressive to cyclists. I also agree that helmets may discourage some people from starting to cycle, as well as the other stats mentioned in the video. But I am not willing to give up my life because little Freddy is on the fence about cycling. Embrace the Geek. Wear a Helmet. It only takes a split second and then there is no turning back. (Besides, it gives you another place to mount a GoPro)
I appreciate you responding to this question I have definitely wondered. I thought it was a Canada versus US thing perhaps. Canadian bike infrastructure being better?
I type this reply while recovering from: surgery to repair my broken collarbone, a broken shoulder, two ribs, a mile of road rash, possible hip fracture, MASSIVE hematoma, and complete removal of the skin on my ankle. I was commuting after my second group ride of the day so my legs were spent; I was not going fast. I was on a protected cycleway by myself. A section of the chainlink fencing, that was supposed to be protecting me, had been pulled loose and was dangling into the cycleway. I just didn't see it. My head hit the pavement just as hard as the rest of my body. The helmet split in two. I am typing this now because I was not an idiot and wore a helmet. Bikes should come with a helmet.
I remember being like 9 or 10 years old in my hometown and a cop "pulled me over" on my bike. Because I was wearing my helmet, he gave me a "ticket" that was a coupon for a free soda and piece of pizza at a local restaurant. I never know when I'll get another free soda and piece of pizza for it, so I've always worn my helmet ever since. It's been 25 years. I'm not kidding that one little thing stuck with me so hard as a child.
LEO should do that more often. BTW as a kid I didn't wear a helmet, reason, I don't think they existed in the 50s or the early 60s. I got my fist helmet in 1966 .. in the Army 🙂 I do wear a bike helmet
It was interesting to hear her mention that one reason she wears a helmet is because she knows if she's ever in an accident that's the first thing people will ask. I go all in on visibility for basically the same reason. If I get hit I want there to be no doubt about whether the driver could see me or not.
This really is a huge deal. It's getting better, but the lack of serious reporting and even outright refusal of police to properly investigate collisions involving cyclists in Canada is ridiculous.
True. Though I feel like, unless you're wearing all black, with no lights, on an unlit road, the burden of guilt should always fall on the driver. If a driver can't see you, they probably shouldn't be driving.
One of the biggest concerns in sharing the road with cars is in getting doored. Sometimes getting doored means flipping over the door and landing headfirst. Even without flipping over, you're likely to hit your head.
Happened to me last weekend, was riding in the bike lane with some friends and had no time to react. Honestly it's good I was the one it happened to because several of them weren't wearing helmets. Very glad I had it on and those friends reevaluated. Fuckin hurts though and the lady didn't apologize at all.
@@derekjolly3680 Bike lanes in the US are uncommon and are poorly thought out when they do exist. In the US either you A) share the road with cars, or B) go mountain biking. If you want to use a bike as transportation, you have to be uncomfortably close to cars. There's no room for "risk compensation", you face the risk, there's no other option. And I'd much rather that people did bike when they want, rather than cutting themselves short because bike infrastructure sucks out here.
@@biggibbs4678 If you cycled around any Dutch city you'd get what I'm saying - the infrastructure is designed to allow bicyclists to go anywhere they please with few if any conflicts with cars. In the USA however it is significantly different - you can't commute on the sidewalk, that's impossible, and for any significant journeys across any US city you'll end up sharing the road with cars at some point. There just isn't enough cycle specific infrastructure in the USA, and I don't think there ever will be. We are way too car centric for that. It is best practice to ride on neighborhood roads (def a terrible idea to ride on the sidewalk) but that still does not amount to seamless bike transit as one sees in Europe, especially the Netherlands and Denmark.
I got doored by a car and still remember the sound of my helmet slamming into the asphalt. A friend of mine got rear-ended by a car and hit the car hood so hard the helmet split in half. In either of those situations the presence of a helmet wouldn't have changed whether we got hospitalized or not, but it absolutely changed the nature and severity of those injuries, which would not have been captured in a pure hospitalization count comparison study. It is absolutely true that the problem boils down to cars and lack of infra (both of my examples were car-caused and on streets with inadequate bike infra), but in light of my own personal experiences there's literally no way I'll ever not wear a helmet and not tell my own kids to do the same, at least until we have Amsterdams all around North America.
In the Netherlands when you are taking driving lessons you learn to always open your door two handed, so you automatically turn your body to check for cyclist. And if you door someone, you are a 100% responsible. Consequently, it hardly ever happens. Which is a lot better than getting doored with or without helmet. That being said, wearing a helmet is still helpful in such situation. It's just that they aren't as important as people think, and this pushing for them just gives the false impression that bikes are dangerous, and gets in the way of actual safety changes such as better infrastructure and driver awareness.
The problem is not you or your helmet or even the cars. It is the decision makers who will use the helmet thingy to declare you "safe" and thus deny you decent infrastructure or even put the burden and the blame on you.
I’m pretty pragmatic about it. It’s been a long time since I’ve fallen, but if I fall, I don’t want to end up with a traumatic brain injury. It’s like wearing a seatbelt while driving - obviously my intent is to never use it, and it’s been decades since I’ve been in a collision, but I’m still going to wear it every time. That said, if I use a rental bike somewhere and no helmet is available it’s not going to stop me from biking.
Yep this is where I'm at as well. I don't have the luxury of sticking to nice safe infrastructure for one thing, and I know a couple people who have gotten TBIs (one while biking) and had a really rough go of it after, so even if it's only a factor of 2 or 3 it's probably good insurance. My helmet is also covered in reflective tape strips and has a light on it so it does double duty at night. But I don't expect anyone else to necessarily share my stance. It feels nice to ride without one when it's reasonably safe.
I personally don't think it's quite as simple as comparing it to a seat belt while driving; otherwise, we'd wear a helmet while walking (This video did go over the stats the pedestrians are injured or die nearly as much as bicyclists). Instead, it really depends on where and how you're riding bike, as opposed to simply a "safety first all of the time regardless of circumstances" mindset that we have with car seatbelts while driving. For example, I don't choose to negate a seat belt on safe roads and wear one only on unsafe roads like a highway; I wear it all the time. But for biking, I choose to wear a helmet when I know I will be exposes to traffic versus not wearing one when I'm riding in safe infrastructure.
I agree with you. It’s been a long time since I had fallen too. Until, that is, last week when I hit a BIG pothole that I didn’t see. I was on the ground, on my side, in short order. Did not hit my head as I was going slow at the time of the fall. It must have been a bit of a SPE tidal as some bystanders shouted out: “are you ok????” to check on my condition. I was totally fine (other than a bit sore the next day). But at 62-years old, a head impact, should it have occurred, would not have been a good thing without a helmet. 40-years ago when I was 22, I would NOT have had a helmet on and I would have laughed off my little spill. Today, it’s more concerning. Given the bike infrastructure that I have access to in Denver, I was thinking recently about riding without a helmet sometimes. But my spill, and my age, has convinced me to keep it on.
Your point makes sense, but seatbelts are just more effective, so they make more sense. Also wearing a helmet while walking or car driving is culturally out of question - but it would be just as 'necessary' statistically
Wearing a helmut doesn't necessarily prevent TBI. TBI is caused by the brain bouncing within the skull and against the skull bones. I experienced this in a head-on car accident. Helmets protect the external part of the head not the brain.
I currently commute most days on bike infrastructure in Denver, CO, USA. But I’m also 62. I don’t want to have a minor (or major) incident or even a simple fall and crack my head. So I wear a helmet. If I was 23 again, my answer may be different and I might go without a helmet. I think, as part of the decision risk assessment, age is also part of the equation.
I'd also factor in the age of other road users. I currently live in an area that the majority of drivers are past retirement age. I've had a significant increase in near misses since I moved here. I still don't wear a helmet but have taken to wearing hi-vis clothing more often.
I'm more open to not wearing a helmet as a young single dude with no kids. But I also go out of my way to avoid cycling in the roads as much as possible. I see the substandard biking infrastructure causing the inherent risk of urban bike commuting, but I will not let that force me to wear a helmet. In other activities like mountain biking or skateboarding, yeah wearing a helmet should be the standard due to the higher chance of injury with crashes/falls.
If my head is injured, I risk losing my personality, my livelihood, and risk putting my loved ones in a horrible position of having to “unplug me”. Wearing a helmet is just so easy, and stories I’ve heard from friends who work in the ER confirm they are very effective. Even when commuting, I just don’t trust cars, people, dogs etc.
What about using your helmet in car? IMHO, your reasons do not sound well to me. But it is your choice. The problem is with mandating helmet, instead of creating safe travel for cyclist. And until people who ride do not understand it - it will be hard to stop blaming cyclist for fault of drivers.
Cars have seatbelts and airbags and other safety features which are mandated by law. Bicycles don't even legally need brakes in some places, let alone helmets. I wish people (men mostly lets be honest here) would just be honest that the reason they don't want to wear a helmet is they think they look un-cool - that's it. There are no downsides to wearing a helmet, people complain about things like having to carry it round to cover up the fact that the ultimate reason they don't want to wear one is because it doesn't look cool.
@@LieutenantMoustache As a matter of fact, I think some helmets look kinda cool (and I just ordered myself a new one a few hours ago!). And I still recognize the inconvenience of carrying a helmet around, also the way they limit your clothing options and sometimes just suck in the rain depending on geometry and what you manage to wear under it. Today I went for a bike ride without a helmet, because my jacket doesn't have a hood large enough to pull over the top of the helmet and inside it just doesn't fit well at all. It's cold and windy, I care more about keeping warm and comfortable than wearing a cool piece of plastic. I've cycled all my life and the number of times I've fallen on my bike is far fewer than the number of times I've slipped walking on ice. So from a safety POV, a helmet would make a bigger difference if worn while walking.
It's weird the helmet laws in Australia. I've got buddies who'll ride their bikes with helmets to the skate park only to take them off when they go skate which is a significantly more dangerous activity.
They have public healthcare so it makes sense to save money on brain injuries by mandating a helmet. I liked it when I stayed there, you quickly stop thinking about it when everyone is wearing one.
I love this conversation! It’s videos like this that pushed me to study transportation engineering, I want to make a safer urban environment for everyone
Hell yeah, I'm studying civil engineering for a similar reason too! But here in Australia, its sad to see how transportation engineering tends to be very heavily based on cars and the best way to optimise vehicle traffic (which almost always seems to come at the cost of cycling and pedestrian safety).
@@yungthils787 Same here too, my transportation class last semester was all about roads and ignored every other mode of transport. My goal is to change the conversation on transportation in the US and encourage transit, biking, and walking infrastructure!
Thank you so much for this video with more factual debate on helmets. I got in a bike crash (very minor, dodging a car on a slippery bike lane) a couple years ago, the day after I got a helmet for the first time. When talking about it with people they always asked first "were you wearing a helmet". They would get so upset when I would answer, "why would that matter?", as my only injury was a scratch on my arm! The only way to get a productive discussion after that was to say first that yes, I had one, but no, it didn't help because there was a driver in the bike lane! People need to hear all this research you did and make a truely informed decision!
Very interesting video! I am a cyclist from Brazil and it's really interesting to see the perspective from more developed countries. I live in a city that is very commended for its public transport infrastructure, but being a cyclist here feels absolutely like a survival experience. Wearing a helmet is pretty much mandatory if you value your life just for a matter of protecting yourself against the sheer exposure to traffic. It's not even really about you crashing, but other people crashing into you.
I just started bike commuting to work in a medium sized city in Mexico. There is a section of traffic where it is a daily survival experience where my health seems to be totally in the hands of the drivers because there is absolutely no ¨space¨ for cycling and cycling is almost non-existent here except for a few students who come from a different direction than I do.
I agree entirely about defensive riding. I have a road bike I almost never ride since moving from Indiana to New Mexico. Drivers in New Mexico aren't as safe to be around.
Fell on my left arm just yesterday while riding through a bike lane because a driver stuck his whole front of the car over the sidewalk when leaving a car wash. Thank god I wasn't badly injured and the bike wasn't damaged. Be safe out there, friends, it is always when you're least expecting. Also, I was wearing a helmet so I felt much less of an idiot for crashing 🤣
Not trying to make an argument for or against helmets. I personally mostly cycle without a helmet. However, some of the data and arguments presented during this conversation where not sound. Reading, understanding and accurately presenting data and statistics is incredibly hard and most people do not have the right skill set and tools to do so - including most journalists. I do not intent on picking apart every single little argument and piece of data, but just want to point out a couple for example. The bar chart that showed number of hospitalizations per 100.000.000 trips for cars, pedestrians, bicyclists and motorcyclists. The former three all looked “small” compared to motorcycles, but unless you are willing to adjust your behavior based on motorcyclists being lunatics, you ought to focus more on the former three categories. And unless my eyes are fooling me, cyclists had something like 50% to 100% higher hospitalization rate compared to car drivers. Yes, the bars looked small on the chart, but the comparative numbers are not. Another argument made was that ~ 650 hospitalizations per 100.000.000 trips is a negligible number and that riding a bike is “reasonably safe”. 650 hospitalizations for 100.000.000 trips books down to approx one hospitalization for every 150.000 trips. If an average bicyclists rides maybe 3 trips a day, then this is roughly 1000 trips per year. Without having done the actual stochastic calculations I would eyeball that there’s a roughly 25% chance of any bicyclists being hospitalized due to an accident at least once in their biking career. That’s not nothing. None of the data presented actually connects hospitalizations or deaths with type of injuries. You somewhat jokingly make the point that no-one expects pedestrians to wear helmets because they have “similarly” hospitalization rates to bicyclists. This entirely misses the point. If most pedestrian hospitalizations are due to sprained ankles over most hospitalizations for bicyclists for concussions then of course no one makes that argument for pedestrians but it might still make sense for bicyclists. Don’t get me wrong: I thought this was a great video, with lots of interesting insights and you wearing a helmet or not is really up to you anyway. The data and arguments presented in this video however was at least incomplete and in my eye inconclusive. Anecdotally: a friend of mine almost got killed when he was hit by a car commuting on his bicycle a few years ago. His head hit the side of the curb. His helmet prevented more serious head injuries. Stay safe out there.
Secondary to well designed safe separated cycling infrastructure, the upright cycling position on comfortable relatively heavy city bikes I believe is a significant reason why helmets are not often worn in places like the Netherlands. Many other countries like the US, Canada, Australia, UK are dominated by forward leaning lightweight sports bikes which are much easier to go over the handlebars when braking heavily. Afterall Sports cyclists ('Wielrenners') and mountain bikers in the Netherlands also almost always wear helmets. Choose the right tool for the job I say.
The US has not really been dominated by such forward leaning bicycles for some time now, because people do not like them unless they are actually racing. Edit: I am not sure how it is in those other countries, anyway, but here in the US things are different now.
It’s absolutely stunning to hear a proper conversation about an ordinary, daily subject. I’m happy that it made sense to me and helped me make a choice (an adhd that struggles to make choices by overspread the factors in the matter and getting lost quickly, not sure if I’ve explained myself correctly). Thanks (:
adhd might be a factor in wearing a helmet more often, interestingly enough. I don't have adhd, but I get distracted very easily and I can zone out very easily, not paying attention to everything with as much sustained focus as I should, and that does affect the safety of my car driving. I have to make a conscious deliberate effort to try to drive goodly lol.
I was certain there couldn't be reasonable argument AGAINST wearing a helmet but your conversation really gave me food for thought. The statistics were interesting (it seems cycling is a lot more safe than I had assumed) but they didn't really change my mind. Because in the end it's not about what's statistically most likely to happen but the particular situation I might end up in. But the experiment showing that car drivers are less careful when a cyclist is wearing a helmet really makes me think.
Helmet laws were lobbied hard by automobile companies. It made bikes appear more dangerous than they are, and made cycling more of a hassle. Now, with less people riding, and car drivers often being actively antagonistic, we pretty much have to wear a helmet in situations where people in saner societies wouldn't. When I was a kid, bicycling was the dominant way to get to school. Now, that's a rarity.
@@momoware Planning isn't really the right word for what US cities do. There's usually some kind of management, but it falls short of planning. There's almost no standardization between cities either, so they vary widely in every way. A small few are not so bad.
@@ernststravoblofeld don't think it's planning either. Bottom line is it comes down to people. Biker's and auto drivers changed about 15 yrs ago with a major sense of entitlement to the road with little to no regard for cyclists.
@Bjorn Arnesen If your circumstances require a helmet, then by all means, wear one. But forcing everyone in every circumstance to wear a helmet will make everyone but a few messengers and fitness enthusiasts give up. All for a fairly low risk activity.
A great summary on helmets specifically, and risk assessment in general, much appreciated! We live in Germany, and are still at the stage where our kids are very quick to point out if we've forgotten our helmets - it's so engrained now that we grab and put them on almost without thinking. But it is a lovely feeling to ride without them (when we get the opportunity!)
This feels like the culture we have here in Canada as well. Hopefully, we can continue to make cycling safer in other ways as well. Thank you so much for the support for the channel!
Thank you for this info! There's something that needs to be included in the calculations, I would think: crashes not related to vehicles. Vehicles were not part of my 3 most memorable crashes over the past 30 years, or so. Two were from coming across patches of "black ice" and I was glad I was wearing a helmet when my head hit the road (once) and the paved bike path (the second time). The third was from leaves in the street, slippery from the rain. Watch out for those slippery leaves! I know these are only personal experiences, though, but I know that conditions can come up by surprise. (So, even if you're not next to cars, I would vote for a helmet, because things sometimes happen. Even if it's infrequent, you frequently need your head.) Also, I get way more pressure (in the US) to not ride at all. Hardly anyone mentions my helmet. Of course, we must keep building more and more protected bike lanes (that are maintained all year round). Yay for bike infrastructure! And I'll make it a point not to harshly judge anyone I see without a helmet or me if I find myself without one, for some reason. Thanks again.
The mere fact that you HAVE "3 most memorable crashes" is testament to the fact that bicycle accidents are more frequent - and memorable - than on most other modes of getting around.
4 years ago, I was riding my bike on campus through a fairly empty parking lot. I had been an experienced cyclist at this point, riding between 15-30 miles a day in Manhattan as a commuter with no helmet. I went on that ride with no traffic around. Next thing I know, I woke up in the ED with a splitting headache and 6hrs had passed. It was 3am. I must have somehow lost control by hitting a crack or a rock and fell towards the back of my head. Ended up with postconcussional syndrome, permanent memory problems, and a hematoma towards the back of my skull that thankfully didnt lead to a brain bleed or more damage. A helmet would have prevented all of that. I still don't like to wear helmets, but I do. I think you have great points and I actually agree with your stance, but at the end of the day a helmet is still safer - and sometimes you just get unlucky.
@@ToriKlassen1 true - but would imagine that objectively, falling on your head vs without a helmet would improve outcomes. I may not be able to find an IRB willing to approve a study comparing double blinded work of me smashing someones head in with vs without a helmet, but it would have saved me a world of trouble if I had wore one
Your sob story misses the point entirely. This video isn't saying not to wear a helmet. It's saying that statistically, cycling, especially commuting in bike lanes, is not a common cause of head injury and that focus on helmets as a primary safety measure is misguided. I don't ride at night without good street light or a floodlight. I am always scanning the road and going slower. What happened to you was a failure of observation/riding in conditions which affect observation. That's on you, not the lack of a helmet. My worst crash was caused by my bike being in poor mechanical condition. My second worst crash was cause by my panniers not being secured properly. They were both my fault. In neither instance did I crack my helmet.
The problem with these types of anecdotes is often how overblown they are compared to the actual risks of cycling, which can lead to laws requiring helmets be worn while cycling, which then discourages cycling even further. I am glad that you understand the points and the stances taking in the video, but here's a slight hypothetical change to this scenario: You were walking down the sidewalk, something you've done for years on other sidewalks, but next thing you know you woke up in the ED, with all the same symptoms. Apparently, that part of the sidewalk was loose, you ended up falling backwards and hitting your head on a curb. We can't start demanding pedestrians wear helmets when walking from such anecdotes; that would be utterly ridiculous. And from the video, the number of trips per hospitalization was actually slightly higher for cycling than for pedestrians, which suggests that walking is actually riskier than cycling. In a different world, people would be using this hypothetical and similar stories to campaign for laws that require pedestrians wear helmets, rather than actually do proper maintenance on the sidewalk... In yet another different world, there enough well maintained bicycling infrastructure available where you didn't feel like you have to cut through that likely unmaintained parking lot.
After all the info I loved your ending statement to just have more empathy for people who choose to do things differently than ourselves. That was my biggest takeaway and I appreciate it!
That may be the biggest lesson I learned from making this video. It's such a personal choice dependent on so many factors that I think reasonable people can go either way. I think all of our energy would be better spent working for better bike cities.
Completely agree! Like many things in life, the answer is not easy and simple, it's complex and depends on each person. Hard to find people on the internet who don't make sensationalized claims, so props to Shifter!
Empathy? Empathy goes out the window when the forces rip the car in half. I've see the motorcycleists who had the front half of his bike ripped off by a woman driving and using the phone at the same time. 2 days ago a woman drove her 4WD straight through a bedroom killing the owner of the house. You're a looney.
