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E-bike riders aren’t wearing helmets — and head trauma cases are through the roof
(www.tomsguide.com)
this post was submitted on 04 Mar 2024
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Wearing a helmet increases your risk of injury: https://road.cc/content/news/268605-wearing-cycle-helmet-may-increase-risk-injury-says-new-research
Paradoxically, wearing a helemt makes people feel safer doing more dangerous things, so it increases the actual risk. However, the existence of cars without sufficient infrastructure makes biking significantly more dangerous, reguarless of everything anything the bike rider is doing. So in countries with functional bike infrastructure, like the Netherlands, people don't wear helmets because it's safer not to. In dysfunctional countries, like the US, people have to wear helmets.
Faster biking without a helmet is obviously dangerous, I don't know if this is also related to cars. In the Netherlands, eBikes with acceleators are considered motorcycles and require helmets but eBikes that are just pedal assist are considered regular bikes and people generally use the assist to go farther not faster.
They're more likely to bike more dangerously. Folks in the Netherlands don't wear helmets and it has the highest bike usage in the world.
Wat? Helmet mandates reduce cycling numbers.
https://www.publichealth.columbia.edu/news/counterintuitive-argument-against-bicycle-helmet-laws#:~:text=And%20evidence%20backs%20up%20the,for%20uneven%20and%20discriminatory%20enforcement.
Dutchies wear no helmets because we're stubborn that way. There's more injuries compared to our neighbor Denmark where more than half of people wear helmets.
With the advent of eBikes there's been a huge upsurge in cycling related injury, certainly among the elderly. However the mental ownership of bikes makes us as unwilling to wear a helmet as stereotypical southern us state males were unwilling to adapt the seatbelt.
Inverse survivorship bias 'i never needed one' prevails. Only one in ten wears a helmet and if you bring up this topic in conversation it gets really uncomfortable soon...
Helmets are going to be required for older cyclists pretty soon though, yeah? I wonder how much that will impact things.
I think our boomers would rather elect literally Hitler instead of submitting to bike helmet law (something national identity). It'll darwinise itself out in the long run.
Oh, is Geert Wilders against helmets? Heh.
Well any helmets outside of intensity hairsprayed blond domes
According to one study it takes about 2300 Newtons to fracture a skull.
For example, drivers will give unhelmeted cyclists more room while passing, on average.