homeHelmets: yes or no?
 Cycle helmet shelf-lifeHow often should you replace your bicycle helmet? This article explains all... |
| How often should you replace a cycle helmet? This article gives six reasons why helmets need replacing |
| Cycle helmet: Friend or foe? Dr Mayer Hillman has long argued helmet compulsion is "victim blaming." He said: "By wearing helmets, cyclists are at best only marginally reducing their chances of being fatally or seriously injured in a collision with a motor vehicle which is the predominant cause of these injuries. Even the most expensive ones provide little protection in these circumstances...People are discouraged from cycling if their perception is heightened that it is a 'dangerous' form of travel and that it is only safe to do so if a helmet is worn. The result of this is that the considerable latent demand for cycling - an ideal mode for the majority of the population for most of their journeys - continues to be suppressed. As cycling is also a convenient and routine way of maintaining fitness, a significant route to public health is prejudiced." |
| Are cycle helmets necessary, ask campaigners This anti-compulsion website links to lots of studies that the site says proves helmet wearing is not the panacea many compulsionists claim it is. |
| Cycle helmets: the encyclopedic approach This long and learned exposition on cycle helmets on the wikipedia online encylopedia is one of the most comprehensive articles on 'everything cycle helmets' you're likely to see on the web. It's very good on testing standards, but poor on images. The main pic of a helmet is dated. |
| Helmets protect. But from what? This is an anti-compulsion website containing medical references and one main essay: "Why is it that in some countries in Europe where cycling is far more universal a transport mode than in the US, hardly anyone wears a helmet yet bike accident casualties are remarkably low? Why is it that in the US, when one raises the subject of bicycle safety, there is only one popular answer: Bike Helmets? How has the bike safety issue in the US been turned away from Livable Cities, traffic calming, reduction of auto use, etc. -- and solely focussed on plastic hats? Why are bike injuries and fatalities so heavily publicized, whereas fatalities from other traffic-related causes are often hardly discussed at all? Why is bike riding being singled out as a Traffic Safety Issue?" |
| Helmets work, says pro-compulsion org There are lots of useful parts of the comprehensive US site. This rebuttal section is a good introduction. |
| Take off helmet away from the bike This is advice for children from the US safety organisation, CPSC. There's a risk of strangulation on playground equipment, climbing trees etc. |
| Bicycle Helmet Initiative Trust The Bicycle Helmet Initiative Trust (BHIT); promotes the wearing of bicycle helmets by children, 16 years and younger, when cycling. BHIT says "Helmets cannot prevent accidents but a child who is wearing a helmet and is involved in an accident has a much better chance of either being uninjured or receiving a less severe head injury than if they'd not been wearing a helmet. Whilst getting younger children to wear a helmet can be relatively easy, encouraging older children can be much more difficult. One way to encourage them to wear a helmet is allowing them to choose their own, within a limited budget." |
| Helmet compulsion leads to less people cycling, says Doc Oz medic Dr. Michael Henderson wrote the massively pro-helmet 'Effectiveness of Bicycle Helmets:A Review', a seminal and very long treatise on why cycle helmets work. He says mandatory cycle helmet wearing puts people off cycling: "There remains a proportion of the riding population who are opposed to legislation requiring the use of helmets on grounds of principle and--as some reduction in the amount of cycling when legislation is introduced has shown--may even prefer not to ride rather than wear a helmet. The fact that the costs of their injury will be borne by others may not be properly appreciated." |
| Dft's helmet effectiveness PDF: a critique Download the PDFs at the base of the link for the full and exhaustive critique. |
 Shatter your illusions, not your helmet, says lid-law opponentGuy Chapman's long article contains lots of advice on helmet fitting, but is mainly a polemic on why he believes helmet compulsion would be a bad idea. |
| Bike helmet wiki Bicycle helmet debate produced in 'wiki' format. It's mostly anti-helmet but it cites umpteen sources and effectively debunks many myths, such as the infamous 88% 'cycle helmet effectiveness' statistic. |