@@ridetillidie8090 sounds like a philosophy anti-vax people use to cope. Wear a helmet. Wear a seatbelt. Signal your turns. Use lights. Your freedom isn't being infringed upon because we make you fasten a light to the back of your seatpost.
But setting aside safety, wearing a good modern helmet with a visor is more comfortable than wearing a hat or wearing nothing at all. It helps keeps the sun and rain out of your eyes and off your face, and can offer better ventilation than any hat that is likely to stay on your head (especially on a windy day). Any safety benefit is just a bonus, if you ask me.
I'm all for wearing a lid (and I do 95% of the time) but all the hand-wringing is such cringe victim blaming, and helmet laws are demonstrably counter-productive. if you care about cyclists, BUILD SAFE INFRASTRUCTURE.
Telling cyclists to use common sense and protect their heads is not victim blaming. Cyclists are not victims. If you as a cyclist consider yourself (preemptively?) A victim, that could be your main problem right there. Try not to die, or don't; I don't care (but your family might).
@@michaelchristian5324 Probably a waste of time to point out that you didn't understand what they were saying. You're clearly incapable, mostly by choice.
@@michaelchristian5324 countries where nobody wears helmets have the lowest rate of bike deaths (see Netherlands) The best solution is to segregate bicycle traffic from road traffic, therefore removing contact between different road users. Best to prevent accidents rather than react to them.
@Eric I know, but let's assume I'm not talking about dense European cities with some of the world's most well-developed cycling infrastructure. It would be nice if that was more the norm, but in much of the rest of the world (like where I live) it is just common sense to protect one's gourd where one has little choice but to be in traffic with cars. I'm all for advocating for better cycling segregation, but that doesn't mean I think people should crack their skulls in protest of the fact that most places do not achieve this level of cycling nirvana.
@@michaelchristian5324 The victim blaming is incredibly common in NA where the cyclists are seen as a problem on the road by drivers. In traffic collisions involving a cyclist, the cyclist is often blamed (even when not at fault) and helmet usage is one of the ways they victim blame. Look through comments on videos of collisions with cyclists and you'll notice a lot of them mention that they werent wearing a helmet, its a distraction from the danger of cars.
Thanks for this really insightful / big-picture / historical approach to this topic! I almost didn't watch the video because of the nature of exchanges I've had on the topic before, but I'm really glad I did. I especially appreciated looking at this through the PR & Dr. (x2) lenses. I certainly learned things I didn't know and hadn't considered before. That only talking about helmets in the context of discussions of bike safety is myopic is an especially compelling point. A broader consideration--and recasting--of 'bike safety' seems like something really worth exploring further. Dare I suggest a dedicated playlist with a broad scope of sub-topics? I personally wear a helmet at all times while riding and will continue to do so, as my rides virtually always include roads shared with cars where the posted speed limit is 40mph and actual speeds are what they are--and I'm a creature of habit for whom maintaining this habit will be safest. Watching this has given me greater empathy for those who make other choices, based on their circumstances, like the one you describe in the last segment.
Personally I wear a helmet at all times. Several reasons, the two main ones being that I have done so for 30+ years (so it’s a habit by now) and also because there is very very little safe bike infrastructure where I live. So I am among cars about 90% of the time. This also taught me to „ride as if nobody can see me“, aka always assuming that I am, for all intents and purposes, invisible to car drivers. This strategy has prevented bad things from happening on several occasions, both on a bicycle as well as on a motorbike. Some (!) of my fellow two wheeled riders - motorized or otherwise - are frankly reckless and move about like they own the place, without even looking at what happens around them. And as soon as one of them gets swiped, everyone is all over why car drivers are THE issue. That is not to say that there are no issues there mind you, because there are plenty. Bro…you and your bike are about as wide as the average A-pillar from the perspective of a car driver. There is no difference there whether you are on an omafiets or a Hayabusa. If you are in the right spot, the driver can physically not see you. I don’t care if you might have the right of way. I would rather yield and live than insist on ROW and leave a nice Bull‘s Eye on a windscreen and having my membership of the Being Alive Club revoked permanently. Also, everyone traveling on two wheels should remind themselves occasionally that their crumple zone is a LOT smaller than that of even the most basic car. No matter how much you were in the right, you will always draw the shortest straw as far as injuries go. No amount of helmet will change that. A fender bender on a car might be a trip to the morgue for you.
Most drivers do behave responsibly. You do have to watch out for those who don't and give yourself room to deal with their mistakes. There's some enablement going on, but your flesh and bone body is alot more irreplaceable than mere car parts. You can assert yourself as long as you feel your actions are writing cheques your body can afford to cash if it all goes wrong.
Dude, this video is amazing. I especially enjoyed your outro about needing to have the conversation about improving city infrastructure, not just the conversation about helmets. The helmet conversation implies expected bike-vehicle crashes, whereas the infrastructure conversation doesn't want that to happen in the first place. Also, I wouldn't complain if you had a Shifter podcast.
I only started wearing a helmet as an adult when I was cycling in the winter and needed to keep my touque from falling off in the high winds. After that, it became habit. Since then, I have lived in a province where adults were not required to wear a helmet, but did require under 18. I then got a new mindset: if you have something worth protecting, you will wear one. I never ride without a helmet in case you didn't suspect. :) I do understand how you ride without one and where, but you just never know when that sudden something will cross your path for that unexpected reason. Physics says that if you are travelling faster than running, and you fall, you will likely injure yourself. I ride around 20km/h, but can't run near that.
This resonates with me due to my experience as a motorcycle safety instructor. I got into M/C safety as a response to mandatory helmet legislation that was proposed in Illinois in the late '80s. The proposed legislation sought to reduce state funding of safety training programs in exchange for a mandatory helmet law, which struck me as an asinine argument. I had always strived to be a competent operator, but after I became trained I was shocked at how deficient my self-taught skills truly were. I became passionate about teaching the skills that scholarly research have shown contribute to accidents. The key skills accident-involved riders statistically lack include mental and visual skills for traffic perception, visual direction control, traction management, maximum straight-line braking, braking in a curve, swerving to avoid an obstacle, overcoming an obstacle, countersteering to maintain control in a curve, entering moving traffic from a stop, and lane position for visibility. These days I watch lots of bicyclists to judge their riding ability. Can you guess what skills most bicyclists on the road really suck at? The exact same ones that were demonstrated to contribute to motorcycle accidents. Poorly skilled bicyclists in traffic are at much greater risk for injury, especially head injuries. But even on protected bike lanes and trails, poor riding skills are definitely a risk factor. I'd love to see a nationally recognized, evidence-based bicycle training program that will help untrained riders achieve mastery over these critical skills, so they can be safer riders. And yes, I always wear a helmet, regardless of whether I'm on a motorcycle or a bicycle. I've known people with various degrees of TBI, and it's a lifelong tragedy. I don't want to put my family through that nightmare.
How many bicycles do you see without a rearview mirror? I consider a mirror to be basic safety equipment when riding with traffic. But most cyclists don't seem to agree.
@@wturber You need mirrors on automobiles and even motorcycles because of blind spots. I see no such need on a bicycle. If I want to see what's behind me, I just turn my head and look. I honestly think a mirror would decrease my safety, because I would have to fiddle with it or bob my head around constantly to use it effectively instead of just turning my head and eyes with high precision.
I'd bet most of those skills also apply to automobile accidents, excluding the ones specific to 2 wheeled transportation. I would love to see a national safety training program for bicycles, but I think getting one for drivers should be a way higher priority, since automobiles are inherently more dangerous and statistically more dangerous.
Mirrors are needed on motorcycles and cars because they make so much noise or mute sound (car cabin/helmet) that your unable to hear probably your environment/traffic… In the region where I live (Netherlands/Germany/Belgium) you will see mirrors on E-bikes mostly driving by elder people (those bikes are louder, by age your ears aren’t as newly anymore, and you are maybe a as mobile as you used to be so looking backwards and or holding your balance can be more challenging).
Yeah, the safety numbers for each transport mode look bad, until you realize “how many of those cyclists and pedestrians were hit by drivers?”🤔 I can tell you for sure the #1 most scary thing on any bike ride is cars, not me wiping out because I can’t control the bike.
@@arifrost.xl three of my bicycle accidents never involved a vehicle all three times I hit my helmeted head and would have definitely cracked my skull and tore the hell out of my scalp and possibly lost an eye
Exhausted making others feel better. I kindly provide these kinds of facts every time someone calls me out. Having been a commuting cyclist on three continents, it's just government laziness to place safety on the individual over correct infrastructure (cars could use safer infrastructure too). The risk assessment is simple: are you going fast, is there complex terrain, is your brain still growing; wear a helmet
No, it's not complicated, because I've lived my whole life in my body and I know what feels safe and what doesn't. At least, that's what everyone thinks, but some people go on to then assert that what makes sense based on their personal values/risk assessments and environments should be applied (even mandated) to everyone. Great material for considering nuances! Context makes such a huge difference, whether it's public policy debates, personal decision-making based on environment/routing/speed, and psychology/culture. If all the energy directed at shaming pedestrians/cyclists for not exhibiting safety equipment and safe behavior was directed at making cars less deadly by making them smaller, lighter, slower, able to detect and override unsafe driving behavior or removing them from cities entirely, that'd do a lot more good than marginally increasing helmet-wearing.
That all makes sense from a "should" perspective. From a practical real-world perspective, we are all always responsible for our own safety. This makes me think of self-defese as well; people who know about self-defense know that indignant insistence that our personal health and safety be respected won't stop that knife or bullet going straight through your chest. We have to look out for our own safety, not expect others to give it to us. It's all a question of "how safe do you wanna be?" Not wearing a helmet is kinda like feeling assured that you don't need to duck when you hear gunshots ringing out in a public space. Sure, it's your choice, but it might cause ou to die. Let's all fight for a cycling utopia, but until that day comes, a helmet is part of accepting TODAY'S reality.
@@wildeasage Ok sure. But nobody is going around responding to gun violence and such by suggesting everyone be legally required to take self defense classes and wear kevlar in all public spaces and also acting like that is the only way these people can be safe. That would be stupid. Anyone with any knowledge of self defense knows that being in safe places (which means safety infrastructure like proper exits, good visibility, lights, mixing with other people for safety in numbers, etc.) does far more to keep you safe than some bullshit training on how to deal with violence in extremely unlikely event of a violent attack. We might think refusing to duck when you here gunshots is stupid, but no one is going to seriously look at a civilian gunshot victim and act like the lack of kevlar is the real problem.
@@rileynicholson2322 have you seen cable news and the NRA in the usa lately? There absolutely are people seriously advocating for armored backpacks for school children and more guns in public spaces as if that's the only possible solution to the systemic issues that produce gun violence. Some of them might even genuinely believe that. That said, I don't think gun violence is a good comparison for bicycle helmet wear. Car and pedestrian safety would be more illustrative.
I think if you are on protected bike paths then its fine. In Denmark (Copenhagen where I am), no one wears one since almost all streets have separated bike paths with our own lights, etc. However, if you find yourself mingling with cars to the point they are passing and the lane is just some paint on the street and you are sometimes very close **cough those buses cough** then a helmet seems feasible.
Question everyone says cyclists dont wear helmets in Denmark or the Netherlands. However I have been out in the countryside in the Netherlands and the sport cyclists who pass me at 40 kph are usually wearing helmets. Is it the same in Denmark?
@@HweolRidda Yes, in the Netherlands and in Denmark sport cyclists like mountainbikers and race bike cyclists wear helmets because of the higher risk of getting injured, just like in the rest of the world. But when cycling to my work at ~20 km/h (on an upright single speed classic dutch bike) I never wear a helmet, and almost nobody does here, only some expats do.
All arguments in favor of bike helmets are equally valid for anything else where a head injury is possible, e.g. driving a car or just in a car, working on a construction site or walking barefoot in your bathroom. The question is what is the threshold where the risk becomes too high. I've thought about this and decided from a risk standpoint it makes more sense to wear a helmet inside a car, which is what I do now. I mean, even in Formula 1 or NASCAR they also do that. For some reason people look at me strange, so I guess it's more of a cultural than a rational thing.
Thank you for a very informative video about how bike helmets fit into overall bike safety. It's definitely a more nuanced decision than I initially thought.
I had a very serious accident in the early morning a couple years back,which resulted in a hospital stay with a concussion,stitches,road rash,smashed eyeglasses.I wasn't wearing a helmet then ,but ever since then I've worn one
Helmets save brain cells. I'm a cyclist and a physician who has worked in brain injury rehab. In severe multi-trauma with significant injuries to many body parts, a helmet probably won't save you from a brain injury (aka concussion) or death. If you do survive, what a helmet may do is lessen the degree of brain injury from severe to moderate or maybe even minor. Severe brain injury means that you have permanent physical damage to the brain that can be imaged on MRI or CT. This usually comes with loss of personality, loss of cognition (memory, attention, complex reasoning etc. etc.). You are not the same person you were before and may depend on others caring for you for the rest of your life. With a lesser degree of impact a helmet may save you from a moderate brain injury characterized by loss of memories extending beyond 24 hours before and after your injury, and loss of consciousness of greater than 30 minutes. Moderate brain injuries may include physical permanent damage to the brain with retention or recovery of many if not all cognitive abilities. With a bike helmet on you may end up with a mild traumatic brain injury. This includes loss of consciousness of 30 minutes or less. You may not even lose consciousness at all, but feel dazed or spaced out. There may be loss of memories for events a few hours before and after the event. The damage is physiological with no permanent brain damage. Most people get better within 2 to 12 weeks. And my two crashes? Both on Calgary bike paths. On one, a skateboarder jumped off a wall next to the path and wacked me off my bike. I did a pretty good roll and was OK with no symptoms of brain injury at all. My helmet was cracked to shit though (as it was designed to do). On the second though, an unrestrained dog ran under my front wheel. That's my last memory till I was in the shower at work wondering why I ached so badly. That was about 5 km from the crash site. Again, my helmet was smashed to shit. I have no idea whether I was unconscious or not. The dog owner obviously didn't care and didn't call EMS etc. I had to take a week off work as I couldn't concentrate enough to do intellectual work. Two weeks later though I was well enough to be the convenor of a conference in Toronto - on ........... traumatic brain injury. In both cases the helmet saved me from a greater degree of injury - in the second case possibly permanent. This is my own experience, but the stats back me up. So even the seemingly safest ride can be the one with the unforseen event. I don't leave home without my helmet.
Thanks for sharing. The thing that the helmet does is that it reduces the g force dramatically during from your head stopping when it hits the immovable object , generally the pavement. Since the brain is more or less a gelatinous semi fluid it is still moving after the head stops and smashed against the skull brusing and killing the brain cells. This type of injury is going to be life long ...battle with behavior problems that arise as a result. Most of us don't understand where it's coming from due to general lack of treatment afterward , because the injury didn't seem to be severe. Frustration and anger management is common. I used to get so frustrated that I would end up hitting my head with my first and even bang it against a concrete wall. I did this for decades after smashing my head on a concrete sidewalk after being launched head first over the bars at probably 18 mph and thrown straight to the sidewalk. I remember saying to myself "I could die" some how I got my right shoulder to hit first and a big thud when my head hit without a helmet. I got up ...I couldn't see and hearing a woman's voice saying that she had just finished her EMS training I can still clearly her that to this day almost 49 years later ) and that I needed to go to an ER. She took me into a bathroom...to deal with the blood that was poring out of a small cut and the university police took me to the ER. Fortunately nothing was " broken " and I needed stitches and was observed for some hours and went home...I also had a pretty herd hit when I was about four years old. That time I was "out" for a bit and came back.I still remember that like yesterday...sixty years ago. My mother had a severe bleeding stroke 5 months ago she can't talk and is not able to use her left side, you know she is there and knows we are there and we keep up hope. As I believe she is too.
Brilliant video! Thanks so much for diving into this emotionally charged issue. I’ll be bookmarking this video and recommending it as needed in the future. Cheers! John 😊
Nice background, nice people, great conversation! I came off my bike a few years back on a greasy bend here in Dublin. It happened in an instant and I was wearing my helmet and cycling shorts. I became intimate with the road surface through my ankle, hip bone, shoulder and helmet encased head. I jumped up and continued home where I struggled to undress and shower once the adrenaline stopped pumping. My helmet and shredded bib shorts went into the bin and my wounds healed quickly with help from the local ER. They sent me to a plastic surgeon who spoke about skin grafts but I convinced her I’d heal quickly. The most interesting part was they also sent me to a trauma surgeon who examined me and then gave me a very interesting lecture on how my helmet acted as a ‘lubricant’ as I slid across the tarmac on my LHS eventually coming to a stop without hitting anything. He said the helmet did its job in this particular case but would not have prevented whip lash injuries had I hit an obstacle with my head. He was quite pleased with his lecture as was I with the outcome.
I loved this video. I have rode for 40 years and had my share of crashes. I have never hit my head. I wear a helmet since I typically have to mix with traffic between the shared paths but it is just there on the off chance I get hit at an angle and hit my head. I make sure to have my lights working and keep my bike maintained and this has kept my incidents very low. This is such a great channel. Thanks for the great information.
Something not mentioned here (unless I missed it) was how helmets don’t do a lot for what happens if a bike is hit by a car, which if often what leads to fatalities. It was touched on that only 25% of injuries are head injuries, but more specifically if a car hits an bike in an urban environment the person is far more likely to have serious body injury or be crushed under the car, where the helmet will do little. This is a big difference from say, a cycling race or mountain biking, where falling or crashing into another bike will be more likely to lead in bopping your head on the ground or a rock or something, which makes helmets “make more sense” in those scenarios. The higher speeds or less-ideal terrain also make falling more likely in general than how (most people) cycle in urban environments.
I was recently one of the 600+ people hospitalized after a crash. Everyone from the EMT to various staff at the hospital all asked me if I was wearing a helmet. I answered yes and then they said oh good. Then i told them it didn't matter because I didn't crash into the fence with my head, I crashed into the fence with my face and the helmet didn't help (or hurt to be fair). The crash was because of a stupid decision and I sure won't do that again but I do ride in all situations so I will continue to wear a helmet. Loved the info on risk assessment and risk behavior.
i was also once hospitalized from a bike crash many moons ago with abrasion wounds on my limbs and face-didn't lose consciousness or mental acuity but was, like you, still gratuitously shamed by the doctor who stitched me up for not wearing a helmet, even though it didn't make a difference in the injuries sustained: there really is an ill-conceived, pervasive mentality that helmets are the be-all and end-all of cyclist safety
@@isaacanderson5806 No. He was letting you know you could have been hurt worse and asking you about your attitude about bike safety. You made it clear what it was. Better luck next time, as it sounds like you are depending on luck. Good thing you don't need it, .
Amazingly concise breakdown of topic. I'm rapidly approaching 30K on my e-bike commute; every kilometre, helmeted. Yet two weeks ago I found myself on an evening e-bike tour through the heart of Rome, helmetless, because the option was available. So many details revealed in this video's analysis helped me understand why I was able to make that decision in Rome. Excellent content Tom!
Haha, I make my commute half helmeted and half unhelmeted, but propably for the same reasonings as you! It's because I usually ride to work at around 2-3 am. Streets are pretty damn empty, and cars usually keep a pretty big distance, because without ongoing traffic, there is allways space to pass by safely. And the majority of drivers that are around at this time are pretty calm (go figure, no traffic) and respectfull. Except for those god damn taxi drivers. They drive reckless AF. Also, some chunks of my way are seperated. This makes the ride very relaxed, safe (make sure to be seen tough) and comfortable. There are very little dangers around, I feel fine without a helmet. When I ride home, different story. I'm not even in the rush hour, but there are still so many cars. All the portions that aren't seperated in any way (around 50%) are often pretty unsafe. Drivers simply pay no mind about safe distances when passing by. The only way to "survive" is to ride as fast as possible and to take your space on the lane. I wear a helmet then. I'm not sure how much the helmet will help me in case of a crash, but I suppose It won't do me harm.
Thank you for both of your efforts to present this information. Your discussion referenced a lot of published research. I tried looking for some of those references, specifically the 2013 BC study comparing the risk of various modes of transportation. I could not find that paper. Granted, I didn't spend a lot of time. I was surprised that you didn't link to or at least list the publication titles in the video description. I know it would be a lot of work to do so for a video posted 9 months ago but I would be very interested and I assume other viewers may be too.
Ugh thank you for this!! I live in BC so I have to wear one to avoid a ticket but when I lived in Scotland I never wore one and nobody ever asked me about it. They did ask “where’s your high-vis vest?” Which makes so much more sense to me. Be seen so you don’t get hit! I love a leisurely ride with my hair flowing in the wind. I still do it occasionally but I can’t relax as much because I’m so anxious about a cop driving by 😞. Anyway, love your videos. Thanks!
British Columbian here. So far no ticket when I ride, but the police have much bigger issues to deal with here. However, when I rode a bike in Saskatoon I was issued a warning to get a bell on my bike (no ticket because I was new to town at that time and the bike was borrowed).
Interesting that a high-vis vest seems more sensible than a helmet to you. That is what your bicycle's reflectors (from the side) and lights (front and back) are for. That part of high-vis equipment is closer to the ground tho, which might make a difference for stupidly large SUVs.
