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Bicycle Helmets Kill

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The reaction of bicyclists to intimations of their mortality seems somewhat different. For a start, the average pushbike rider doesn’t wear clothing that concedes the possibility of coming off as they hit top speed down a hill. The nanny state has decreed the little helmets, but beyond that, well, lycra goes better than leather with physical exertion.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/regulate-bicycles-off-the-road-20140117-30ytz.html#ixzz2qcKdDFly
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A very interesting article from Michael Pascoe in the SMH today. Bicycles are dangerous, and a helmet does not make them less so, the way they are ridden on our highways.

Regulate bicycles off the road
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http://www.smh.com.au/business/regulate-bicycles-off-the-road-20140117-30ytz.html

My stance has been that having the ridiculous helmets encourages risk-taking by the speeders and impacts on the community's health by discouraging sensible riding away from highways.

gg
 
Garpal Gumnut said:
A very interesting article from Michael Pascoe in the SMH today. Bicycles are dangerous, and a helmet does not make them less so, the way they are ridden on our highways.
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Yeah it is interesting. The point about if bicycles were invented now is a good one. If everything was invented now you wouldn't build cars and roads for them that are massively expensive, environmental destructive and cause people to be fat lazy and stupid.

Trains for bulk transport,
Roads and trucks for port to user,
Paths for pedestrians.
Public transport for bulk person transport.
Bikes and feet for everything else.

Huge congestion taxes for anyone who wants a car for personal transport, like $20 a short trip $1 a kilometre for every K over 50 ks travelled per day.


No more fatties sucking my tax dollars. And no more stupid car drivers and their road rage.
 
Trembling Hand said:
Yeah it is interesting. The point about if bicycles were invented now is a good one. If everything was invented now you wouldn't build cars and roads for them that are massively expensive, environmental destructive and cause people to be fat lazy and stupid.

Trains for bulk transport,
Roads and trucks for port to user,
Paths for pedestrians.
Public transport for bulk person transport.
Bikes and feet for everything else.

Huge congestion taxes for anyone who wants a car for personal transport, like $20 a short trip $1 a kilometre for every K over 50 ks travelled per day.


No more fatties sucking my tax dollars. And no more stupid car drivers and their road rage.
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I like your thinking.

Forget the road rage, it's just morons who don't know how to drive, and Australia has more of them than any other country I've been to.
 
McLovin said:
it's just morons who don't know how to drive, and Australia has more of them than any other country I've been to.
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You have got to be joking....you've been to China McLovin...and other parts of Asia. How can you say that? At least in Australia (or when i was there last) if you put a signal light on they'll let you in. They won't, time and time again, ignore right away. They will stop at pedestrian crossings and yield.

This is the worse driving I've seen but I've not been to India, which i hear i much worse than here..
 
CanOz said:
You have got to be joking....you've been to China McLovin...and other parts of Asia. How can you say that? At least in Australia (or when i was there last) if you put a signal light on they'll let you in. They won't, time and time again, ignore right away. They will stop at pedestrian crossings and yield.

This is the worse driving I've seen but I've not been to India, which i hear i much worse than here..
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OK the developed world. ;)

Yes, Chinese drivers are pretty bad. I certainly no to give a wide berth to any Camry with doilies and curtains in it.
 
McLovin said:
Forget the road rage, it's just morons who don't know how to drive, and Australia has more of them than any other country I've been to.
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Got to agree entirely with this. For a so called developed society we are way behind other modern countries in driver testing, education and attitude.

To compare ourselves with third world countries where they are transitioning from a camel or a rickshaw to a powered vehicle in one generation is totally misleading.

This was photographed in Adelaide today (cnr Tapleys Hill Rd and Port Rd going North), a vehicle in the right hand lane on the wrong side of the road attempting to turn right into opposite direction traffic.

Under Australian law this clown is allowed to provide driving instruction to a learner driver - anyone else see where the sub standard driver issue stems from ?
 

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Boggo said:
Got to agree entirely with this. For a so called developed society we are way behind other modern countries in driver testing, education and attitude.

To compare ourselves with third world countries where they are transitioning from a camel or a rickshaw to a powered vehicle in one generation is totally misleading.

This was photographed in Adelaide today (cnr Tapleys Hill Rd and Port Rd going North), a vehicle in the right hand lane on the wrong side of the road attempting to turn right into opposite direction traffic.

Under Australian law this clown is allowed to provide driving instruction to a learner driver - anyone else see where the sub standard driver issue stems from ?
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This looks like someone thats used to driving on the right side of the road, like China, N.America etc...

In fact when i looked at it i wondered "whats wrong with that?". I have had many close calls where i've found myself on the wrong side of the road after a lengthy time in either Australia or abroad. IT takes a while to convert back and it catches you just when you think you've got it under control.

