39. Bike Helmets, Callum Turpin

They’re clunky, annoying, irritating, bulky, yet since the ‘80s most people believe that they can save lives if their user was in a cycling accident.
The bike helmet.
The law states that everyone who is on a road or a road-like area, including bike paths, bike lanes and footpaths MUST wear an approved bike helmet, securely fitted and fastened.
And that makes, sense, right? A helmet can protect your head if you’re in an accident, right?
Well, not always.
According to recent research, bike helmets don’t keep people as safe as most people think they do.

Statistics show that even though the law has been in place since 1990, there hasn’t been a significant drop in injuries or deaths due to bike accidents since the law was made.
Associate Professor Chris Rissel and Dr Alexander Voukelatos from The University of Sydney’s School of Public Health looked at hospital admissions of people involved in cycling accidents, between 1980 (before mandatory helmet laws were introduced) and 2008 (when the test was conducted).
The biggest drop in people hospitalised was in 1988, before helmet laws were introduced. This drop was probably due to new road safety campaigns that started that year.

Some studies actually show that bike helmets can actually be dangerous to their wearers. There are trends in the data that show increased injury and even death with some cyclists that wear helmets.
The reasons for these trends aren’t known definitely, but the most likely reasons are the extra weight a helmet provides; incorrect usage of a helmet; and even behavioural changes brought about from the “safe” feeling people get from wearing their helmet.

Because everyone has to wear helmets all the time, the amount of bike riding has decreased since the introduction of helmet laws, which means the laws provide fewer benefits.
Bike helmets obviously discourage people from cycling, and over time that has added to Australia’s growing obesity problem.
Back before bike helmets were made compulsory, bicycles were one of the most popular forms of transport, exercise and fun for Australians. Now, with the helmet laws, less people are riding their bikes, the lazy Australian lifestyle is getting lazier, and our obesity problem is on the rise.
The Australian Bicycle Council has said that riding a bike has the possibility to be the solution to many of Australia’s problems, particularly in the city,
but it just won’t happen if people aren’t given the choice of wearing a helmet. Such problems that could be prevented are the aforementioned obesity epidemic, traffic and air pollution, all of which are problems Melbourne is struggling with.
It should be noted, that to combat traffic congestion and increase tourism in Melbourne, the Victorian Government started a bike-share scheme. This cost tax payers $5.5million, yet an average of less than 70 bikes are used per day, out of the total of 600 bikes.
A key factor for this ridiculously low use of the new scheme is - you guessed it - the helmet laws! Melbourne is the only city with a bike-share system in the world that has not scrapped their helmet laws.

In conclusion, I strongly believe the helmet laws should be relaxed.
In saying this, however, I don’t mean to say that helmets provide no protection whatsoever and they must die, or anything. I don’t mean to say that no-one should wear a helmet because they don’t provide any safety, full stop.
All I’m saying is that cyclists, whether travelling 50 metres or 250 kilometres, should have the choice of whether they should wear a helmet or not. People should be able to make their minds up for themselves.
Obviously if you were riding 250 kilometres you would wear a helmet. But they don’t keep people as safe as most people think they do. Also, if you were only riding 50 metres or so down the street, having to put on, securely fit and fasten a helmet would take longer than the bike ride itself. My point is, it’s a waste of time!

Anyway, thank you for listening. =)