@@HowToMakeDinner Okay, seems like I have a luxury here that I wasn't even aware is a luxury. People here actually see other people better at daylight. High-Vis is only ever talked about for night-time.
I would be interested in a study on how much your risk gets reduced by high-vis (but also just bright colored) clothing. You'd think that it should mainly have a larger impact at night. But then again, lights are fairly obvious at night but in daylight they may even be less obvious than bright clothing.
Almost 20 years ago now, I got hit by a car as a teen on my bike (pretty bad, broke a leg and some other bones). That experience, ironically, made me realize I didn't need the helmet every ride. It's not the most important safety equipment. What matters is a bike that works (brakes!), good lights, visible clothing, and a strong, vested interest in your own survival. Paying attention, understanding the road and what drivers and others around are likely to do, etc., will prevent the vast majority of incidents. I still wear a helmet on many rides, especially if the roads shared with cars will be tight/fast. I don't bother around town. I have been harassed occasionally by well-meaning strangers, usually from their car next to me at a stop light. I also spend every summer on motorcycles and with no doors on my Jeep. Both of those things are probably a greater danger than not wearing a bike helmet, but no strangers ever harass me about it in public. The indoctrination is real.
lol I've ridden with friends who are bad drivers and can tell you visibility clothing doesn't matter at all. They just don't give a shit and are zooming around.
@@biggibbs4678 This is slightly true, there are definitely drivers who are incompetent and won't look out for them, but most drivers will and wearing high-vis is much more effective than wearing helmets.
It's nice to hear a case where anecdotal evidence has actually led to a consideration of all the factors and each of their risks. The indoctrination is all over this comment thread, despite the content of the video....
I've been cycling over the entire span you described. There was no bike infrastructure, and nobody wore a helmet when I started. I may still have my old Bell helmet somewhere. I always wear a helmet, partly because I don't want a child to see me riding without one, and decide not to. By the way, there is a huge difference between a head injury and other injuries.
I don't wear a helmet, simply because it doesn't suit me. If a child sees me, they might well think cycling is a nice activity. Wearing a helmet suggests that it is unsafe.
@@chrisclark1761 That's some weird logic. So... wearing a seatbelt suggests that driving a car is unsafe? In the US there are 140,000 cases of traumatic brain injury in children under 18 each year just from biking... Not sure what doesn't suit you about helmets. Being a vegetable doesn't suit me.
@@Ego_Katana Are you sure that's a correct number? There's about 60 million kids between 5 and 18 (ignoring the younger age group as they're unlikely to ride a bicycle) which would mean that yearly 2 in 1000 kids suffer traumatic brain injury from cycling alone; and over the full 14 years they're in this age group it would be 3 per 100! That sounds like an incredible high number, especially as there are way more causes for traumatic brain injury than cycling alone (like falling while walking or climbing etc., or doing other sports where you can get hit by a ball or have a collision with another player, etc.)
Regarding the point about lower accident rates with rideshare bikes, not only are you sitting upright for better visibility and comfort, their design also usually permit you to be able to put your feet on the ground easily while still seated on the saddle. This can make it easier to safely stop with little to no notice, never mind balancing when waiting at a stop or red light. Most bikes sold in the US don’t let you do that.
You can adjust the seats on rental bikes. Sometimes when I go to the bike stand, people have those seats adjusted to ridiculous heights. I always have to adjust them downward so I can put my feet on the ground.
Usually the seat is adjusted to each person riding. Which is about the same as someone putting the seat at their desired height on their personal bike. So I'm not convinced that is the reason they are safer. Upright, heavy, and wide tires seems more likely to me.
Upright, heavier and thus steadier though less nimble. What I meant about being able to put your feet flat on the ground is the location of the bottom bracket to the seat allows for both good leg extension while pedaling, and the ability to easily put your feet flat on the pavement while remaining seated. Many (though not all) “Dutch” and some cruiser style bikes have this geometry. Most bikes in the US do not. I wish more did. Most rideshare bikes I’ve seen or ridden do.
A lot of people simply don’t know how to fall or how to maneuver their bike. I played contact sports and mountain biked growing up so my confidence is high
Just an anecdote from Denmark here: I used to live in Copenhagen and rode my bike from and to work every day. The commute was about 10km each way, and most of the way was with separated bike lanes. In the 5 years I rode every day on this route, I was hit by a car no less than 3 times and one of the times I was slung on the hood and only came off the car when he stopped. All 3 times happened because the driver just crossed the lane without looking. Granted it was a very stupid section of road where parked cars would block the line of sight for cars going to the right (across the bike lane). One of the times I am pretty sure the helmet saved my life or at least saved me from a seriously bad time since even with the helmet on I got a pretty serious concussion. I'm wearing a helmet, and I am teaching my kids to wear one too. I think the argument of riders taking more risks because of helmets is a stupid one. I feel unsafe in traffic with cars no matter what I am wearing. I have also broken enough bikes on my mountain bike to know that gear does not equal immortality, and I also knew that before I went to the hospital. You can't say that gear makes people reckless without in the same sentence a mention that the helmet actually works and saves lives.
Imagine living in a country where most cars are actually lifted pick-up trucks or SUVs. You wouldn't have been on the hood of the car: you would have been under the car.
Hit by a car three times and you still kept on cycling the same way to your job, that's brave! I would have stopped cycling or chosen a completely different route to work
Dutch guy chiming in 🙂: I loved your thorough discussion of the whole bike safety conversation, and checking the facts to see what actually holds up. I'd say you're spot on, including your concluding statement: leave it up to people to decide whether they want to wear a helmet or not. In the Netherlands, nobody really tends to wear a helmet on their commutes, except perhaps old people on e-bikes. And small kids that get pressured by their parents to wear them. Everyone else: only when mountainbiking or fast road biking. Works out just fine 👍
In the Netherlands, I understand the case to be that they really understand that biking is another aspect of commuting. In the States, every city I've lived in thinks that biking is an aspect of exercise only. Helmets are very important when every commute is a survival sport around and through cars. Wish we made our streets as you've made yours.
If I am going to average over 25kph I will wear a helmet. Kids are biologically more susceptible to head injuries from minor falls, so pressure to wear them is completely understandable.
Another Dutchie here… loved the discussion as well. Here in NL I would never consider wearing a helmet because of our great biking infrastructure and culture which makes it pretty safe already. I don’t think wearing a helmet would significantly increase safety. The only injuries I’ve had were a broken ankle (on a bmx track), a scuffed elbow and a chipped tooth, all in my early teenage years. However, if I would cycle in the US or Canada (or any other country with more aggression towards cyclists) I might wear a helmet, when I would have to ride among fast moving cars.
@@anouk6644 do you do any night riding or fast riding? There is no doubt that it increases safety, the question is how much which is dependent on person.
I don’t wear one if that’d make me not ride my bike due to heat/inconvenience. It’s better to ride than not to ride, helmeted or helmetless! Statistically there are more traumatic head injuries per unhelmeted km in cars and on foot, so if i’m not wearing a helmet on foot or when i get a ride on a car… yeah!
Ironically, I’m an ER nurse and I commute to work in inner city houston and sometimes I wear my helmet, sometimes I don’t. I believe always being aware of my surroundings and not riding like an asshole will protect me a lot more than any helmet can.
Thank you both for this fascinating conversation. I do realize that a foam hat will do little to protect me if I get right-hooked by a: dump truck, cement truck, semi, or bus (I've heard about and seen all of these). I still wear it, because I've fallen off my bike a number of times; they were all slow speed and my fault, and one of these days I might hit my head. I'd rather have a concussion than a concussion with a skull fracture. Also, governments don't do well with nuance.
Do seatbelts, air bags, crumple zones, ABS, etc., make people believe that driving a car is dangerous? So I don’t agree that it’s a great point that people wearing helmets suggests cycling is dangerous.
A helmet has nothing to do with cars. It only has to do with falling off your bike. It only protects you from a fall from 6 feet or so on to a flat surface. Anyone who is talking about cars and helmets is missing something. It is not the cars that are the issue when riding with traffic it is that your speed is likely higher and the road quality is likely lower. These are the reasons I wear a helmet when I am riding on roads with motor vehicles.
I've been riding bikes for many years, in fact it's been my main mode of transport for most of my life. I've only hit my head once. That was because a car hit me and I fell off, head on the street... So I disagree slightly.
@@ZesPak Your accident was exactly what a bicycle helmet is designed for so I am glad that you where wearing one. However a car hit a pedestrian and causing them to fall and hit their head would also benifit from a helmet, but there is not talk about pedistrians wearing helmets, and this is bucause there is not enogh benifit from it. If you are riding your bike a at speed or on a surface where you are likely to fall off you bicycle you should wear a helmet. I wear a helmet on my race bike. Helmets are built to absorb impacts typically up to around 12-15 mph-speeds common in single-rider falls or low-speed impacts. In a crash with a car moving at 30 mph, the force is significantly higher than what a bicycle helmet is designed to absorb. This was the point I was attempting to make.
@@AllenMorris3 ah I see. A lot depends on where you ride of course. A human falling on his own won't likely need a helmet as most of us aren't running around at 20km/h. The issue with using your bike for everyday use (like I do) is you mingle with cars all the time. You're going on average 20km/h and share your space with metal boxes travelling twice that, so the need for a helmet is amplified IMHO.
This might be your best video yet. You treat the subject fairly and comprehensively. Helmet fundamentalism™ is a real problem. I almost always wear a helmet, and I could be a poster child for helmet advocacy, as my helmet probably saved my life once and reduced my probable injury several times. But I do not think helmet wearing is paramount, and mine is a nuanced view. SKILL is a big factor in a cyclist’s safety, one I hope you touch upon eventually. I have taught safe cycling, and with my many years and miles of cycling on roads and streets, I feel I’m safer than most even when I’m bareheaded and others are helmeted. I am pretty good at predicting road users’ behavior, and I’m good at being predictable to others. These skills are very valuable. I also evaluate my role in near hits, because when the “other guy” seems to be at fault, maybe I at least played a role.
Some good points. I've learned a lot of skills about awareness and predicting what other road users are doing from cycling many many years. I feel pretty safe on the roads and don't mind riding with traffic. But I think about what I'm doing also so motorists don't spazz out when they are around me. I also feel that the Varia bike radar makes me safer than wearing a helmet does because again awareness of where that vehicle is so I react better.
I disagree with the idea that skill has much to do with safety in the city. Sure when I'm out in the mountains, it's all me. But in the city, you are at the mercy of the drivers, and I've only avoided injury until now on too many occasions by sheer luck to believe skill has anything to do with it. Too many drivers simply do not care that we are out there sharing the road with them.
@@wilfdarr I understand how you would feel that way but you honestly believe you had nothing to do with the outcome of a close call? You think is was divine luck that things didn't go worse? I don't believe in that. I don't believe when people say it just wasn't my time or there must be a plan for me and I haven't fulfilled my purpose in life yet. I don't know about luck either because I surely haven't had much of it. You are right though, we are at the mercy of the drivers, and who knows what they are thinking.
@@wasupwitdat1mofiki94 Divinity has nothing to do with it, just blind luck: if I had approached the intersection a couple seconds earlier or later (depending on the instance), I'd have had an accident. Unless you're suggesting that I ride around at 5kph all day every day to avoid getting into accidents with stupid drivers, then no, they couldn't have REASONABLY been avoided.
I dont think wearing a helmet has anything to do with skills but everything with bike infrastructures. Streets can be narrow, people around may not pay attention for a moment or even a simple branch may stick out in your way. I like to be protected for different situations
It might be anecdotal but one day my dad got in a bike accident where he was wearing a helmet. I saw the helmet because he'd fallen on the ground and it was ground flat on one side. My dad's still around, so that's enough of an incentive for me.
I got hit by a car last year and scuffed up my face really bad _with_ a helmet. The helemt itself was junked. I'd been hemming and hawwing on my continued commitment to wearing a helmet and am sure glad I did. I would have broken much worse than my arm that day.
Very interesting discussion! I always wear a helmet but in my California commute I am forced to merge directly into 45mph/70kph traffic and there are numerous opportunities to be right hooked. Maybe I’d reconsider if I could ride on a protected path
Same. If we had better infrastructure, then maybe I would feel safe enough to cycle to work and school without a helmet. But I've had way too many close calls with distracted drivers running lights, turning without signaling or looking, or just veering over. If a helmet can reduce my chance of a head injury in those situations, I don't see any compelling argument for why I shouldn't wear one.
Yeah, see I’d be wearing a helmet too. But my daily commute is done on the sidewalks because Florida says “we don’t need bicycle infrastructure if we have sidewalks” At least I’m not merging into traffic but I definitely have had close calls with people blowing the stop sign at my nearest supermarket plaza. They literally will kill you just so they can get home 0.000045 seconds earlier and put the milk in the fridge.
I've broken 2 helmets in accidents. I bought my first helmet in 1990 after riding for many years without one (in fact in the UK no-one wore a helmet, even for racing when I started serious cycling in around 1970 when I wanted to get fit for sailing). I got knocked off (and out) on my way home from work and decided to get one for my 13 mile each way commute. Fortunately I was on my way to work when a cat ran across the road and attempted to run through my front wheel. I ended up in hospital for a fortnight and off work for 3 months. I was a paraplegic for several days and still suffer partial paralysis over 30 years later. The helmet suppliers gave both my wife and I new helmets and used my old one for display. 18 months later I came off a hired mountain bike in Yorkshire and seriously modified my face and got knocked out again. OK it was icy limestone and it looked worse than what it was but it was another broken helmet. My first accident prompted most members of my cycle club to get helmets and now I always wear one though I much preferred being bare-headed. I'm 82 now and still ride though much less than formerly and with a little electrical assistance. You're not an idiot. It's your choice (though with the US health business it may be a bigger risk than here, in the UK). With my experience I think I'd be an idiot not to wear one.
With a 13 mile commute I'd imagine you're moving with a brisk spend and attempting to go upwards of 25-30mph with traffic. I use a helmet when I'm in those circumstances too. (There's a 7 mile ride I often take and I always wear my helmet for that ride.) But then there are many short distance rides on narrow city streets with traffic going 10-20mph. I do those rides almost daily and never wear a helmet. The risk is significantly lower and I frankly feel less safe walking than bicycling in my neighborhood.
@@chriswatson3464 No. Why would they? Incidentally, I used to compete in motorcycle trials and, like all the other riders, just wore a flat cap. I think helmets are required now but I'm talking about the 1970/80s - when I was a lad :)
i know why youre supposed to wear a helmet, but the crossing guards at my elementary school always yelled at us that our parents can get in huge trouble if we dont wear a helmet. I lived 200 ft from the school. I couldve walked and made it just fine.
I don't commute by trike and never will since I work from home, but I always wear a helmet on my tricycle rides. I'm already severely disabled partially due to neurological issues, I don't need to hit my head in a tricycle accident to make it worse.
I was leaving in Sweden and never wore a helmet except during the winter! Every winter I fell at least once. Now I moved to the US and I always wear a helmet but I wouldn’t feel judged if I didn’t. I just choose to wear it because I think the likelihood for me to fall here is higher.
For years I rode, trained and raced road bikes. I rode about 200 miles a week and over the course of time I broke 2 helmets the hard way. People can do as they wish but I will choose to wear a helmet.
This was an incredible deep drive into the helmet question, thanks! I'm about were you ended up... I wear it to mountain bike, but typically don't around town unless I'm on a new and unfamiliar route. I don't "road bike" as a sport though, I ride primarily for transportation. I don't ride an e-bike, but I personally think I'd consider wearing one in that case too. I've heard people talk about riding around at 20 mph on those and my average speed tends to be much lower than that.
I don't get that "i don't wear helmet in familiar setting" reasoning. Do you believe that just because the route you take is familiar to you nothing surprising or bad can happen? Or perhaps since route is familiar you have more time and energy to focus on unfamiliar things and react to them. instead of going to autopilot like studies have shown people tend to do? Yes, going slower gives you better time to react to certain things, but does not prevent cars or even animal from hitting you suddenly. It also does not prevent mechanical failures or problems with riding surface from occuring.
@@villekorhonen824 For me, it's about knowing about the quality of the infrastructure on the route... at least where I live the quality of the infrastructure is highly variable; great in some places and completely awful in others. When I'm going somewhere I go all the time and I know there's safe infra on the route, I have no issue going without a helmet. But if I'm going somewhere unfamiliar and I can't guarantee the quality of the route I might choose to wear the helmet as an extra layer of safety. Honestly though, I've been riding a bike for approaching 40 years and I've never had an issue, mechanical or otherwise, where a helmet would have been a factor. I've been injured worse in car crashes during my life than I ever have been injured on my bicycle (not counting mountain biking, which I crash all the time doing of course lol). I'd love to see safer infra though because that's where the biggest gains in safety will be. That being said, I have nothing against anyone that feels that given their cycling ability and environment that a helmet is appropriate for them. If it makes ya feel safer, go for it... otherwise, ditch it. My biggest beef is when it's held up as the "solution" to bicycle safety by cities or organizations.
Thanks for a UA-cam video that made me think. I wear a helmet all the time when riding because my wife asks me to. OTOH, here in my (U.S., car-favoring) town, I go far out of my way to avoid traffic. I take alleyways and side streets because I'm retired and thus have time. I ride for my health, so it's a little ridiculous for me to worry about how long I'm on the bike. After a lifetime of "driving for a living", just pulling the car out of the garage is work to me so I only use the car when have to. Without my wife's request, I still might wear a helmet, because that is where I mount my most reliable rear-view mirror (yeah I know- I'm a dork)
Look, regardless of infrastructure accidents happen. When I was in mine and went over the handlebars I landed right on my head, then shoulder, pinky (dislocated that), and then back on my head that skidded along the ground. My helmet took all the hits my head would have. Getting my pinky fixed and stitched up was a pain but the lack of head trauma and facial scarring was a plus. Wear a helmet, you only got one brain meat.
Why I wear a full face mountain bike helmet in urban environments: - In Australia we have a vicious bird (read small dinosaur) called the Magpie which will draw blood if you ride near it's nest in the Spring time. It prefers ears. - I mount a light on the helmet to look into the corners with handlebar light lighting the forward direction. Flashing light during daylight. - The light mount will handle a GoPro if you want to record what hit you! - Front peak provides good sun protection. - Naturally the helmet is painted like a "Boba Fett" helmet. Very informative, well researched and balanced discussion on helmets and bike safety.
it's quite logical to use a helmet or other protective gear if the environments you are in is hostile towards you, be it either by animals or boxes on wheels.
I've broken my arm and wrist on my bike while wearing a helmet. I've stopped wearing one for my commute or getting groceries. I ride slower and more carefully without the helmet. Love the coverage on this topic.
Why don’t you just…… i don’t know….. ride slower while wearing a helmet? Seriously, do you not have the self control to watch your speed in general? Where does this line of reasoning end for you? Do you not wear a seatbelt in a car because if you wear it you drive faster? This is just such trash logic.
I mean, it's great if you ride more carefully, but do be aware that it is not always enough. Sudden things happen which you are unable to avoid no matter how careful you are. And even if it were, are you actually completely focused all the time, especially when riding an familiar route? I highly doubt that.
You can try to be as cautious as possible but that won’t avoid the scenario of some clown coming out of nowhere and hitting you. Or any number of other scenarios. You’d be nuts to chance it.
It's silly to go through a thought process to decide if you need a helmet or not every time you get on a bike. How fast am I going? is it raining? Is the traffic light or heavy? Is the road surface good? Am I familiar with the area? Make it an automatic action that you don't need to think about and you'll hardly ever forget it. I've been road and mountain biking (some races) for 40+ years and skateboarding when younger. I had multiple events where my head stuck the ground. The only one where I was laid up with a concussion, I was not wearing a helmet. It escapes me why people go through so much effort to validate their actions to not wear a helmet.
Racing and skateboarding is not bicycle commuting. I have been a bicycle commuter for a decade and have never worn a helmet and I have never crashed head first into anything, neither have the tens (hundreds?) of thousands of Europeans that commute every day by bike. There is no life threatening danger to cyclists except for unsafe behavior by the cyclist (i.e. racing, doing tricks, or mountain biking) or automobiles. Vote for better bike infrastructure or to make illegal the automobile if you actually care about the health of cyclists.
@@CcCc-i6q You are lucky. I have been hit three times, commuting to and from work and school over the decades. One time if I haven't had a helmet on, I likely would have been severely injured. I was not racing, I was not trick riding. Every time the car hit me. I did not hit them.
Yeah I just don't go through the process. Don't own one don't wear one. Pretty simple. Now I'm not doing anything extreme. If that was the case then it's a no Brainer.
So why don’t you wear any the same protection that motorcyclists are advised to wear, including protection for knees, hips and elbows, and a full face helmet? You’re likely to hit in all the same places if you crash your bike. Similarly, why wouldn’t you wear that protection as a pedestrian crossing streets in a busy city?