I recall a time near the Warrnambool cheese and butter factory, i did the same and nearly ran head on into a pickup...then i found out a young Chinese couple was killed at that same intersection doing the same thing.

I find its easier when you are switching back and forth between right and left driving often. I dread driving in Australia when we eventually move back...
 
CanOz said:
They will stop at pedestrian crossings and yield.
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I can agree with that. In Thailand the most dangerous place to cross a road is at a pedestrian cross (at least in the provinces). Assuming traffic is going to stop gives you a false sense of security and you may not be as careful as you would otherwise. The pedestrian crossing is completely ignored and the traffic drives through without slowing.

In Vietnam it is no better. However, there is a knack to crossing the road. You should walk at a constant pace without looking at the traffic and they will "generally" avoid you. If you look at the traffic you will hesitate and confuse the drivers, likely causing an accident.
 
Yet another study confirms that bicycle helmets are killers.

They do so, by discouraging citizens from cycling, leaving bicycles the domain of the manic lycra and rich.

The average punter will not wear a helmet and is disadvantaged from cycling, enduring a life of hell in a Camry or on public transport.

A recent study into the reasons for the disappointing usage of Australia’s two bike share schemes has confirmed what many people already know: public bike share will not work with mandatory helmet laws.

Usage rates of Brisbane’s CityCycle and the Melbourne Bike Share are terrible. This new research confirms what we have previously reported; that Brisbane and Melbourne are receiving only 5-10% of the usage we should expect of successful bike share schemes.

The authors note:

“Both schemes have approximately 0.3–0.4 trips per day per bike according to information supplied by the operators to the authors…..most other schemes internationally report usage rates of around 3–6 trips per bike per day.”

Every bike share scheme in the world except for Brisbane and Melbourne allows people to ride without helmets (which is perfectly safe). It is this compulsory helmet requirement that most people say is the main factor preventing them from using the Melbourne Bike Share, as shown in Figure 1 below.
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MBS-Barriers-Graph.jpg


When oh when will our legislators return bicycles to the masses?

gg
 
Garpal Gumnut said:
Yet another study confirms that bicycle helmets are killers.
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Link gg? That must be old.

I know you guys are a bit slow up there in North QLD due to the heat & humidity cooking your brains and making you talk with a funny drawl but they now come with helmets and the option to by your own for $5. It aint an issue.
 
Trembling Hand said:
Link gg? That must be old.

I know you guys are a bit slow up there in North QLD due to the heat & humidity cooking your brains and making you talk with a funny drawl but they now come with helmets and the option to by your own for $5. It aint an issue.
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Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour

Volume 15, Issue 6, November 2012, Pages 686–698

ps James Joyce never wore an element.

gg
 
More and more cyclists are being maimed and killed by cycling on major thoroughfares nationwide.

This is in no small part due to the encouragement of high speed on modern bicycles, and, bicycle helmets which give cyclists a false sense of security in a prang.

It is time that our governments encouraged a more gentle sashaying on bicycles, without the penalty of having to wear a helmet and that cyclists are encouraged to not use highways and cycle at an economical speed.

We are the only nation which mandates this ridiculous potty plastic headgear, in a vain attempt to deny the law of entropy when large vehicles collide with bicycles.

gg
 
The lycra mob are becoming more powerful and the Arnage will have to stay a metre or 1.5m away from them soon.

This will make it more difficult to ban bicycle helmets, and the rich lycra cyclists with their grain-fed ham like calves will become more prevalent on our highways.

Their sense of entitlement will increase and fast aggressive bicycle riding will become the norm. This will make a case to legislate even more mandatory law to wear a bicycle helmet.

An end will come to gentler souls such as I who cycle back from the bakery at 10.05am, for my first beer, sans helmet, a dorrie between my lips and a hot pie in hand, causing no person any harm or distress.

Australia will become a land of bigots, bigotted against slow cycling and peaceful cycle riding.

Our politicians need to take this plague of lycra cyclists on board and perhaps have a Royal Commission, to ban bicycle helmets.

gg
 
Cannot believe I have to share the planet with people like this person that deliberately runs someone down. :(

[video=youtube_share;bLAuktN2N10]http://youtu.be/bLAuktN2N10[/video]
 
WTF?? Did they survive TH? Was the person charged and convicted?:eek:
 
I think drivers should do a mandatory 3 months driving course in Shanghai and the surrounding suburbs. By the time you finished you'd have a new sense of awareness while driving. Its an exhausting exercise here, driving. We take public transport when ever we can i hate it that much. The scooters are the worst, but they sure improve your awareness, always running traffic lights, never replacing their burned out headlights...:banghead:

I only cycle where i can stay on the cycle paths...very rarely going on the open road...
 
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