@@JamesCrandallPainting There's so many easy to see answers: 1) The types and likelihood of serious injury incidents daily cyclists will experience will be almost entirely covered by wearing a helmet. 2) Body armour will not be needed at all falling at 15 km/h, or prevent things like broken bones when being hit by a car. The velocity of the head striking the ground at that speed however will definitely be protected by a helmet. 3) Speed. The regular cyclist has trouble maintaining 30 km/h, let alone 50-100+ km/h as a motorcyclist can at the flick of a wrist. Motorcyclists also ride a 300kg mass of metal and rubber that can drag/push them down the road. 4) Cost/risk: A small addition of things like a seatbelt or bike helmet can reap massive benefits and harm reduction in the vast majority of situations a person is likely to encounter. 5) The moto gear part is a false argument against wearing *any* protection: "you don't wear all of it, so wear none of it". 6) Motorcyclists ride in high speed traffic. The vast majority of cyclists don't or are workling hard to not to with infrastructure. 7) When was the last time you saw a cyclist highside their bicycle? 8) The pedestrian part is a reductionalist argument the other way: Eveything's risky, even walking down the stairs, (which is more risky than walking in a busy city) so why even do anything? They are also heavily protected by proper road infrastructure such as crosswalks and traffic lights. 9) DH, enduro and all-mountain Mountain bikers *do* wear all of that gear because they're in situations where they need that protection 100% of the time. XC, they don't. With freestylers, body armour won't help them in a drop of 20-30 feet. I'm sure there are more arguments as to why simply wearing a helmet is in the sweet spot of protection for an everyday cyclist.
Ironically, the best place to wear a cycle helmet is on protected infrastructure. There's a good chance a cycle helmet will provide some protection if you fall off your bike at low speed. Cycle helmet certification tests generally involve a drop onto a surface from a couple of metres, so that's the sort of collision they're designed to withstand. If you're mixing with cars, then the cycle helmet is only likely to be of much use in a very low speed collision (
The likelihood of you getting a traumatic brain injury or dying is much less on protected infrastructure, so I don't think it makes it better to wear one then, regardless if the safety of the helmet will negate that specific kind of crash entirely. The point of wearing a helmet in traffic isn't to negate the crash entirely, but to reduce the risk of traumatic brain injury or death, which is far more likely on un-protected infrastructure. Of course, there's no blanket statements to be made. Each person has to ask themselves about their own likelihood of getting into a crash even on protected infrastructure: Am I an aggressive rider? Am I riding an upright bike? Am I older or not very physically-coordinated? Am I biking in bad weather or are the bike paths in bad condition? etc.
[Under US standards bike helmets are tested in 2 meter drops that achieve about 14 miles per hour (22.5 kph) on the flat anvil.] Aug 21, 2022 - Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute
@@Ryan_hey I don't think a collision is more likely riding in traffic than on protected infrastructure, just that the chance of a severe collision is more likely. Unfortunately, in that severe collision, a bicycle helmet is unlikely to be of any use in reducing traumatic brain injury or death. What a helmet will help with, is the sort of traumatic brain injury sustained by tripping over coming out of the pub drunk and banging your head on a kerb. But nobody seems to wear them on a night out!
@@shm5547 Actually, if you watched this video, they discussed numerous sources which found that helmets do help to reduce traumatic injuries, somewhere around 60%. Collision is definitely far more likely on unprotected infrastructure, because you're not protected from cars at all. With protected infrastructure, you're better protected against cars. That's kinda the point in having it. Many sources in this video are mentioned which back up this point.
@@Ryan_hey A collision doesn't have to involve a car. That's the point. A cycle helmet is much better suited to protecting the wearer when the collision doesn't involve a car: they're just not designed for that. Hence paradoxically, you'd get more benefit from wearing one on protected infrastructure. You'd also get benefit wearing one as a pedestrian. But we tend not to, because the risk of tripping over walking to the shops is low. The risk of collision when cycling on the road with motorised traffic is still low (even lower for the small subset of low speed collisions that might make a helmet useful), but the perceived risk is what drives behaviour. The point is, you can choose to wear one or not, but the stats show that it is not the answer to reducing cycling casualties.
I personally always wear a helmet. Doesn't matter if I'm mountain biking, gravel biking or commuting. That's just my personal choice and comes from my personal experience of a few very close calls. I think it's up to the individual rider. I choose to wear one, but at the same time won't damn someone else for their personal choice to not wear one.
Here's a fun subversion of expectations. Flip the script and wear a helmet when you walk or drive somewhere, then point out that you're just as likely to get injured in this context.
I feel like this is a false equivalency? In a car, you have airbags, seat belts, reinforced structures in the frame as well as frame parts designed to reduce impact forces by crumpling. Loads of safety features to reduce injury to you as a driver/passenger. Walking generally isn’t done on the road and certainly doesn’t hit the speeds of cycling. There’s freak accidents but generally you’re not going to be dodging multi tonne metal boxes, some of whom wish you’d get the hell off the road, when walking as a pedestrian on a sidewalk. (bikes on sidewalks is a whole other story, and outside of designated cycle paths, i believe bikes should stay off sidewalks) Bike helmets aren’t just “world gone soft”. They’re a piece of legitimate safety gear that can seriously reduce risk. Cycle safety has a long way to go, town and city infrastructure could be improved massively, but while it is where its at, the least we can do is protect ourselves.
Whoa! I really loved this! What seemed like a cavalier question about safety turned into a fantastic, in-depth, and well informed cycling safety discussion. As an individual whose been in a major cycling accident (while not wearing a helmet) I have to say I think I'll be wearing mine without exception for the foreseeable future; However Cailynn's research, and your discussion, have definitely changed the way I think about cycling safety in general. Thank you!
I suspect the chance of an accident also varies by region. Some of the math in this video is a little sophomoric though. Yes, there are other injuries aside from head injuries that send one to the hospital, but stroke and other brain injuries tend to be far more dire then, say, a broken arm or other bone. Even a 60% reduction in that would be pretty compelling to me. Sure, most people never have an accident. The same might hold true for cars and seatbelts. Still, I live in Somerville MA, and they put up white painted “ghost” bikes to commemorate bike deaths. One is in an area I often bike by. What is the downside of wearing a helmet? Messy hair?
@@davestokes3446 Even if this were the case, none of the statistics in the video are done using non-helmet wearers as controls. If most people wear helmets and the biggest cause of cyclist fatalities is torso crushes, we're suddenly using that as evidence to not wear helmets? Illogical. It's just as likely that helmets prevented what would have been the #1 cause of death, head injury, and now the next most vulnerable unprotected body part is causing deaths. Weird biased math in this video.
In addition to what’s been mentioned, it’s also important to remember that helmets DO NOT prevent mild TBIs (i.e. concussions). The energy from a crash is transferred through the helmet into the skull regardless. Helmets will prevent scalp injuries/more severe injuries to the skull.
The last generation of helmets has a feature called MIPS that is supposed to add protection in more realistic situations than a motorist picking you up by your ankles and dropping you on your head.
@@stephensaines7100 Thanks for that info. That shows that helmets can probably prevent severe head injuries, but not concussions. Concussions are hypothesized to occur from neuronal dysfunctional following kinetic energy transfer through the skull, not so much an anvil going through the skull.
When I was a kid (I'm 41 now) no one was wearing a helmet. Now, I see more and more people wearing them. To me, it looks stupid. I fell about 10 times. Got hit by a car 3 times ( pushed in a dich, nothing serious) and broke my collar bone once. Never ever I hit my head. And I don't know anyone who did. You know what saves lives? Lights!
Two friends wearing bike helmets both had low speed impacts against curb and tree root. Brain trauma. One was out of work for 6 months, other 3 years.. I always wear mine and I use a motorbike helmet on my ecargo bike.
You wearing , or not , will hurt NO ONE. If it’s not good enough for anyone else.. they’ll be okay. I promise. I think bad form like passing blindside and ignoring rules are the most offensive that lead to serious injury … but that’s MY opinion. Thanks for sharing awesome content with us.
We use the exact same nanny logic as helmet laws for all sorts of things. I'll believe it when you can order whatever pharmaceuticals you want from any manufacturer, buy a car without seatbelts or a crumple zone, etc.
Everything said in this video is true. But what's also true: This video has 93k views at the moment. If a fraction of these people stop wearing a helmet and a fraction of those people get into an accident and a fraction of *those* people injure their head, then putting this out there might directly lead to someone receiving a life altering (or ending) brain injury. Then again, there's also something to be said about letting people make informed decisions. Either way, I'm going to continue wearing a helmet, because that is a risk I'm just not willing to bear.
I recently injured my leg in a bike crash. Interestingly enough, the first question from many people upon hearing my leg was hurt was "were you wearing a helmet?" (I wasn't). I've been chastised over and over again for it, which is sort of fair, but... I broke my leg. A helmet wouldn't have helped in this case. What would have helped is better traffic calming and bike separating infrastructure in my neighborhood, because my crash had a lot to do with turning at high speed to try and match the pace of traffic.
clearly, you should have been wearing the helmet on your leg. duh. I always ask these helmet fascists if they wear helmets while traveling in a car or truck, as that is where most head injuries occur. When they admit they do not, I ask if they wear a helmet in the shower, b/c that's a very common situation as far as head injuries go, too. Makes it difficult to wash your hair, though.
I really liked the video, keeping calm and collected through a controverse topic. Keep at it. :) Personally i don't wear a helmet. I have always felt it cumbersome and irritating and perceived it to affect my road awareness. I have always been heavy on the sweat and the summers get hot here nowadays. So wearing a helmet can also contribute to overheating and perhaps sweat dropping into your eyes.
Bikes have always been my main mode of transportation. (Mainly motorcycles) I'm a firm believer in helmets because I've seen what they can do and I've also seen how easily a simple fall can cause brain injury. I didn't really wear one for commuting on the bicycle but now that I got a 29er, I'm looking at name brand helmets. Fly racing has been my go to brand and they've got some good looking helmets. Also, those e-bikes? I'd go with a full face mtb helmet for that.
I usually wear a helmet because there is no bike infrastructure where I live. I do ride at low speeds while sitting upright and with lights, but I still feel that the risk is high since I'm usually sharing the road with personal vehicles. As a bonus I get to have wind blockers around my ears and a sun shade because of my helmet! I would still prefer to not wear a helmet though, and I don't judge anyone either way :)
wow very interesting conversation. I don't wear a helmet myself however I do make the kids wear one as it is the law and also they don't have the same amount of experience on a bicycle as I do. It is so true there are many factors in riding a bike safely and I think the most important are how we are riding, where we are riding and visibility. Thanks for the interesting point of view.
Crashed on my bike yesterday. The cause of the crash was my speed and shoddy cargo hauling solution leading to poor control of the bike when I hit a bump in the pavement. I scraped my left elbow and my palms a bit. I was riding on a walking and cycling path as I nearly always do. A helmet would not have prevented my crash, nor would it have given me any protection in this case. I wasn't wearing a helmet, but if I did I would be a bit disappointed in it. Thanks for nothing, lol. Thicker gloves and a thicker jacket would have protected me, but obviously a better cargo solution or simply riding slower would have prevented the accident in the first place. Curiously, the only thing my girlfriend told me when I came home was that I needed to start always wearing a helmet. My own take away from the accident is that I need to ride much slower on non smooth surfaces and fix a proper cargo solution that doesn't lower my control over the bike. Reminds me of my driving teacher who always told me that the only factor you really need to consider when it comes to preventing accidents is speed. Lower the speed and every other accident risk factor fades into irrelevance. Doesn't matter if you are looking at your phone if you are standing still. Doesn't matter if the road is slippery if you are driving slow. Doesn't matter if it's foggy and you have poor vision if you are driving slow. Your slow reaction time or slow decision making doesn't matter if you are driving slowly enough to orient yourself and make your decisions.
> Reminds me of my driving teacher who always told me that the only factor you really need to consider when it comes to preventing accidents is speed. Lower the speed and every other accident risk factor fades into irrelevance. As a cyclist you can be hit and seriously injured even while stationary, whereas in a car you'll hardly receive critical injuries when traveling at city speeds.
Thankyou for sharing your story. I always wonder what proportion of anecdotes that 'support wearing a helmet' emit details about the riders own poor safety decisions. How many of the times where "a helmet saved a life" could the situation have been mitigated by other better safety choices.
@@MichaelRenner Actually there's a disproportionate amount of car driver/passenger deaths. They aren't as safe as we think. That's all part of our skewed risk analysis that was discussed in this video.
I wear a bike helmet because I have gone over my handlebars before and landed on my head - I was wearing a helmet then but could understand what would have happened if I was not. You can't always predict what might happen, but you can always plan for the worst.
maybe the large object on your head was the reason for hitting the ground, dont neglect hundreds of thousands of years of human evolution; you use a pillow at night for the same reason ;)
I ride a lot with my bike since childhood and I believe I am on the more aggressive side of the riding styles out there. But I would also consider myself somewhat "expert" since I am also riding downhill races and road bike races. Also commute daily here in Berlin. And from my experience of crashing and seeing other is, that yes you rarely fall on your helmet. But when you do, a helmet is your life insurance. And always remember - nobody ever wanted to crash but it will happen (somewhat by definition) when you don't expect it. So yes, my takeaway is there a are more important things we and our cities can do to stay safe - so don't ride like Rambo without any lights and reflector on you or your bike at night and expect that you are safe because of a helmet. Also cities must understand that we will probably die when we hit a car driving 50 km/h probably not because of brain damage but damage to internals and organs (I know) - so telling riders to wear a helmet but not doing anything for infrastructure is not doing shit. But please never compromise on obvious safety. For me a helmet is still a no brainer - pun intended.
I live in western Germany, the Netherlands (bicycle Mekka) are only 40 km away. I don´t consider Germany as a good bicycling area, although there are some exceptions. But the Netherlands definetely are. NOBODY wears a helmet there. Whenever they see a "Duits" with a helmet, they simply laught their ass off. As mentioned in the video, infrastructure is key. The Dutch have it, many others don´t. Whenever a helmet is recommended for everyday bike commuting, the traffic authorities are to hang their heads in shame!
There was a comment on a video I was watching a while back where a Dutch person was visiting their friend in the US; they also scoffed at the prevalence of helmets. Then they saw what biking _looked like_ in the US, with bikes sharing the road with cars and needing to accelerate very fast from dead stops and reaching high top speeds, and everything suddenly made sense to them. It's a shame that the prevalence of helmets as a safety requirement derailed almost every other measure that could've been undertaken to improve the safety of bike riding in general.
(not finished the video yet but I just wanted to share) I grew up in a small town in Asia where motorcycle dominated the roads (not cars, at least not during the time when I was a teenager). I rode bike to school every day for 5 - 6 years. During peak hours you will definitely see more students and bikes than motorcycles or cars in some roads. And no teens wearing helmet at that time. I know it is always safer to have one especially for teenagers and children. But we just don't see the risks. We were not running in the middle of the road; we were in OK speed; the roads were mainly flat and not hilly at all. The only risks (that could cause serious wound like on the head) were not from us but other gas vehicles when their drivers were not following the rules. And now I am in the US, a developed country, dominated by cars but also have properly designed dedicated bike lanes, I don't think there are huge external risks like the one mentioned above. Of course if I have a kid I would make sure they have the helmet and California law says so also. And California law also says helmet is not mandatory for people above 18, which I also agree. I really hope Americans can see bike as a daily commuting tools rather than only a sports and exercise equipment that people hope on a few times a week and only for exercising purpose. Psychologically, I feel safer when I was 15 on my way between school and home surrounded by my teenager friends and their bikes than right now hearing the roaring cars passing by me quickly and while me being alone and the only biker in the bike lane.
I watched this entire video and really tried to understand your points of view but my answer didn't change: yes, yes you absolutely are. If you went through this video and replaced the word "helmet" with "seatbelt" people would rightfully call you insane. If helmets are cool enough for Gordon Ramsay and Radiohead, they're cool enough for you. Don't discourage behavior that directly saves lives.
Wearing a helmet or not is YOUR personal decision that can greatly affect the severity of a crash. Missing infrastructure is something that you individually can hardly affect. Those two problems/questions should not be mixed up in a single discussion. Getting more people to ride a bike is good, of course, but you shouldn't refrain from implementing personal safety measures while at it because some might not like those. You don't try to get more people to ride cars by promising they don't need to wear a safety belt either, do you? I highly recommend wearing helmets form personal experience with my own crashes and accidents I have witnessed and was a first aid responder at. The ones with helmets were always far better off. Just thinking back of it I now have images in my head again I'd rather not have. A helmet does not only protect you in a forward collision with something, it also protects your face and ears while sliding over asphalt or gravel, which is quite common even during "lighter" accidents. I could be missing an ear had I not worn a helmet e.g. And while we're at it: I recommend gloves, too. Because even when little else happens in an accident, scraping the insides of your hands on the pavement isn't nice and can hinder your everyday life severly for days or a week. Putting on some gloves really doesn't hurt and in colder temperatures you'll do it anyway.
This was really interesting, thanks. It won’t affect my current choice to commute wearing a helmet, as conditions dictate this approach but for shorter, slower rides I’ll probably ride free-style again, see how it feels…
I know this can be an emotional issue for a lot of us, but my goal here is to get us thinking about what really makes cycling safer. If you choose to wear a helmet or not wear a helmet, the world is a better place if more of us choose to ride a bike more often. ❤
I live in Latinoamérica and I use fullface MTB helmet this has saved me twice times from damage in face and hard injuries in craneum
They reduce head injury by 60% and subsequent brain injury by 50%.
You may not be an idiot yet, but give it time.
Four weeks ago, I have no doubt a helmet saved my life, or at least stopped my life from changing drastically.
I was on a bike path beside a side walk. I was not going fast. There was no other cyclists or pedestrians near me. I commute, I don’t mountain bike, race, or otherwise trick ride. I was coming back with some birdseed from the pet store.
I crashed. Hit a rut that got my tire and down I went.
My head hit the pavement. I had bruising on my face despite wearing a helmet. The helmet was destroyed. The foam cracked in two places, the helmet shell cracked in one place.
In the last four weeks, my road rash has healed. The bruising on my face has healed. My shoulder is still healing. A head/brain injury would have been a different story.
I do agree that helmets may influence drivers of motor vehicles to be more aggressive to cyclists. I also agree that helmets may discourage some people from starting to cycle, as well as the other stats mentioned in the video. But I am not willing to give up my life because little Freddy is on the fence about cycling.
Embrace the Geek. Wear a Helmet. It only takes a split second and then there is no turning back.
(Besides, it gives you another place to mount a GoPro)
I appreciate you responding to this question I have definitely wondered. I thought it was a Canada versus US thing perhaps. Canadian bike infrastructure being better?
I type this reply while recovering from: surgery to repair my broken collarbone, a broken shoulder, two ribs, a mile of road rash, possible hip fracture, MASSIVE hematoma, and complete removal of the skin on my ankle. I was commuting after my second group ride of the day so my legs were spent; I was not going fast. I was on a protected cycleway by myself. A section of the chainlink fencing, that was supposed to be protecting me, had been pulled loose and was dangling into the cycleway. I just didn't see it. My head hit the pavement just as hard as the rest of my body. The helmet split in two. I am typing this now because I was not an idiot and wore a helmet. Bikes should come with a helmet.
I remember being like 9 or 10 years old in my hometown and a cop "pulled me over" on my bike. Because I was wearing my helmet, he gave me a "ticket" that was a coupon for a free soda and piece of pizza at a local restaurant.
I never know when I'll get another free soda and piece of pizza for it, so I've always worn my helmet ever since. It's been 25 years. I'm not kidding that one little thing stuck with me so hard as a child.
Wow I hope there are still more cops like that.
We need more cops like this
WOW! That's one helluva story.
@@jed7644 That's a great story, dude.
LEO should do that more often. BTW as a kid I didn't wear a helmet, reason, I don't think they existed in the 50s or the early 60s. I got my fist helmet in 1966 .. in the Army 🙂 I do wear a bike helmet
It was interesting to hear her mention that one reason she wears a helmet is because she knows if she's ever in an accident that's the first thing people will ask. I go all in on visibility for basically the same reason. If I get hit I want there to be no doubt about whether the driver could see me or not.
My ebike is equipped with a Harley Davidson LED headlight. I run it day and night. :^)
Well, that was the point of the World Naked Bike Ride...("can you see me now?")
This really is a huge deal. It's getting better, but the lack of serious reporting and even outright refusal of police to properly investigate collisions involving cyclists in Canada is ridiculous.
@@wturber my motorcycle had twin headlights, one was yellow. Still got t-boned and fleeeeew right onto my helmet. Phew!
True. Though I feel like, unless you're wearing all black, with no lights, on an unlit road, the burden of guilt should always fall on the driver. If a driver can't see you, they probably shouldn't be driving.
One of the biggest concerns in sharing the road with cars is in getting doored. Sometimes getting doored means flipping over the door and landing headfirst. Even without flipping over, you're likely to hit your head.
Almost tot doored a few times while driving a cargo bike. I wonder what would happen to the car door and the bike in such a collision.
The Netherlands has a much better way. See the channel, Not Just Bikes.
Happened to me last weekend, was riding in the bike lane with some friends and had no time to react. Honestly it's good I was the one it happened to because several of them weren't wearing helmets. Very glad I had it on and those friends reevaluated. Fuckin hurts though and the lady didn't apologize at all.
That's why you don't do that in the first place! If riders weren't "risk compensating" with the bike helmets, they'd be more careful and observant.
@@derekjolly3680 Bike lanes in the US are uncommon and are poorly thought out when they do exist. In the US either you A) share the road with cars, or B) go mountain biking. If you want to use a bike as transportation, you have to be uncomfortably close to cars. There's no room for "risk compensation", you face the risk, there's no other option. And I'd much rather that people did bike when they want, rather than cutting themselves short because bike infrastructure sucks out here.
Dutch bike commuters rarely wear helmets, but then again, they have amazing bike infrastructure.
They rarely have to share the road with cars. In the USA you nearly always have to share the road with cars.
@@eddiearniwhatever no you don't. You can just ride on the sidewalk or neighborhood roads
@@biggibbs4678 If you cycled around any Dutch city you'd get what I'm saying - the infrastructure is designed to allow bicyclists to go anywhere they please with few if any conflicts with cars.
In the USA however it is significantly different - you can't commute on the sidewalk, that's impossible, and for any significant journeys across any US city you'll end up sharing the road with cars at some point.
There just isn't enough cycle specific infrastructure in the USA, and I don't think there ever will be. We are way too car centric for that.
It is best practice to ride on neighborhood roads (def a terrible idea to ride on the sidewalk) but that still does not amount to seamless bike transit as one sees in Europe, especially the Netherlands and Denmark.
@@biggibbs4678 in my city riding on the sidewalk can and will get you ticketed, everyone does it in some areas.
@@eddiearniwhatever They are also all cycling SLOW. They HATE anyone doing over 20KPH
I got doored by a car and still remember the sound of my helmet slamming into the asphalt. A friend of mine got rear-ended by a car and hit the car hood so hard the helmet split in half.
In either of those situations the presence of a helmet wouldn't have changed whether we got hospitalized or not, but it absolutely changed the nature and severity of those injuries, which would not have been captured in a pure hospitalization count comparison study.
It is absolutely true that the problem boils down to cars and lack of infra (both of my examples were car-caused and on streets with inadequate bike infra), but in light of my own personal experiences there's literally no way I'll ever not wear a helmet and not tell my own kids to do the same, at least until we have Amsterdams all around North America.
In the Netherlands when you are taking driving lessons you learn to always open your door two handed, so you automatically turn your body to check for cyclist. And if you door someone, you are a 100% responsible. Consequently, it hardly ever happens. Which is a lot better than getting doored with or without helmet. That being said, wearing a helmet is still helpful in such situation. It's just that they aren't as important as people think, and this pushing for them just gives the false impression that bikes are dangerous, and gets in the way of actual safety changes such as better infrastructure and driver awareness.
The problem is not you or your helmet or even the cars. It is the decision makers who will use the helmet thingy to declare you "safe" and thus deny you decent infrastructure or even put the burden and the blame on you.
if you were the one moving and hit the door, doesnt that mean the door got biked?
I’m pretty pragmatic about it. It’s been a long time since I’ve fallen, but if I fall, I don’t want to end up with a traumatic brain injury. It’s like wearing a seatbelt while driving - obviously my intent is to never use it, and it’s been decades since I’ve been in a collision, but I’m still going to wear it every time. That said, if I use a rental bike somewhere and no helmet is available it’s not going to stop me from biking.
Yep this is where I'm at as well. I don't have the luxury of sticking to nice safe infrastructure for one thing, and I know a couple people who have gotten TBIs (one while biking) and had a really rough go of it after, so even if it's only a factor of 2 or 3 it's probably good insurance. My helmet is also covered in reflective tape strips and has a light on it so it does double duty at night. But I don't expect anyone else to necessarily share my stance. It feels nice to ride without one when it's reasonably safe.
I personally don't think it's quite as simple as comparing it to a seat belt while driving; otherwise, we'd wear a helmet while walking (This video did go over the stats the pedestrians are injured or die nearly as much as bicyclists).
Instead, it really depends on where and how you're riding bike, as opposed to simply a "safety first all of the time regardless of circumstances" mindset that we have with car seatbelts while driving.
For example, I don't choose to negate a seat belt on safe roads and wear one only on unsafe roads like a highway; I wear it all the time. But for biking, I choose to wear a helmet when I know I will be exposes to traffic versus not wearing one when I'm riding in safe infrastructure.
I agree with you. It’s been a long time since I had fallen too. Until, that is, last week when I hit a BIG pothole that I didn’t see. I was on the ground, on my side, in short order. Did not hit my head as I was going slow at the time of the fall. It must have been a bit of a SPE tidal as some bystanders shouted out: “are you ok????” to check on my condition. I was totally fine (other than a bit sore the next day).
But at 62-years old, a head impact, should it have occurred, would not have been a good thing without a helmet.
40-years ago when I was 22, I would NOT have had a helmet on and I would have laughed off my little spill. Today, it’s more concerning. Given the bike infrastructure that I have access to in Denver, I was thinking recently about riding without a helmet sometimes. But my spill, and my age, has convinced me to keep it on.
Your point makes sense, but seatbelts are just more effective, so they make more sense. Also wearing a helmet while walking or car driving is culturally out of question - but it would be just as 'necessary' statistically
Wearing a helmut doesn't necessarily prevent TBI. TBI is caused by the brain bouncing within the skull and against the skull bones. I experienced this in a head-on car accident. Helmets protect the external part of the head not the brain.
I currently commute most days on bike infrastructure in Denver, CO, USA. But I’m also 62. I don’t want to have a minor (or major) incident or even a simple fall and crack my head. So I wear a helmet. If I was 23 again, my answer may be different and I might go without a helmet. I think, as part of the decision risk assessment, age is also part of the equation.
I agree with this. My personal assessment has changed over time as well.
I'd also factor in the age of other road users. I currently live in an area that the majority of drivers are past retirement age. I've had a significant increase in near misses since I moved here. I still don't wear a helmet but have taken to wearing hi-vis clothing more often.
Absolutely it's all about your comfort level with how safe you want to be in my opinion
Up in Ft Collins we consider brain damage to be a bad thing at any age 😉
I'm more open to not wearing a helmet as a young single dude with no kids. But I also go out of my way to avoid cycling in the roads as much as possible. I see the substandard biking infrastructure causing the inherent risk of urban bike commuting, but I will not let that force me to wear a helmet. In other activities like mountain biking or skateboarding, yeah wearing a helmet should be the standard due to the higher chance of injury with crashes/falls.
If my head is injured, I risk losing my personality, my livelihood, and risk putting my loved ones in a horrible position of having to “unplug me”. Wearing a helmet is just so easy, and stories I’ve heard from friends who work in the ER confirm they are very effective. Even when commuting, I just don’t trust cars, people, dogs etc.
Sometimes I think people are more careful when they don't have the security
You should legislate the Netherlands and Japan to adopt helmets, you will get exponentially more people on helmets than doing it here in Canada/USA
What about using your helmet in car? IMHO, your reasons do not sound well to me. But it is your choice. The problem is with mandating helmet, instead of creating safe travel for cyclist. And until people who ride do not understand it - it will be hard to stop blaming cyclist for fault of drivers.
Cars have seatbelts and airbags and other safety features which are mandated by law. Bicycles don't even legally need brakes in some places, let alone helmets. I wish people (men mostly lets be honest here) would just be honest that the reason they don't want to wear a helmet is they think they look un-cool - that's it. There are no downsides to wearing a helmet, people complain about things like having to carry it round to cover up the fact that the ultimate reason they don't want to wear one is because it doesn't look cool.
@@LieutenantMoustache As a matter of fact, I think some helmets look kinda cool (and I just ordered myself a new one a few hours ago!). And I still recognize the inconvenience of carrying a helmet around, also the way they limit your clothing options and sometimes just suck in the rain depending on geometry and what you manage to wear under it.
Today I went for a bike ride without a helmet, because my jacket doesn't have a hood large enough to pull over the top of the helmet and inside it just doesn't fit well at all. It's cold and windy, I care more about keeping warm and comfortable than wearing a cool piece of plastic.
I've cycled all my life and the number of times I've fallen on my bike is far fewer than the number of times I've slipped walking on ice. So from a safety POV, a helmet would make a bigger difference if worn while walking.
It's weird the helmet laws in Australia. I've got buddies who'll ride their bikes with helmets to the skate park only to take them off when they go skate which is a significantly more dangerous activity.
isnt everything banned in australia anyway
They have public healthcare so it makes sense to save money on brain injuries by mandating a helmet. I liked it when I stayed there, you quickly stop thinking about it when everyone is wearing one.
Australia is the ultimate Nanny State.
I love this conversation! It’s videos like this that pushed me to study transportation engineering, I want to make a safer urban environment for everyone
Come to Berlin and give bicycles more space and separation from cars, pretty please!
Where do you study?
Hell yeah, I'm studying civil engineering for a similar reason too! But here in Australia, its sad to see how transportation engineering tends to be very heavily based on cars and the best way to optimise vehicle traffic (which almost always seems to come at the cost of cycling and pedestrian safety).
@@yungthils787 Same here too, my transportation class last semester was all about roads and ignored every other mode of transport. My goal is to change the conversation on transportation in the US and encourage transit, biking, and walking infrastructure!
@@BikeStuffPDX I'm at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City
Thank you so much for this video with more factual debate on helmets. I got in a bike crash (very minor, dodging a car on a slippery bike lane) a couple years ago, the day after I got a helmet for the first time. When talking about it with people they always asked first "were you wearing a helmet". They would get so upset when I would answer, "why would that matter?", as my only injury was a scratch on my arm! The only way to get a productive discussion after that was to say first that yes, I had one, but no, it didn't help because there was a driver in the bike lane! People need to hear all this research you did and make a truely informed decision!
Helmet laws for bicycles, are like laws on jaywalking for pedestrians. Blame the victim and don't think about how to make traffic safer for everyone.
Very interesting video! I am a cyclist from Brazil and it's really interesting to see the perspective from more developed countries. I live in a city that is very commended for its public transport infrastructure, but being a cyclist here feels absolutely like a survival experience. Wearing a helmet is pretty much mandatory if you value your life just for a matter of protecting yourself against the sheer exposure to traffic. It's not even really about you crashing, but other people crashing into you.
I just started bike commuting to work in a medium sized city in Mexico. There is a section of traffic where it is a daily survival experience where my health seems to be totally in the hands of the drivers because there is absolutely no ¨space¨ for cycling and cycling is almost non-existent here except for a few students who come from a different direction than I do.
I agree entirely about defensive riding. I have a road bike I almost never ride since moving from Indiana to New Mexico. Drivers in New Mexico aren't as safe to be around.
Fell on my left arm just yesterday while riding through a bike lane because a driver stuck his whole front of the car over the sidewalk when leaving a car wash. Thank god I wasn't badly injured and the bike wasn't damaged. Be safe out there, friends, it is always when you're least expecting. Also, I was wearing a helmet so I felt much less of an idiot for crashing 🤣
De qual cidade?
@@Ferreira0PH Curitiba irmão
Not trying to make an argument for or against helmets. I personally mostly cycle without a helmet.
However, some of the data and arguments presented during this conversation where not sound. Reading, understanding and accurately presenting data and statistics is incredibly hard and most people do not have the right skill set and tools to do so - including most journalists.
I do not intent on picking apart every single little argument and piece of data, but just want to point out a couple for example.
The bar chart that showed number of hospitalizations per 100.000.000 trips for cars, pedestrians, bicyclists and motorcyclists. The former three all looked “small” compared to motorcycles, but unless you are willing to adjust your behavior based on motorcyclists being lunatics, you ought to focus more on the former three categories. And unless my eyes are fooling me, cyclists had something like 50% to 100% higher hospitalization rate compared to car drivers. Yes, the bars looked small on the chart, but the comparative numbers are not.
Another argument made was that ~ 650 hospitalizations per 100.000.000 trips is a negligible number and that riding a bike is “reasonably safe”. 650 hospitalizations for 100.000.000 trips books down to approx one hospitalization for every 150.000 trips. If an average bicyclists rides maybe 3 trips a day, then this is roughly 1000 trips per year. Without having done the actual stochastic calculations I would eyeball that there’s a roughly 25% chance of any bicyclists being hospitalized due to an accident at least once in their biking career. That’s not nothing.
None of the data presented actually connects hospitalizations or deaths with type of injuries. You somewhat jokingly make the point that no-one expects pedestrians to wear helmets because they have “similarly” hospitalization rates to bicyclists. This entirely misses the point. If most pedestrian hospitalizations are due to sprained ankles over most hospitalizations for bicyclists for concussions then of course no one makes that argument for pedestrians but it might still make sense for bicyclists.
Don’t get me wrong: I thought this was a great video, with lots of interesting insights and you wearing a helmet or not is really up to you anyway. The data and arguments presented in this video however was at least incomplete and in my eye inconclusive.
Anecdotally: a friend of mine almost got killed when he was hit by a car commuting on his bicycle a few years ago. His head hit the side of the curb. His helmet prevented more serious head injuries.
Stay safe out there.
Secondary to well designed safe separated cycling infrastructure, the upright cycling position on comfortable relatively heavy city bikes I believe is a significant reason why helmets are not often worn in places like the Netherlands. Many other countries like the US, Canada, Australia, UK are dominated by forward leaning lightweight sports bikes which are much easier to go over the handlebars when braking heavily.
Afterall Sports cyclists ('Wielrenners') and mountain bikers in the Netherlands also almost always wear helmets.
Choose the right tool for the job I say.
Exactly
The US has not really been dominated by such forward leaning bicycles for some time now, because people do not like them unless they are actually racing.
Edit: I am not sure how it is in those other countries, anyway, but here in the US things are different now.
It’s absolutely stunning to hear a proper conversation about an ordinary, daily subject. I’m happy that it made sense to me and helped me make a choice (an adhd that struggles to make choices by overspread the factors in the matter and getting lost quickly, not sure if I’ve explained myself correctly). Thanks (:
adhd might be a factor in wearing a helmet more often, interestingly enough.
I don't have adhd, but I get distracted very easily and I can zone out very easily, not paying attention to everything with as much sustained focus as I should, and that does affect the safety of my car driving. I have to make a conscious deliberate effort to try to drive goodly lol.
I was certain there couldn't be reasonable argument AGAINST wearing a helmet but your conversation really gave me food for thought. The statistics were interesting (it seems cycling is a lot more safe than I had assumed) but they didn't really change my mind. Because in the end it's not about what's statistically most likely to happen but the particular situation I might end up in. But the experiment showing that car drivers are less careful when a cyclist is wearing a helmet really makes me think.
Yeah it makes me think it's b.s.
Helmet laws were lobbied hard by automobile companies. It made bikes appear more dangerous than they are, and made cycling more of a hassle.
Now, with less people riding, and car drivers often being actively antagonistic, we pretty much have to wear a helmet in situations where people in saner societies wouldn't.
When I was a kid, bicycling was the dominant way to get to school. Now, that's a rarity.
The U.S. has worse city planning than some developing countries. It's kind of ridiculous.
@@momoware Planning isn't really the right word for what US cities do. There's usually some kind of management, but it falls short of planning. There's almost no standardization between cities either, so they vary widely in every way. A small few are not so bad.
@@ernststravoblofeld don't think it's planning either. Bottom line is it comes down to people. Biker's and auto drivers changed about 15 yrs ago with a major sense of entitlement to the road with little to no regard for cyclists.
@Bjorn Arnesen If your circumstances require a helmet, then by all means, wear one. But forcing everyone in every circumstance to wear a helmet will make everyone but a few messengers and fitness enthusiasts give up. All for a fairly low risk activity.
So,so right 😮
A great summary on helmets specifically, and risk assessment in general, much appreciated! We live in Germany, and are still at the stage where our kids are very quick to point out if we've forgotten our helmets - it's so engrained now that we grab and put them on almost without thinking. But it is a lovely feeling to ride without them (when we get the opportunity!)
This feels like the culture we have here in Canada as well. Hopefully, we can continue to make cycling safer in other ways as well. Thank you so much for the support for the channel!
Thank you for this info! There's something that needs to be included in the calculations, I would think: crashes not related to vehicles. Vehicles were not part of my 3 most memorable crashes over the past 30 years, or so. Two were from coming across patches of "black ice" and I was glad I was wearing a helmet when my head hit the road (once) and the paved bike path (the second time). The third was from leaves in the street, slippery from the rain. Watch out for those slippery leaves! I know these are only personal experiences, though, but I know that conditions can come up by surprise. (So, even if you're not next to cars, I would vote for a helmet, because things sometimes happen. Even if it's infrequent, you frequently need your head.) Also, I get way more pressure (in the US) to not ride at all. Hardly anyone mentions my helmet. Of course, we must keep building more and more protected bike lanes (that are maintained all year round). Yay for bike infrastructure! And I'll make it a point not to harshly judge anyone I see without a helmet or me if I find myself without one, for some reason. Thanks again.
Ugh black ice....Just walked on it and my feet up in the air (thought it was wet sidewalk. My thick duffel jacket didn't help much as padding.
The mere fact that you HAVE "3 most memorable crashes" is testament to the fact that bicycle accidents are more frequent - and memorable - than on most other modes of getting around.
@@PapaOystein Evidence does not back up this assertion.
"The plural of anecdote is not research." ---I Forget Who
4 years ago, I was riding my bike on campus through a fairly empty parking lot. I had been an experienced cyclist at this point, riding between 15-30 miles a day in Manhattan as a commuter with no helmet. I went on that ride with no traffic around. Next thing I know, I woke up in the ED with a splitting headache and 6hrs had passed. It was 3am. I must have somehow lost control by hitting a crack or a rock and fell towards the back of my head. Ended up with postconcussional syndrome, permanent memory problems, and a hematoma towards the back of my skull that thankfully didnt lead to a brain bleed or more damage. A helmet would have prevented all of that. I still don't like to wear helmets, but I do. I think you have great points and I actually agree with your stance, but at the end of the day a helmet is still safer - and sometimes you just get unlucky.
very much this
Got news for you: helmets don’t necessarily prevent concussions. How about the numbers of cyclists who have got concussions while wearing helmets?
@@ToriKlassen1 true - but would imagine that objectively, falling on your head vs without a helmet would improve outcomes. I may not be able to find an IRB willing to approve a study comparing double blinded work of me smashing someones head in with vs without a helmet, but it would have saved me a world of trouble if I had wore one
Your sob story misses the point entirely. This video isn't saying not to wear a helmet. It's saying that statistically, cycling, especially commuting in bike lanes, is not a common cause of head injury and that focus on helmets as a primary safety measure is misguided.
I don't ride at night without good street light or a floodlight. I am always scanning the road and going slower. What happened to you was a failure of observation/riding in conditions which affect observation. That's on you, not the lack of a helmet.
My worst crash was caused by my bike being in poor mechanical condition. My second worst crash was cause by my panniers not being secured properly. They were both my fault. In neither instance did I crack my helmet.
The problem with these types of anecdotes is often how overblown they are compared to the actual risks of cycling, which can lead to laws requiring helmets be worn while cycling, which then discourages cycling even further. I am glad that you understand the points and the stances taking in the video, but here's a slight hypothetical change to this scenario:
You were walking down the sidewalk, something you've done for years on other sidewalks, but next thing you know you woke up in the ED, with all the same symptoms. Apparently, that part of the sidewalk was loose, you ended up falling backwards and hitting your head on a curb.
We can't start demanding pedestrians wear helmets when walking from such anecdotes; that would be utterly ridiculous. And from the video, the number of trips per hospitalization was actually slightly higher for cycling than for pedestrians, which suggests that walking is actually riskier than cycling. In a different world, people would be using this hypothetical and similar stories to campaign for laws that require pedestrians wear helmets, rather than actually do proper maintenance on the sidewalk...
In yet another different world, there enough well maintained bicycling infrastructure available where you didn't feel like you have to cut through that likely unmaintained parking lot.
After all the info I loved your ending statement to just have more empathy for people who choose to do things differently than ourselves. That was my biggest takeaway and I appreciate it!
That may be the biggest lesson I learned from making this video. It's such a personal choice dependent on so many factors that I think reasonable people can go either way. I think all of our energy would be better spent working for better bike cities.
How many things could we apply that philosophy to, but don't? :D
Completely agree! Like many things in life, the answer is not easy and simple, it's complex and depends on each person. Hard to find people on the internet who don't make sensationalized claims, so props to Shifter!
Empathy?
Empathy goes out the window when the forces rip the car in half.
I've see the motorcycleists who had the front half of his bike ripped off by a woman driving and using the phone at the same time.
2 days ago a woman drove her 4WD straight through a bedroom killing the owner of the house.
You're a looney.
@@ridetillidie8090 sounds like a philosophy anti-vax people use to cope.
Wear a helmet.
Wear a seatbelt.
Signal your turns.
Use lights.
Your freedom isn't being infringed upon because we make you fasten a light to the back of your seatpost.
But setting aside safety, wearing a good modern helmet with a visor is more comfortable than wearing a hat or wearing nothing at all. It helps keeps the sun and rain out of your eyes and off your face, and can offer better ventilation than any hat that is likely to stay on your head (especially on a windy day). Any safety benefit is just a bonus, if you ask me.
I'm all for wearing a lid (and I do 95% of the time) but all the hand-wringing is such cringe victim blaming, and helmet laws are demonstrably counter-productive. if you care about cyclists, BUILD SAFE INFRASTRUCTURE.
Telling cyclists to use common sense and protect their heads is not victim blaming. Cyclists are not victims. If you as a cyclist consider yourself (preemptively?) A victim, that could be your main problem right there.
Try not to die, or don't; I don't care (but your family might).
@@michaelchristian5324 Probably a waste of time to point out that you didn't understand what they were saying. You're clearly incapable, mostly by choice.
@@michaelchristian5324 countries where nobody wears helmets have the lowest rate of bike deaths (see Netherlands)
The best solution is to segregate bicycle traffic from road traffic, therefore removing contact between different road users. Best to prevent accidents rather than react to them.
@Eric I know, but let's assume I'm not talking about dense European cities with some of the world's most well-developed cycling infrastructure. It would be nice if that was more the norm, but in much of the rest of the world (like where I live) it is just common sense to protect one's gourd where one has little choice but to be in traffic with cars. I'm all for advocating for better cycling segregation, but that doesn't mean I think people should crack their skulls in protest of the fact that most places do not achieve this level of cycling nirvana.
@@michaelchristian5324 The victim blaming is incredibly common in NA where the cyclists are seen as a problem on the road by drivers. In traffic collisions involving a cyclist, the cyclist is often blamed (even when not at fault) and helmet usage is one of the ways they victim blame. Look through comments on videos of collisions with cyclists and you'll notice a lot of them mention that they werent wearing a helmet, its a distraction from the danger of cars.
Thanks for this really insightful / big-picture / historical approach to this topic! I almost didn't watch the video because of the nature of exchanges I've had on the topic before, but I'm really glad I did. I especially appreciated looking at this through the PR & Dr. (x2) lenses. I certainly learned things I didn't know and hadn't considered before. That only talking about helmets in the context of discussions of bike safety is myopic is an especially compelling point. A broader consideration--and recasting--of 'bike safety' seems like something really worth exploring further. Dare I suggest a dedicated playlist with a broad scope of sub-topics?
I personally wear a helmet at all times while riding and will continue to do so, as my rides virtually always include roads shared with cars where the posted speed limit is 40mph and actual speeds are what they are--and I'm a creature of habit for whom maintaining this habit will be safest.
Watching this has given me greater empathy for those who make other choices, based on their circumstances, like the one you describe in the last segment.
Personally I wear a helmet at all times. Several reasons, the two main ones being that I have done so for 30+ years (so it’s a habit by now) and also because there is very very little safe bike infrastructure where I live. So I am among cars about 90% of the time. This also taught me to „ride as if nobody can see me“, aka always assuming that I am, for all intents and purposes, invisible to car drivers. This strategy has prevented bad things from happening on several occasions, both on a bicycle as well as on a motorbike.
Some (!) of my fellow two wheeled riders - motorized or otherwise - are frankly reckless and move about like they own the place, without even looking at what happens around them. And as soon as one of them gets swiped, everyone is all over why car drivers are THE issue. That is not to say that there are no issues there mind you, because there are plenty.
Bro…you and your bike are about as wide as the average A-pillar from the perspective of a car driver. There is no difference there whether you are on an omafiets or a Hayabusa. If you are in the right spot, the driver can physically not see you. I don’t care if you might have the right of way. I would rather yield and live than insist on ROW and leave a nice Bull‘s Eye on a windscreen and having my membership of the Being Alive Club revoked permanently. Also, everyone traveling on two wheels should remind themselves occasionally that their crumple zone is a LOT smaller than that of even the most basic car. No matter how much you were in the right, you will always draw the shortest straw as far as injuries go. No amount of helmet will change that. A fender bender on a car might be a trip to the morgue for you.
So you wear a helmet because drivers cannot behave responsibly around you.
Most drivers do behave responsibly. You do have to watch out for those who don't and give yourself room to deal with their mistakes. There's some enablement going on, but your flesh and bone body is alot more irreplaceable than mere car parts. You can assert yourself as long as you feel your actions are writing cheques your body can afford to cash if it all goes wrong.
Super thanks to Cailynn for the extensive research and to both of you for the detailed yet concise presentation!
Dude, this video is amazing. I especially enjoyed your outro about needing to have the conversation about improving city infrastructure, not just the conversation about helmets. The helmet conversation implies expected bike-vehicle crashes, whereas the infrastructure conversation doesn't want that to happen in the first place.
Also, I wouldn't complain if you had a Shifter podcast.
A nice grass verge if you fall of is always more welcome than a concrete bike lane and kerb stone.
I only started wearing a helmet as an adult when I was cycling in the winter and needed to keep my touque from falling off in the high winds. After that, it became habit. Since then, I have lived in a province where adults were not required to wear a helmet, but did require under 18. I then got a new mindset: if you have something worth protecting, you will wear one. I never ride without a helmet in case you didn't suspect. :) I do understand how you ride without one and where, but you just never know when that sudden something will cross your path for that unexpected reason. Physics says that if you are travelling faster than running, and you fall, you will likely injure yourself. I ride around 20km/h, but can't run near that.
This resonates with me due to my experience as a motorcycle safety instructor. I got into M/C safety as a response to mandatory helmet legislation that was proposed in Illinois in the late '80s. The proposed legislation sought to reduce state funding of safety training programs in exchange for a mandatory helmet law, which struck me as an asinine argument. I had always strived to be a competent operator, but after I became trained I was shocked at how deficient my self-taught skills truly were. I became passionate about teaching the skills that scholarly research have shown contribute to accidents. The key skills accident-involved riders statistically lack include mental and visual skills for traffic perception, visual direction control, traction management, maximum straight-line braking, braking in a curve, swerving to avoid an obstacle, overcoming an obstacle, countersteering to maintain control in a curve, entering moving traffic from a stop, and lane position for visibility. These days I watch lots of bicyclists to judge their riding ability. Can you guess what skills most bicyclists on the road really suck at? The exact same ones that were demonstrated to contribute to motorcycle accidents. Poorly skilled bicyclists in traffic are at much greater risk for injury, especially head injuries. But even on protected bike lanes and trails, poor riding skills are definitely a risk factor. I'd love to see a nationally recognized, evidence-based bicycle training program that will help untrained riders achieve mastery over these critical skills, so they can be safer riders.
And yes, I always wear a helmet, regardless of whether I'm on a motorcycle or a bicycle. I've known people with various degrees of TBI, and it's a lifelong tragedy. I don't want to put my family through that nightmare.
How many bicycles do you see without a rearview mirror? I consider a mirror to be basic safety equipment when riding with traffic. But most cyclists don't seem to agree.
@@wturber You need mirrors on automobiles and even motorcycles because of blind spots. I see no such need on a bicycle. If I want to see what's behind me, I just turn my head and look.
I honestly think a mirror would decrease my safety, because I would have to fiddle with it or bob my head around constantly to use it effectively instead of just turning my head and eyes with high precision.
I'd bet most of those skills also apply to automobile accidents, excluding the ones specific to 2 wheeled transportation. I would love to see a national safety training program for bicycles, but I think getting one for drivers should be a way higher priority, since automobiles are inherently more dangerous and statistically more dangerous.
Mirrors are needed on motorcycles and cars because they make so much noise or mute sound (car cabin/helmet) that your unable to hear probably your environment/traffic…
In the region where I live (Netherlands/Germany/Belgium) you will see mirrors on E-bikes mostly driving by elder people (those bikes are louder, by age your ears aren’t as newly anymore, and you are maybe a as mobile as you used to be so looking backwards and or holding your balance can be more challenging).
@@misme2000 The noise of the wind rushing by your ears, even at bicycle speeds, is enough to often obscure the noise of a car behind you.
The more cyclists, the less cars. The less cars, the less deaths.
Yeah, the safety numbers for each transport mode look bad, until you realize “how many of those cyclists and pedestrians were hit by drivers?”🤔
I can tell you for sure the #1 most scary thing on any bike ride is cars, not me wiping out because I can’t control the bike.
Fewer
I don't need a car involved to cause a bicycle accident, so I wear a helmet all the time.
@@arifrost.xl three of my bicycle accidents never involved a vehicle all three times I hit my helmeted head and would have definitely cracked my skull and tore the hell out of my scalp and possibly lost an eye
r/bancars
Exhausted making others feel better. I kindly provide these kinds of facts every time someone calls me out. Having been a commuting cyclist on three continents, it's just government laziness to place safety on the individual over correct infrastructure (cars could use safer infrastructure too).
The risk assessment is simple: are you going fast, is there complex terrain, is your brain still growing; wear a helmet
No, it's not complicated, because I've lived my whole life in my body and I know what feels safe and what doesn't. At least, that's what everyone thinks, but some people go on to then assert that what makes sense based on their personal values/risk assessments and environments should be applied (even mandated) to everyone. Great material for considering nuances! Context makes such a huge difference, whether it's public policy debates, personal decision-making based on environment/routing/speed, and psychology/culture. If all the energy directed at shaming pedestrians/cyclists for not exhibiting safety equipment and safe behavior was directed at making cars less deadly by making them smaller, lighter, slower, able to detect and override unsafe driving behavior or removing them from cities entirely, that'd do a lot more good than marginally increasing helmet-wearing.
Great idea, faith based cycling safety
Thank you. If they want to regulate something? I suggest Wall St.
That all makes sense from a "should" perspective. From a practical real-world perspective, we are all always responsible for our own safety. This makes me think of self-defese as well; people who know about self-defense know that indignant insistence that our personal health and safety be respected won't stop that knife or bullet going straight through your chest. We have to look out for our own safety, not expect others to give it to us. It's all a question of "how safe do you wanna be?" Not wearing a helmet is kinda like feeling assured that you don't need to duck when you hear gunshots ringing out in a public space. Sure, it's your choice, but it might cause ou to die. Let's all fight for a cycling utopia, but until that day comes, a helmet is part of accepting TODAY'S reality.
@@wildeasage Ok sure. But nobody is going around responding to gun violence and such by suggesting everyone be legally required to take self defense classes and wear kevlar in all public spaces and also acting like that is the only way these people can be safe. That would be stupid.
Anyone with any knowledge of self defense knows that being in safe places (which means safety infrastructure like proper exits, good visibility, lights, mixing with other people for safety in numbers, etc.) does far more to keep you safe than some bullshit training on how to deal with violence in extremely unlikely event of a violent attack.
We might think refusing to duck when you here gunshots is stupid, but no one is going to seriously look at a civilian gunshot victim and act like the lack of kevlar is the real problem.
@@rileynicholson2322 have you seen cable news and the NRA in the usa lately? There absolutely are people seriously advocating for armored backpacks for school children and more guns in public spaces as if that's the only possible solution to the systemic issues that produce gun violence. Some of them might even genuinely believe that.
That said, I don't think gun violence is a good comparison for bicycle helmet wear. Car and pedestrian safety would be more illustrative.
I think if you are on protected bike paths then its fine. In Denmark (Copenhagen where I am), no one wears one since almost all streets have separated bike paths with our own lights, etc. However, if you find yourself mingling with cars to the point they are passing and the lane is just some paint on the street and you are sometimes very close **cough those buses cough** then a helmet seems feasible.
Question everyone says cyclists dont wear helmets in Denmark or the Netherlands. However I have been out in the countryside in the Netherlands and the sport cyclists who pass me at 40 kph are usually wearing helmets. Is it the same in Denmark?
@@HweolRidda Yes, in the Netherlands and in Denmark sport cyclists like mountainbikers and race bike cyclists wear helmets because of the higher risk of getting injured, just like in the rest of the world. But when cycling to my work at ~20 km/h (on an upright single speed classic dutch bike) I never wear a helmet, and almost nobody does here, only some expats do.
All arguments in favor of bike helmets are equally valid for anything else where a head injury is possible, e.g. driving a car or just in a car, working on a construction site or walking barefoot in your bathroom. The question is what is the threshold where the risk becomes too high. I've thought about this and decided from a risk standpoint it makes more sense to wear a helmet inside a car, which is what I do now. I mean, even in Formula 1 or NASCAR they also do that. For some reason people look at me strange, so I guess it's more of a cultural than a rational thing.
Lol....have you ever watched how fast they drive in Formula 1 and Nascar? It's called car racing..
Don’t forget the 😷 mask.
if you ain't trolling you re da mvp
I appreciate this discussion so much. Thank you for putting this info out there for us to help make our own informed decisions.
Thank you for a very informative video about how bike helmets fit into overall bike safety. It's definitely a more nuanced decision than I initially thought.
Thank you for the support Brad! And I'm glad you got something out of the video. It really is a nuanced, person decision. Hope the video helped.
I had a very serious accident in the early morning a couple years back,which resulted in a hospital stay with a concussion,stitches,road rash,smashed eyeglasses.I wasn't wearing a helmet then ,but ever since then I've worn one
Were you going too fast lol
@@54andBored no,I was hit by a deer
@@Pault3788 yikes.. how rude of the deer lol
@@54andBored lol
Helmets save brain cells. I'm a cyclist and a physician who has worked in brain injury rehab. In severe multi-trauma with significant injuries to many body parts, a helmet probably won't save you from a brain injury (aka concussion) or death. If you do survive, what a helmet may do is lessen the degree of brain injury from severe to moderate or maybe even minor. Severe brain injury means that you have permanent physical damage to the brain that can be imaged on MRI or CT. This usually comes with loss of personality, loss of cognition (memory, attention, complex reasoning etc. etc.). You are not the same person you were before and may depend on others caring for you for the rest of your life. With a lesser degree of impact a helmet may save you from a moderate brain injury characterized by loss of memories extending beyond 24 hours before and after your injury, and loss of consciousness of greater than 30 minutes. Moderate brain injuries may include physical permanent damage to the brain with retention or recovery of many if not all cognitive abilities. With a bike helmet on you may end up with a mild traumatic brain injury. This includes loss of consciousness of 30 minutes or less. You may not even lose consciousness at all, but feel dazed or spaced out. There may be loss of memories for events a few hours before and after the event. The damage is physiological with no permanent brain damage. Most people get better within 2 to 12 weeks. And my two crashes? Both on Calgary bike paths. On one, a skateboarder jumped off a wall next to the path and wacked me off my bike. I did a pretty good roll and was OK with no symptoms of brain injury at all. My helmet was cracked to shit though (as it was designed to do). On the second though, an unrestrained dog ran under my front wheel. That's my last memory till I was in the shower at work wondering why I ached so badly. That was about 5 km from the crash site. Again, my helmet was smashed to shit. I have no idea whether I was unconscious or not. The dog owner obviously didn't care and didn't call EMS etc. I had to take a week off work as I couldn't concentrate enough to do intellectual work. Two weeks later though I was well enough to be the convenor of a conference in Toronto - on ........... traumatic brain injury. In both cases the helmet saved me from a greater degree of injury - in the second case possibly permanent. This is my own experience, but the stats back me up. So even the seemingly safest ride can be the one with the unforseen event. I don't leave home without my helmet.
Excellent comment, thanks doc.
Thanks for sharing. The thing that the helmet does is that it reduces the g force dramatically during from your head stopping when it hits the immovable object , generally the pavement. Since the brain is more or less a gelatinous semi fluid it is still moving after the head stops and smashed against the skull brusing and killing the brain cells. This type of injury is going to be life long ...battle with behavior problems that arise as a result. Most of us don't understand where it's coming from due to general lack of treatment afterward , because the injury didn't seem to be severe. Frustration and anger management is common. I used to get so frustrated that I would end up hitting my head with my first and even bang it against a concrete wall. I did this for decades after smashing my head on a concrete sidewalk after being launched head first over the bars at probably 18 mph and thrown straight to the sidewalk. I remember saying to myself "I could die" some how I got my right shoulder to hit first and a big thud when my head hit without a helmet. I got up ...I couldn't see and hearing a woman's voice saying that she had just finished her EMS training I can still clearly her that to this day almost 49 years later ) and that I needed to go to an ER. She took me into a bathroom...to deal with the blood that was poring out of a small cut and the university police took me to the ER. Fortunately nothing was " broken " and I needed stitches and was observed for some hours and went home...I also had a pretty herd hit when I was about four years old. That time I was "out" for a bit and came back.I still remember that like yesterday...sixty years ago. My mother had a severe bleeding stroke 5 months ago she can't talk and is not able to use her left side, you know she is there and knows we are there and we keep up hope. As I believe she is too.
Life is temporary swag is forever
@@7plit1ipswagger is over when life is over
Thank You for making it so clear !! ❤
Brilliant video! Thanks so much for diving into this emotionally charged issue. I’ll be bookmarking this video and recommending it as needed in the future. Cheers! John 😊
Nice background, nice people, great conversation! I came off my bike a few years back on a greasy bend here in Dublin. It happened in an instant and I was wearing my helmet and cycling shorts. I became intimate with the road surface through my ankle, hip bone, shoulder and helmet encased head. I jumped up and continued home where I struggled to undress and shower once the adrenaline stopped pumping. My helmet and shredded bib shorts went into the bin and my wounds healed quickly with help from the local ER. They sent me to a plastic surgeon who spoke about skin grafts but I convinced her I’d heal quickly. The most interesting part was they also sent me to a trauma surgeon who examined me and then gave me a very interesting lecture on how my helmet acted as a ‘lubricant’ as I slid across the tarmac on my LHS eventually coming to a stop without hitting anything. He said the helmet did its job in this particular case but would not have prevented whip lash injuries had I hit an obstacle with my head. He was quite pleased with his lecture as was I with the outcome.
I loved this video. I have rode for 40 years and had my share of crashes. I have never hit my head. I wear a helmet since I typically have to mix with traffic between the shared paths but it is just there on the off chance I get hit at an angle and hit my head. I make sure to have my lights working and keep my bike maintained and this has kept my incidents very low. This is such a great channel. Thanks for the great information.
Really an absolutely excellent video, thanks! Thanks for not answering the question for us, but giving us a way to answer it on our own.
Something not mentioned here (unless I missed it) was how helmets don’t do a lot for what happens if a bike is hit by a car, which if often what leads to fatalities. It was touched on that only 25% of injuries are head injuries, but more specifically if a car hits an bike in an urban environment the person is far more likely to have serious body injury or be crushed under the car, where the helmet will do little.
This is a big difference from say, a cycling race or mountain biking, where falling or crashing into another bike will be more likely to lead in bopping your head on the ground or a rock or something, which makes helmets “make more sense” in those scenarios. The higher speeds or less-ideal terrain also make falling more likely in general than how (most people) cycle in urban environments.
I was recently one of the 600+ people hospitalized after a crash. Everyone from the EMT to various staff at the hospital all asked me if I was wearing a helmet. I answered yes and then they said oh good. Then i told them it didn't matter because I didn't crash into the fence with my head, I crashed into the fence with my face and the helmet didn't help (or hurt to be fair). The crash was because of a stupid decision and I sure won't do that again but I do ride in all situations so I will continue to wear a helmet. Loved the info on risk assessment and risk behavior.
15% of head injuries are facial
i was also once hospitalized from a bike crash many moons ago with abrasion wounds on my limbs and face-didn't lose consciousness or mental acuity but was, like you, still gratuitously shamed by the doctor who stitched me up for not wearing a helmet, even though it didn't make a difference in the injuries sustained: there really is an ill-conceived, pervasive mentality that helmets are the be-all and end-all of cyclist safety
@@isaacanderson5806 No. He was letting you know you could have been hurt worse and asking you about your attitude about bike safety. You made it clear what it was. Better luck next time, as it sounds like you are depending on luck. Good thing you don't need it, .
@@isaacanderson5806 Doctors have to deal with the results of people NOT wearing helmets, so they are kind of pissed when people don't wear them.
@@isaacanderson5806 People like binary decisions making. Unfortunately, life is usually more complex and nuanced than that.
Amazingly concise breakdown of topic. I'm rapidly approaching 30K on my e-bike commute; every kilometre, helmeted. Yet two weeks ago I found myself on an evening e-bike tour through the heart of Rome, helmetless, because the option was available. So many details revealed in this video's analysis helped me understand why I was able to make that decision in Rome.
Excellent content Tom!
Is Rome really bike friendly? I was there a long time ago but I remember it looking quite dangerous on the roads actually.
Haha, I make my commute half helmeted and half unhelmeted, but propably for the same reasonings as you!
It's because I usually ride to work at around 2-3 am. Streets are pretty damn empty, and cars usually keep a pretty big distance, because without ongoing traffic, there is allways space to pass by safely. And the majority of drivers that are around at this time are pretty calm (go figure, no traffic) and respectfull. Except for those god damn taxi drivers. They drive reckless AF.
Also, some chunks of my way are seperated. This makes the ride very relaxed, safe (make sure to be seen tough) and comfortable. There are very little dangers around, I feel fine without a helmet.
When I ride home, different story. I'm not even in the rush hour, but there are still so many cars. All the portions that aren't seperated in any way (around 50%) are often pretty unsafe. Drivers simply pay no mind about safe distances when passing by. The only way to "survive" is to ride as fast as possible and to take your space on the lane.
I wear a helmet then. I'm not sure how much the helmet will help me in case of a crash, but I suppose It won't do me harm.
@@RogerAckroid I wouldn't qualify Rome as bike friendly; but there was safety in numbers.
Thank you for both of your efforts to present this information. Your discussion referenced a lot of published research. I tried looking for some of those references, specifically the 2013 BC study comparing the risk of various modes of transportation. I could not find that paper. Granted, I didn't spend a lot of time. I was surprised that you didn't link to or at least list the publication titles in the video description. I know it would be a lot of work to do so for a video posted 9 months ago but I would be very interested and I assume other viewers may be too.
Ugh thank you for this!! I live in BC so I have to wear one to avoid a ticket but when I lived in Scotland I never wore one and nobody ever asked me about it. They did ask “where’s your high-vis vest?” Which makes so much more sense to me. Be seen so you don’t get hit! I love a leisurely ride with my hair flowing in the wind. I still do it occasionally but I can’t relax as much because I’m so anxious about a cop driving by 😞. Anyway, love your videos. Thanks!
British Columbian here. So far no ticket when I ride, but the police have much bigger issues to deal with here. However, when I rode a bike in Saskatoon I was issued a warning to get a bell on my bike (no ticket because I was new to town at that time and the bike was borrowed).
Interesting that a high-vis vest seems more sensible than a helmet to you. That is what your bicycle's reflectors (from the side) and lights (front and back) are for. That part of high-vis equipment is closer to the ground tho, which might make a difference for stupidly large SUVs.
@@MathMagician93 lights too! But for daytime the high vis definitely helps
@@HowToMakeDinner Okay, seems like I have a luxury here that I wasn't even aware is a luxury. People here actually see other people better at daylight. High-Vis is only ever talked about for night-time.
I would be interested in a study on how much your risk gets reduced by high-vis (but also just bright colored) clothing. You'd think that it should mainly have a larger impact at night. But then again, lights are fairly obvious at night but in daylight they may even be less obvious than bright clothing.
Almost 20 years ago now, I got hit by a car as a teen on my bike (pretty bad, broke a leg and some other bones). That experience, ironically, made me realize I didn't need the helmet every ride. It's not the most important safety equipment. What matters is a bike that works (brakes!), good lights, visible clothing, and a strong, vested interest in your own survival. Paying attention, understanding the road and what drivers and others around are likely to do, etc., will prevent the vast majority of incidents.
I still wear a helmet on many rides, especially if the roads shared with cars will be tight/fast. I don't bother around town. I have been harassed occasionally by well-meaning strangers, usually from their car next to me at a stop light. I also spend every summer on motorcycles and with no doors on my Jeep. Both of those things are probably a greater danger than not wearing a bike helmet, but no strangers ever harass me about it in public. The indoctrination is real.
lol I've ridden with friends who are bad drivers and can tell you visibility clothing doesn't matter at all. They just don't give a shit and are zooming around.
@@biggibbs4678 This is slightly true, there are definitely drivers who are incompetent and won't look out for them, but most drivers will and wearing high-vis is much more effective than wearing helmets.
It's nice to hear a case where anecdotal evidence has actually led to a consideration of all the factors and each of their risks.
The indoctrination is all over this comment thread, despite the content of the video....
@@biggibbs4678 At least with hi-vis/lights they are given the choice to 'not give a shit'. better to be ignored than not seen at all!
Dude, you're the embodiment of survival bias.
I've been cycling over the entire span you described. There was no bike infrastructure, and nobody wore a helmet when I started. I may still have my old Bell helmet somewhere.
I always wear a helmet, partly because I don't want a child to see me riding without one, and decide not to.
By the way, there is a huge difference between a head injury and other injuries.
I don't wear a helmet, simply because it doesn't suit me.
If a child sees me, they might well think cycling is a nice activity. Wearing a helmet suggests that it is unsafe.
@@chrisclark1761 That's some weird logic. So... wearing a seatbelt suggests that driving a car is unsafe? In the US there are 140,000 cases of traumatic brain injury in children under 18 each year just from biking... Not sure what doesn't suit you about helmets. Being a vegetable doesn't suit me.
@@Ego_Katana Are you sure that's a correct number?
There's about 60 million kids between 5 and 18 (ignoring the younger age group as they're unlikely to ride a bicycle) which would mean that yearly 2 in 1000 kids suffer traumatic brain injury from cycling alone; and over the full 14 years they're in this age group it would be 3 per 100!
That sounds like an incredible high number, especially as there are way more causes for traumatic brain injury than cycling alone (like falling while walking or climbing etc., or doing other sports where you can get hit by a ball or have a collision with another player, etc.)
Regarding the point about lower accident rates with rideshare bikes, not only are you sitting upright for better visibility and comfort, their design also usually permit you to be able to put your feet on the ground easily while still seated on the saddle. This can make it easier to safely stop with little to no notice, never mind balancing when waiting at a stop or red light. Most bikes sold in the US don’t let you do that.
You can adjust the seats on rental bikes. Sometimes when I go to the bike stand, people have those seats adjusted to ridiculous heights. I always have to adjust them downward so I can put my feet on the ground.
Or those bikes are just flat out slow.
Usually the seat is adjusted to each person riding. Which is about the same as someone putting the seat at their desired height on their personal bike. So I'm not convinced that is the reason they are safer. Upright, heavy, and wide tires seems more likely to me.
Upright, heavier and thus steadier though less nimble.
What I meant about being able to put your feet flat on the ground is the location of the bottom bracket to the seat allows for both good leg extension while pedaling, and the ability to easily put your feet flat on the pavement while remaining seated. Many (though not all) “Dutch” and some cruiser style bikes have this geometry. Most bikes in the US do not. I wish more did. Most rideshare bikes I’ve seen or ridden do.
A lot of people simply don’t know how to fall or how to maneuver their bike. I played contact sports and mountain biked growing up so my confidence is high
Just an anecdote from Denmark here: I used to live in Copenhagen and rode my bike from and to work every day. The commute was about 10km each way, and most of the way was with separated bike lanes. In the 5 years I rode every day on this route, I was hit by a car no less than 3 times and one of the times I was slung on the hood and only came off the car when he stopped. All 3 times happened because the driver just crossed the lane without looking. Granted it was a very stupid section of road where parked cars would block the line of sight for cars going to the right (across the bike lane). One of the times I am pretty sure the helmet saved my life or at least saved me from a seriously bad time since even with the helmet on I got a pretty serious concussion. I'm wearing a helmet, and I am teaching my kids to wear one too. I think the argument of riders taking more risks because of helmets is a stupid one. I feel unsafe in traffic with cars no matter what I am wearing. I have also broken enough bikes on my mountain bike to know that gear does not equal immortality, and I also knew that before I went to the hospital. You can't say that gear makes people reckless without in the same sentence a mention that the helmet actually works and saves lives.
Imagine living in a country where most cars are actually lifted pick-up trucks or SUVs. You wouldn't have been on the hood of the car: you would have been under the car.
Hit by a car three times and you still kept on cycling the same way to your job, that's brave! I would have stopped cycling or chosen a completely different route to work
Trust me, if you value yourself, you'll wear a helmet. You never know.
Dutch guy chiming in 🙂: I loved your thorough discussion of the whole bike safety conversation, and checking the facts to see what actually holds up. I'd say you're spot on, including your concluding statement: leave it up to people to decide whether they want to wear a helmet or not. In the Netherlands, nobody really tends to wear a helmet on their commutes, except perhaps old people on e-bikes. And small kids that get pressured by their parents to wear them. Everyone else: only when mountainbiking or fast road biking. Works out just fine 👍
Canadian here. I've been cycling for 50+ years. I have never worn a bike helmet. Though if I did serious off road MTB, I probably would.
In the Netherlands, I understand the case to be that they really understand that biking is another aspect of commuting. In the States, every city I've lived in thinks that biking is an aspect of exercise only. Helmets are very important when every commute is a survival sport around and through cars. Wish we made our streets as you've made yours.
If I am going to average over 25kph I will wear a helmet. Kids are biologically more susceptible to head injuries from minor falls, so pressure to wear them is completely understandable.
Another Dutchie here… loved the discussion as well. Here in NL I would never consider wearing a helmet because of our great biking infrastructure and culture which makes it pretty safe already. I don’t think wearing a helmet would significantly increase safety. The only injuries I’ve had were a broken ankle (on a bmx track), a scuffed elbow and a chipped tooth, all in my early teenage years.
However, if I would cycle in the US or Canada (or any other country with more aggression towards cyclists) I might wear a helmet, when I would have to ride among fast moving cars.
@@anouk6644 do you do any night riding or fast riding? There is no doubt that it increases safety, the question is how much which is dependent on person.
I don’t wear one if that’d make me not ride my bike due to heat/inconvenience. It’s better to ride than not to ride, helmeted or helmetless!
Statistically there are more traumatic head injuries per unhelmeted km in cars and on foot, so if i’m not wearing a helmet on foot or when i get a ride on a car… yeah!
Ironically, I’m an ER nurse and I commute to work in inner city houston and sometimes I wear my helmet, sometimes I don’t. I believe always being aware of my surroundings and not riding like an asshole will protect me a lot more than any helmet can.
Ever had a dog run out in front of you? Ever been attacked from behind by a magpie defending its nesting territory?
That's a bit of a false flag isn't it? You can wear a helmet AND be extra aware of your surroundings. It's not like putting in earbuds...
Thank you both for this fascinating conversation. I do realize that a foam hat will do little to protect me if I get right-hooked by a: dump truck, cement truck, semi, or bus (I've heard about and seen all of these). I still wear it, because I've fallen off my bike a number of times; they were all slow speed and my fault, and one of these days I might hit my head. I'd rather have a concussion than a concussion with a skull fracture.
Also, governments don't do well with nuance.
Very interesting, and so well investigated . Thanks again Tom for this great channel
Do seatbelts, air bags, crumple zones, ABS, etc., make people believe that driving a car is dangerous? So I don’t agree that it’s a great point that people wearing helmets suggests cycling is dangerous.
A helmet has nothing to do with cars. It only has to do with falling off your bike. It only protects you from a fall from 6 feet or so on to a flat surface. Anyone who is talking about cars and helmets is missing something. It is not the cars that are the issue when riding with traffic it is that your speed is likely higher and the road quality is likely lower. These are the reasons I wear a helmet when I am riding on roads with motor vehicles.
I've been riding bikes for many years, in fact it's been my main mode of transport for most of my life.
I've only hit my head once. That was because a car hit me and I fell off, head on the street... So I disagree slightly.
@@ZesPak Your accident was exactly what a bicycle helmet is designed for so I am glad that you where wearing one. However a car hit a pedestrian and causing them to fall and hit their head would also benifit from a helmet, but there is not talk about pedistrians wearing helmets, and this is bucause there is not enogh benifit from it.
If you are riding your bike a at speed or on a surface where you are likely to fall off you bicycle you should wear a helmet. I wear a helmet on my race bike.
Helmets are built to absorb impacts typically up to around 12-15 mph-speeds common in single-rider falls or low-speed impacts. In a crash with a car moving at 30 mph, the force is significantly higher than what a bicycle helmet is designed to absorb.
This was the point I was attempting to make.
@@AllenMorris3 ah I see. A lot depends on where you ride of course. A human falling on his own won't likely need a helmet as most of us aren't running around at 20km/h.
The issue with using your bike for everyday use (like I do) is you mingle with cars all the time. You're going on average 20km/h and share your space with metal boxes travelling twice that, so the need for a helmet is amplified IMHO.
This might be your best video yet. You treat the subject fairly and comprehensively. Helmet fundamentalism™ is a real problem. I almost always wear a helmet, and I could be a poster child for helmet advocacy, as my helmet probably saved my life once and reduced my probable injury several times. But I do not think helmet wearing is paramount, and mine is a nuanced view. SKILL is a big factor in a cyclist’s safety, one I hope you touch upon eventually. I have taught safe cycling, and with my many years and miles of cycling on roads and streets, I feel I’m safer than most even when I’m bareheaded and others are helmeted. I am pretty good at predicting road users’ behavior, and I’m good at being predictable to others. These skills are very valuable. I also evaluate my role in near hits, because when the “other guy” seems to be at fault, maybe I at least played a role.
Some good points. I've learned a lot of skills about awareness and predicting what other road users are doing from cycling many many years. I feel pretty safe on the roads and don't mind riding with traffic. But I think about what I'm doing also so motorists don't spazz out when they are around me. I also feel that the Varia bike radar makes me safer than wearing a helmet does because again awareness of where that vehicle is so I react better.
I disagree with the idea that skill has much to do with safety in the city. Sure when I'm out in the mountains, it's all me. But in the city, you are at the mercy of the drivers, and I've only avoided injury until now on too many occasions by sheer luck to believe skill has anything to do with it. Too many drivers simply do not care that we are out there sharing the road with them.
@@wilfdarr I understand how you would feel that way but you honestly believe you had nothing to do with the outcome of a close call? You think is was divine luck that things didn't go worse? I don't believe in that. I don't believe when people say it just wasn't my time or there must be a plan for me and I haven't fulfilled my purpose in life yet. I don't know about luck either because I surely haven't had much of it. You are right though, we are at the mercy of the drivers, and who knows what they are thinking.
@@wasupwitdat1mofiki94 Divinity has nothing to do with it, just blind luck: if I had approached the intersection a couple seconds earlier or later (depending on the instance), I'd have had an accident. Unless you're suggesting that I ride around at 5kph all day every day to avoid getting into accidents with stupid drivers, then no, they couldn't have REASONABLY been avoided.
I dont think wearing a helmet has anything to do with skills but everything with bike infrastructures. Streets can be narrow, people around may not pay attention for a moment or even a simple branch may stick out in your way. I like to be protected for different situations
It might be anecdotal but one day my dad got in a bike accident where he was wearing a helmet. I saw the helmet because he'd fallen on the ground and it was ground flat on one side. My dad's still around, so that's enough of an incentive for me.
Something similar happened to my dad, shit can happen anywhere any time even in the safest places
On a motorcycle a helmet saved my face and head. I'm pro helmet.
In motorcycle riding they say dress for the crash not for the ride.
I got hit by a car last year and scuffed up my face really bad _with_ a helmet. The helemt itself was junked. I'd been hemming and hawwing on my continued commitment to wearing a helmet and am sure glad I did. I would have broken much worse than my arm that day.
This. A helmet not only protects your head, but your loved ones too.
Very interesting discussion! I always wear a helmet but in my California commute I am forced to merge directly into 45mph/70kph traffic and there are numerous opportunities to be right hooked. Maybe I’d reconsider if I could ride on a protected path
Same. If we had better infrastructure, then maybe I would feel safe enough to cycle to work and school without a helmet. But I've had way too many close calls with distracted drivers running lights, turning without signaling or looking, or just veering over. If a helmet can reduce my chance of a head injury in those situations, I don't see any compelling argument for why I shouldn't wear one.
Yeah, see I’d be wearing a helmet too. But my daily commute is done on the sidewalks because Florida says “we don’t need bicycle infrastructure if we have sidewalks”
At least I’m not merging into traffic but I definitely have had close calls with people blowing the stop sign at my nearest supermarket plaza. They literally will kill you just so they can get home 0.000045 seconds earlier and put the milk in the fridge.
I've broken 2 helmets in accidents.
I bought my first helmet in 1990 after riding for many years without one (in fact in the UK no-one wore a helmet, even for racing when I started serious cycling in around 1970 when I wanted to get fit for sailing). I got knocked off (and out) on my way home from work and decided to get one for my 13 mile each way commute. Fortunately I was on my way to work when a cat ran across the road and attempted to run through my front wheel. I ended up in hospital for a fortnight and off work for 3 months. I was a paraplegic for several days and still suffer partial paralysis over 30 years later. The helmet suppliers gave both my wife and I new helmets and used my old one for display.
18 months later I came off a hired mountain bike in Yorkshire and seriously modified my face and got knocked out again. OK it was icy limestone and it looked worse than what it was but it was another broken helmet.
My first accident prompted most members of my cycle club to get helmets and now I always wear one though I much preferred being bare-headed. I'm 82 now and still ride though much less than formerly and with a little electrical assistance. You're not an idiot. It's your choice (though with the US health business it may be a bigger risk than here, in the UK). With my experience I think I'd be an idiot not to wear one.
Shifter lives in Canada, where we have a mostly public healthcare system (excluding important things like pharmacy, dental, and vision).
With a 13 mile commute I'd imagine you're moving with a brisk spend and attempting to go upwards of 25-30mph with traffic. I use a helmet when I'm in those circumstances too. (There's a 7 mile ride I often take and I always wear my helmet for that ride.) But then there are many short distance rides on narrow city streets with traffic going 10-20mph. I do those rides almost daily and never wear a helmet. The risk is significantly lower and I frankly feel less safe walking than bicycling in my neighborhood.
Did the helmets cause the incidents?
@@chriswatson3464 No. Why would they? Incidentally, I used to compete in motorcycle trials and, like all the other riders, just wore a flat cap. I think helmets are required now but I'm talking about the 1970/80s - when I was a lad :)
i know why youre supposed to wear a helmet, but the crossing guards at my elementary school always yelled at us that our parents can get in huge trouble if we dont wear a helmet. I lived 200 ft from the school. I couldve walked and made it just fine.
I don't commute by trike and never will since I work from home, but I always wear a helmet on my tricycle rides. I'm already severely disabled partially due to neurological issues, I don't need to hit my head in a tricycle accident to make it worse.
I was leaving in Sweden and never wore a helmet except during the winter! Every winter I fell at least once. Now I moved to the US and I always wear a helmet but I wouldn’t feel judged if I didn’t. I just choose to wear it because I think the likelihood for me to fall here is higher.
For years I rode, trained and raced road bikes. I rode about 200 miles a week and over the course of time I broke 2 helmets the hard way. People can do as they wish but I will choose to wear a helmet.
This tallys with time vs risk of an accident. The more you ride, the more likely you are to have one. It's just law of averages.
yup you´re doing a sport so its basic equipment. Not the same as commuting.
This was an incredible deep drive into the helmet question, thanks! I'm about were you ended up... I wear it to mountain bike, but typically don't around town unless I'm on a new and unfamiliar route. I don't "road bike" as a sport though, I ride primarily for transportation.
I don't ride an e-bike, but I personally think I'd consider wearing one in that case too. I've heard people talk about riding around at 20 mph on those and my average speed tends to be much lower than that.
I don't get that "i don't wear helmet in familiar setting" reasoning. Do you believe that just because the route you take is familiar to you nothing surprising or bad can happen?
Or perhaps since route is familiar you have more time and energy to focus on unfamiliar things and react to them. instead of going to autopilot like studies have shown people tend to do?
Yes, going slower gives you better time to react to certain things, but does not prevent cars or even animal from hitting you suddenly. It also does not prevent mechanical failures or problems with riding surface from occuring.
@@villekorhonen824 For me, it's about knowing about the quality of the infrastructure on the route... at least where I live the quality of the infrastructure is highly variable; great in some places and completely awful in others. When I'm going somewhere I go all the time and I know there's safe infra on the route, I have no issue going without a helmet. But if I'm going somewhere unfamiliar and I can't guarantee the quality of the route I might choose to wear the helmet as an extra layer of safety.
Honestly though, I've been riding a bike for approaching 40 years and I've never had an issue, mechanical or otherwise, where a helmet would have been a factor. I've been injured worse in car crashes during my life than I ever have been injured on my bicycle (not counting mountain biking, which I crash all the time doing of course lol). I'd love to see safer infra though because that's where the biggest gains in safety will be.
That being said, I have nothing against anyone that feels that given their cycling ability and environment that a helmet is appropriate for them. If it makes ya feel safer, go for it... otherwise, ditch it. My biggest beef is when it's held up as the "solution" to bicycle safety by cities or organizations.
Thanks for a UA-cam video that made me think. I wear a helmet all the time when riding because my wife asks me to. OTOH, here in my (U.S., car-favoring) town, I go far out of my way to avoid traffic. I take alleyways and side streets because I'm retired and thus have time. I ride for my health, so it's a little ridiculous for me to worry about how long I'm on the bike. After a lifetime of "driving for a living", just pulling the car out of the garage is work to me so I only use the car when have to.
Without my wife's request, I still might wear a helmet, because that is where I mount my most reliable rear-view mirror (yeah I know- I'm a dork)
Look, regardless of infrastructure accidents happen.
When I was in mine and went over the handlebars I landed right on my head, then shoulder, pinky (dislocated that), and then back on my head that skidded along the ground. My helmet took all the hits my head would have.
Getting my pinky fixed and stitched up was a pain but the lack of head trauma and facial scarring was a plus.
Wear a helmet, you only got one brain meat.
Why I wear a full face mountain bike helmet in urban environments:
- In Australia we have a vicious bird (read small dinosaur) called the Magpie which will draw blood if you ride near it's nest in the Spring time. It prefers ears.
- I mount a light on the helmet to look into the corners with handlebar light lighting the forward direction. Flashing light during daylight.
- The light mount will handle a GoPro if you want to record what hit you!
- Front peak provides good sun protection.
- Naturally the helmet is painted like a "Boba Fett" helmet.
Very informative, well researched and balanced discussion on helmets and bike safety.
🤦♂ "The light mount will handle a GoPro if you want to record what hit you!"
it's quite logical to use a helmet or other protective gear if the environments you are in is hostile towards you, be it either by animals or boxes on wheels.
Magpies in Canada are not that way in my experience, but hawks?. Whole 'nother matter. I had to get off my bike and use it as a shield!
I've broken my arm and wrist on my bike while wearing a helmet. I've stopped wearing one for my commute or getting groceries. I ride slower and more carefully without the helmet. Love the coverage on this topic.
Why don’t you just…… i don’t know….. ride slower while wearing a helmet?
Seriously, do you not have the self control to watch your speed in general?
Where does this line of reasoning end for you? Do you not wear a seatbelt in a car because if you wear it you drive faster? This is just such trash logic.
I mean, it's great if you ride more carefully, but do be aware that it is not always enough. Sudden things happen which you are unable to avoid no matter how careful you are.
And even if it were, are you actually completely focused all the time, especially when riding an familiar route? I highly doubt that.
You can try to be as cautious as possible but that won’t avoid the scenario of some clown coming out of nowhere and hitting you. Or any number of other scenarios. You’d be nuts to chance it.
It's silly to go through a thought process to decide if you need a helmet or not every time you get on a bike. How fast am I going? is it raining? Is the traffic light or heavy? Is the road surface good? Am I familiar with the area? Make it an automatic action that you don't need to think about and you'll hardly ever forget it. I've been road and mountain biking (some races) for 40+ years and skateboarding when younger. I had multiple events where my head stuck the ground. The only one where I was laid up with a concussion, I was not wearing a helmet. It escapes me why people go through so much effort to validate their actions to not wear a helmet.
Racing and skateboarding is not bicycle commuting. I have been a bicycle commuter for a decade and have never worn a helmet and I have never crashed head first into anything, neither have the tens (hundreds?) of thousands of Europeans that commute every day by bike. There is no life threatening danger to cyclists except for unsafe behavior by the cyclist (i.e. racing, doing tricks, or mountain biking) or automobiles. Vote for better bike infrastructure or to make illegal the automobile if you actually care about the health of cyclists.
@@CcCc-i6q You are lucky. I have been hit three times, commuting to and from work and school over the decades. One time if I haven't had a helmet on, I likely would have been severely injured. I was not racing, I was not trick riding. Every time the car hit me. I did not hit them.
Yeah I just don't go through the process. Don't own one don't wear one. Pretty simple. Now I'm not doing anything extreme. If that was the case then it's a no Brainer.
So why don’t you wear any the same protection that motorcyclists are advised to wear, including protection for knees, hips and elbows, and a full face helmet? You’re likely to hit in all the same places if you crash your bike.
Similarly, why wouldn’t you wear that protection as a pedestrian crossing streets in a busy city?
@@JamesCrandallPainting There's so many easy to see answers:
1) The types and likelihood of serious injury incidents daily cyclists will experience will be almost entirely covered by wearing a helmet.
2) Body armour will not be needed at all falling at 15 km/h, or prevent things like broken bones when being hit by a car. The velocity of the head striking the ground at that speed however will definitely be protected by a helmet.
3) Speed. The regular cyclist has trouble maintaining 30 km/h, let alone 50-100+ km/h as a motorcyclist can at the flick of a wrist. Motorcyclists also ride a 300kg mass of metal and rubber that can drag/push them down the road.
4) Cost/risk: A small addition of things like a seatbelt or bike helmet can reap massive benefits and harm reduction in the vast majority of situations a person is likely to encounter.
5) The moto gear part is a false argument against wearing *any* protection: "you don't wear all of it, so wear none of it".
6) Motorcyclists ride in high speed traffic. The vast majority of cyclists don't or are workling hard to not to with infrastructure.
7) When was the last time you saw a cyclist highside their bicycle?
8) The pedestrian part is a reductionalist argument the other way: Eveything's risky, even walking down the stairs, (which is more risky than walking in a busy city) so why even do anything? They are also heavily protected by proper road infrastructure such as crosswalks and traffic lights.
9) DH, enduro and all-mountain Mountain bikers *do* wear all of that gear because they're in situations where they need that protection 100% of the time. XC, they don't. With freestylers, body armour won't help them in a drop of 20-30 feet.
I'm sure there are more arguments as to why simply wearing a helmet is in the sweet spot of protection for an everyday cyclist.
Could you please add a bibliography of all studies used by Cailynn Klingbeil in the video? It would be very useful
If you are going to criticize methodology, give the source
Ironically, the best place to wear a cycle helmet is on protected infrastructure. There's a good chance a cycle helmet will provide some protection if you fall off your bike at low speed.
Cycle helmet certification tests generally involve a drop onto a surface from a couple of metres, so that's the sort of collision they're designed to withstand.
If you're mixing with cars, then the cycle helmet is only likely to be of much use in a very low speed collision (
The likelihood of you getting a traumatic brain injury or dying is much less on protected infrastructure, so I don't think it makes it better to wear one then, regardless if the safety of the helmet will negate that specific kind of crash entirely. The point of wearing a helmet in traffic isn't to negate the crash entirely, but to reduce the risk of traumatic brain injury or death, which is far more likely on un-protected infrastructure.
Of course, there's no blanket statements to be made. Each person has to ask themselves about their own likelihood of getting into a crash even on protected infrastructure: Am I an aggressive rider? Am I riding an upright bike? Am I older or not very physically-coordinated? Am I biking in bad weather or are the bike paths in bad condition? etc.
[Under US standards bike helmets are tested in 2 meter drops that achieve about 14 miles per hour (22.5 kph) on the flat anvil.]
Aug 21, 2022
- Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute
@@Ryan_hey I don't think a collision is more likely riding in traffic than on protected infrastructure, just that the chance of a severe collision is more likely.
Unfortunately, in that severe collision, a bicycle helmet is unlikely to be of any use in reducing traumatic brain injury or death.
What a helmet will help with, is the sort of traumatic brain injury sustained by tripping over coming out of the pub drunk and banging your head on a kerb. But nobody seems to wear them on a night out!
@@shm5547 Actually, if you watched this video, they discussed numerous sources which found that helmets do help to reduce traumatic injuries, somewhere around 60%.
Collision is definitely far more likely on unprotected infrastructure, because you're not protected from cars at all. With protected infrastructure, you're better protected against cars. That's kinda the point in having it. Many sources in this video are mentioned which back up this point.
@@Ryan_hey A collision doesn't have to involve a car. That's the point. A cycle helmet is much better suited to protecting the wearer when the collision doesn't involve a car: they're just not designed for that. Hence paradoxically, you'd get more benefit from wearing one on protected infrastructure.
You'd also get benefit wearing one as a pedestrian. But we tend not to, because the risk of tripping over walking to the shops is low. The risk of collision when cycling on the road with motorised traffic is still low (even lower for the small subset of low speed collisions that might make a helmet useful), but the perceived risk is what drives behaviour.
The point is, you can choose to wear one or not, but the stats show that it is not the answer to reducing cycling casualties.
I personally always wear a helmet. Doesn't matter if I'm mountain biking, gravel biking or commuting. That's just my personal choice and comes from my personal experience of a few very close calls. I think it's up to the individual rider. I choose to wear one, but at the same time won't damn someone else for their personal choice to not wear one.
I love seeing all the people cycling and walking behind you guys ♥️
Come to Calgary and check out our bike paths! You're always welcome
I noticed that too. I saw plenty of people going fast without helmets.
@@curtismah1261 Already here ♥️
Here's a fun subversion of expectations. Flip the script and wear a helmet when you walk or drive somewhere, then point out that you're just as likely to get injured in this context.
Should wear one in the shower. I knew someone who fell and cracked their skull just slipping in the shower one morning.
I feel like this is a false equivalency? In a car, you have airbags, seat belts, reinforced structures in the frame as well as frame parts designed to reduce impact forces by crumpling. Loads of safety features to reduce injury to you as a driver/passenger.
Walking generally isn’t done on the road and certainly doesn’t hit the speeds of cycling. There’s freak accidents but generally you’re not going to be dodging multi tonne metal boxes, some of whom wish you’d get the hell off the road, when walking as a pedestrian on a sidewalk. (bikes on sidewalks is a whole other story, and outside of designated cycle paths, i believe bikes should stay off sidewalks) Bike helmets aren’t just “world gone soft”. They’re a piece of legitimate safety gear that can seriously reduce risk. Cycle safety has a long way to go, town and city infrastructure could be improved massively, but while it is where its at, the least we can do is protect ourselves.
@@ProfessionalKonigSimp statistically helmets are as beneficial in cars as they are on bikes IIrC
Whoa! I really loved this! What seemed like a cavalier question about safety turned into a fantastic, in-depth, and well informed cycling safety discussion.
As an individual whose been in a major cycling accident (while not wearing a helmet) I have to say I think I'll be wearing mine without exception for the foreseeable future; However Cailynn's research, and your discussion, have definitely changed the way I think about cycling safety in general. Thank you!
I suspect the chance of an accident also varies by region. Some of the math in this video is a little sophomoric though. Yes, there are other injuries aside from head injuries that send one to the hospital, but stroke and other brain injuries tend to be far more dire then, say, a broken arm or other bone. Even a 60% reduction in that would be pretty compelling to me. Sure, most people never have an accident. The same might hold true for cars and seatbelts. Still, I live in Somerville MA, and they put up white painted “ghost” bikes to commemorate bike deaths. One is in an area I often bike by. What is the downside of wearing a helmet? Messy hair?
The video gives some answers to your question at the end.
Torso crushes cause the most cycling fatalities; not much protection from a helmet there.
@@davestokes3446 what is the source of that data?
@@davestokes3446 Even if this were the case, none of the statistics in the video are done using non-helmet wearers as controls. If most people wear helmets and the biggest cause of cyclist fatalities is torso crushes, we're suddenly using that as evidence to not wear helmets? Illogical. It's just as likely that helmets prevented what would have been the #1 cause of death, head injury, and now the next most vulnerable unprotected body part is causing deaths. Weird biased math in this video.
In addition to what’s been mentioned, it’s also important to remember that helmets DO NOT prevent mild TBIs (i.e. concussions). The energy from a crash is transferred through the helmet into the skull regardless. Helmets will prevent scalp injuries/more severe injuries to the skull.
Under US standards bike helmets are tested in 2 meter drops that achieve about 14 miles per hour (22.5 kph) on the flat anvil.
Aug 21, 2022
The last generation of helmets has a feature called MIPS that is supposed to add protection in more realistic situations than a motorist picking you up by your ankles and dropping you on your head.
@@stephensaines7100 Thanks for that info. That shows that helmets can probably prevent severe head injuries, but not concussions. Concussions are hypothesized to occur from neuronal dysfunctional following kinetic energy transfer through the skull, not so much an anvil going through the skull.
Skull can handle a lot. I've known people that bashed their heads on rocks and didn't fracture their skull.
When I was a kid (I'm 41 now) no one was wearing a helmet. Now, I see more and more people wearing them. To me, it looks stupid. I fell about 10 times. Got hit by a car 3 times ( pushed in a dich, nothing serious) and broke my collar bone once. Never ever I hit my head. And I don't know anyone who did. You know what saves lives? Lights!
Two friends wearing bike helmets both had low speed impacts against curb and tree root. Brain trauma. One was out of work for 6 months, other 3 years.. I always wear mine and I use a motorbike helmet on my ecargo bike.
Exactly. Concussions are no joke. I just don't understand why anybody would take the risk, however small. A small crash can be life changing.
You wearing , or not , will hurt NO ONE.
If it’s not good enough for anyone else.. they’ll be okay. I promise.
I think bad form like passing blindside and ignoring rules are the most offensive that lead to serious injury … but that’s MY opinion.
Thanks for sharing awesome content with us.
We use the exact same nanny logic as helmet laws for all sorts of things. I'll believe it when you can order whatever pharmaceuticals you want from any manufacturer, buy a car without seatbelts or a crumple zone, etc.
@@microcolonelyou have to understand nuance. It is rare to injure head on bicycle, but it is not rare to fly to windshield when you crash.
@@sillymesilly still doesn't matter... It's entirely your problem.
Everything said in this video is true.
But what's also true: This video has 93k views at the moment. If a fraction of these people stop wearing a helmet and a fraction of those people get into an accident and a fraction of *those* people injure their head, then putting this out there might directly lead to someone receiving a life altering (or ending) brain injury.
Then again, there's also something to be said about letting people make informed decisions. Either way, I'm going to continue wearing a helmet, because that is a risk I'm just not willing to bear.
In all honesty, one of the things I like _best_ about this channel is you (mostly) not wearing a helmet, and not making a fuss about it.
I recently injured my leg in a bike crash. Interestingly enough, the first question from many people upon hearing my leg was hurt was "were you wearing a helmet?" (I wasn't). I've been chastised over and over again for it, which is sort of fair, but... I broke my leg. A helmet wouldn't have helped in this case. What would have helped is better traffic calming and bike separating infrastructure in my neighborhood, because my crash had a lot to do with turning at high speed to try and match the pace of traffic.
clearly, you should have been wearing the helmet on your leg. duh.
I always ask these helmet fascists if they wear helmets while traveling in a car or truck, as that is where most head injuries occur. When they admit they do not, I ask if they wear a helmet in the shower, b/c that's a very common situation as far as head injuries go, too.
Makes it difficult to wash your hair, though.
I really liked the video, keeping calm and collected through a controverse topic. Keep at it. :)
Personally i don't wear a helmet. I have always felt it cumbersome and irritating and perceived it to affect my road awareness. I have always been heavy on the sweat and the summers get hot here nowadays. So wearing a helmet can also contribute to overheating and perhaps sweat dropping into your eyes.
Bikes have always been my main mode of transportation. (Mainly motorcycles) I'm a firm believer in helmets because I've seen what they can do and I've also seen how easily a simple fall can cause brain injury.
I didn't really wear one for commuting on the bicycle but now that I got a 29er, I'm looking at name brand helmets. Fly racing has been my go to brand and they've got some good looking helmets.
Also, those e-bikes? I'd go with a full face mtb helmet for that.
15% of head injuries are facial.
I usually wear a helmet because there is no bike infrastructure where I live. I do ride at low speeds while sitting upright and with lights, but I still feel that the risk is high since I'm usually sharing the road with personal vehicles. As a bonus I get to have wind blockers around my ears and a sun shade because of my helmet! I would still prefer to not wear a helmet though, and I don't judge anyone either way :)
wow very interesting conversation. I don't wear a helmet myself however I do make the kids wear one as it is the law and also they don't have the same amount of experience on a bicycle as I do. It is so true there are many factors in riding a bike safely and I think the most important are how we are riding, where we are riding and visibility. Thanks for the interesting point of view.
Crashed on my bike yesterday. The cause of the crash was my speed and shoddy cargo hauling solution leading to poor control of the bike when I hit a bump in the pavement. I scraped my left elbow and my palms a bit. I was riding on a walking and cycling path as I nearly always do. A helmet would not have prevented my crash, nor would it have given me any protection in this case. I wasn't wearing a helmet, but if I did I would be a bit disappointed in it. Thanks for nothing, lol.
Thicker gloves and a thicker jacket would have protected me, but obviously a better cargo solution or simply riding slower would have prevented the accident in the first place. Curiously, the only thing my girlfriend told me when I came home was that I needed to start always wearing a helmet. My own take away from the accident is that I need to ride much slower on non smooth surfaces and fix a proper cargo solution that doesn't lower my control over the bike.
Reminds me of my driving teacher who always told me that the only factor you really need to consider when it comes to preventing accidents is speed. Lower the speed and every other accident risk factor fades into irrelevance. Doesn't matter if you are looking at your phone if you are standing still. Doesn't matter if the road is slippery if you are driving slow. Doesn't matter if it's foggy and you have poor vision if you are driving slow. Your slow reaction time or slow decision making doesn't matter if you are driving slowly enough to orient yourself and make your decisions.
> Reminds me of my driving teacher who always told me that the only factor you really need to consider when it comes to preventing accidents is speed. Lower the speed and every other accident risk factor fades into irrelevance.
As a cyclist you can be hit and seriously injured even while stationary, whereas in a car you'll hardly receive critical injuries when traveling at city speeds.
Thankyou for sharing your story. I always wonder what proportion of anecdotes that 'support wearing a helmet' emit details about the riders own poor safety decisions. How many of the times where "a helmet saved a life" could the situation have been mitigated by other better safety choices.
@@MichaelRenner Actually there's a disproportionate amount of car driver/passenger deaths. They aren't as safe as we think. That's all part of our skewed risk analysis that was discussed in this video.
I wear a bike helmet because I have gone over my handlebars before and landed on my head - I was wearing a helmet then but could understand what would have happened if I was not. You can't always predict what might happen, but you can always plan for the worst.
maybe the large object on your head was the reason for hitting the ground, dont neglect hundreds of thousands of years of human evolution; you use a pillow at night for the same reason ;)
I ride a lot with my bike since childhood and I believe I am on the more aggressive side of the riding styles out there. But I would also consider myself somewhat "expert" since I am also riding downhill races and road bike races. Also commute daily here in Berlin.
And from my experience of crashing and seeing other is, that yes you rarely fall on your helmet. But when you do, a helmet is your life insurance. And always remember - nobody ever wanted to crash but it will happen (somewhat by definition) when you don't expect it.
So yes, my takeaway is there a are more important things we and our cities can do to stay safe - so don't ride like Rambo without any lights and reflector on you or your bike at night and expect that you are safe because of a helmet. Also cities must understand that we will probably die when we hit a car driving 50 km/h probably not because of brain damage but damage to internals and organs (I know) - so telling riders to wear a helmet but not doing anything for infrastructure is not doing shit.
But please never compromise on obvious safety. For me a helmet is still a no brainer - pun intended.
I live in western Germany, the Netherlands (bicycle Mekka) are only 40 km away.
I don´t consider Germany as a good bicycling area, although there are some exceptions. But the Netherlands definetely are.
NOBODY wears a helmet there. Whenever they see a "Duits" with a helmet, they simply laught their ass off.
As mentioned in the video, infrastructure is key. The Dutch have it, many others don´t. Whenever a helmet is recommended for everyday bike commuting, the traffic authorities are to hang their heads in shame!
There was a comment on a video I was watching a while back where a Dutch person was visiting their friend in the US; they also scoffed at the prevalence of helmets. Then they saw what biking _looked like_ in the US, with bikes sharing the road with cars and needing to accelerate very fast from dead stops and reaching high top speeds, and everything suddenly made sense to them.
It's a shame that the prevalence of helmets as a safety requirement derailed almost every other measure that could've been undertaken to improve the safety of bike riding in general.
(not finished the video yet but I just wanted to share) I grew up in a small town in Asia where motorcycle dominated the roads (not cars, at least not during the time when I was a teenager). I rode bike to school every day for 5 - 6 years. During peak hours you will definitely see more students and bikes than motorcycles or cars in some roads. And no teens wearing helmet at that time. I know it is always safer to have one especially for teenagers and children. But we just don't see the risks. We were not running in the middle of the road; we were in OK speed; the roads were mainly flat and not hilly at all. The only risks (that could cause serious wound like on the head) were not from us but other gas vehicles when their drivers were not following the rules. And now I am in the US, a developed country, dominated by cars but also have properly designed dedicated bike lanes, I don't think there are huge external risks like the one mentioned above. Of course if I have a kid I would make sure they have the helmet and California law says so also. And California law also says helmet is not mandatory for people above 18, which I also agree. I really hope Americans can see bike as a daily commuting tools rather than only a sports and exercise equipment that people hope on a few times a week and only for exercising purpose. Psychologically, I feel safer when I was 15 on my way between school and home surrounded by my teenager friends and their bikes than right now hearing the roaring cars passing by me quickly and while me being alone and the only biker in the bike lane.
I watched this entire video and really tried to understand your points of view but my answer didn't change: yes, yes you absolutely are. If you went through this video and replaced the word "helmet" with "seatbelt" people would rightfully call you insane. If helmets are cool enough for Gordon Ramsay and Radiohead, they're cool enough for you. Don't discourage behavior that directly saves lives.
Wearing a helmet or not is YOUR personal decision that can greatly affect the severity of a crash.
Missing infrastructure is something that you individually can hardly affect. Those two problems/questions should not be mixed up in a single discussion.
Getting more people to ride a bike is good, of course, but you shouldn't refrain from implementing personal safety measures while at it because some might not like those. You don't try to get more people to ride cars by promising they don't need to wear a safety belt either, do you?
I highly recommend wearing helmets form personal experience with my own crashes and accidents I have witnessed and was a first aid responder at.
The ones with helmets were always far better off. Just thinking back of it I now have images in my head again I'd rather not have.
A helmet does not only protect you in a forward collision with something, it also protects your face and ears while sliding over asphalt or gravel, which is quite common even during "lighter" accidents. I could be missing an ear had I not worn a helmet e.g.
And while we're at it: I recommend gloves, too. Because even when little else happens in an accident, scraping the insides of your hands on the pavement isn't nice and can hinder your everyday life severly for days or a week. Putting on some gloves really doesn't hurt and in colder temperatures you'll do it anyway.
This was really interesting, thanks. It won’t affect my current choice to commute wearing a helmet, as conditions dictate this approach but for shorter, slower rides I’ll probably ride free-style again, see how it feels…