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We were reading Transportation Alternatives executive director Paul Steely White's column am New York and found out that this Thursday, there's a vigil ride to honor bike riders who have died in traffic accidents. It starts at 8AM at Fifth Avenue and Warren Street in Brooklyn and ends at City Hall at 9AM, with different groups asking Mayor Bloomberg to convene a task force to examine bicylist safety and past deaths. Some other interesting facts on White's article were that based on the bicyclist fatalities since 1995, an average of one bicyclist is killed every three weeks, and two recent bicyclist deaths (including last week's in Park Slope) have been along the city's "recommended bike routes." While some of the initiatives the alliance of bike groups would like the city to undertake are very idealized (for instance, 15 MPH streets), but you laugh too much, Gothamist thinks if more drivers understand about bicyclists' rights, maybe they'll consider pedestrian rights as well.
Transportation Alternatives on some things you can do to ensure better biking in the city; plus the TA's campaigns for bicycle advocacy and pedestrian advocacy.
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There's no question that there are a lot of bad drivers who hit bicyclists, but there is something that unfortunately even the best riders don't do: wear a helmet.
I can't tell you how many people spend thousands of bucks on a bike and other gear but somehow think a $40 helmet is an expense too far. I was in the park yesterday and saw a guy taken to the hospital for a head injury. Fancy bike, colorful bike jersey, all decked out...no helmet. I don't know what happened to the guy, but he'll be lucky to not be a vegetable after what I saw.
Not that every helmet will prevent every injury or fatality, but it's one decent line of defense. Unfortunately, even TA doesn't do enough to advocate helmet use. I saw an interview with one of their spokeswomen and she was shown riding her bike without a helmet. Shouldn't the very people who are always complaining about unsafe riding conditions do everything they can to advocate safer riding?
If seat belt use is mandatory for car drivers, helmet use should be mandatory for cyclists who ride the same streets as cars.
Obviously, a helmet can only help you to a certain extent. But, yes, people who refuse to wear helmets because they don't "look cool" are beyond idiotic (same goes for people riding at night without lights, as well as those people who ride the wrong way on the street, even in the bike lane!). Decent helmets can be bought for the $30 mark from Performance and Nashbar, among others.
I was surprised that the recent Tour De Brooklyn ride didn't make helmets a requirement, like the 5-boro. That was a liability suit waiting to happen.
As much as I want to support Transportation Alternatives viewpoint, the sad reality is that they are so gung-ho about bicycle advocacy that they have unrealistic views as to the role motorized vehicles play in a city.
I agree with much of what they say and do, but shake my head in bafflement at some of the ways they plan on approaching it. But then again, a lot of the traffic mess in this city is based on Robert Moses bizarre mindset. So perhaps their somewhat off-kilter ideas is just the natural response to someone as off-kilter as Robert Moses' vision.
Perhaps the ultimate solution is placing some heavy duty time--possibly even jail-time--connected injuring or killing a bicyclist. Right now, it's basically just 'an accident' according to what I've seen. But harsher laws against things like opening car doors without looking to see if there is a cyclist would encourage people to be more careful.
Rebuilding roadways is one thing. But placing heavy-duty fines and penalities on drivers is another. And I believe that will really teach people to respect the road more than they do now.
Can anyone explain why someone would buy a helmet then ride around with it hanging from the handlebars? I see this all the time and it just boggles the mind.
I bet that more people die in NY because they weren't wearing a bullet proof vest than people who died because they weren't wearing a helmet. Are they idiots? Riders are killed by unskilled and over aggressive drivers. Yes people should wear helmets. But when they don't, the cause of death is not "lack of helmet." It's b/c their bodies are crushed by steel and smeared across concrete. Educate drivers: http://theCoup.org/bike/
Here's a little piece of pedestrian advocacy: keep goddamn bikers off the sidewalks, and make them obey traffic laws! The number of times I have almost been mowed down by cyclists running red lights or delivery men riding on the sidewalk...
I wear a helmet any time I'm on a NYC street on my bike -- which is rare these days, because I find it both dangerous and completely unenjoyable, not so much because of the cars (a helmet wouldn't have helped out either of the recent cycling deaths we've had) but more for the state of the roads (my only real accident came when my tire got caught in uneven and grooved pavement). When I'm on a designated motor traffic-free pathway however, I generally take the helmet off and strap it to the handlebars.
I'd also like to impose a larger fine for asshole delivery guys who blow through a red light and crosswalk without any concern over whther or not they're ramming into pedestrians with the right of way.
g -- do you wear a helmet on the bus or on the subway? What about you db? What about in a taxi? If you don't, why not? Helmets in cars would save thousands of lives in the US. I can't understand why people don't wear helmets in cars. Even with seat belts on, it's very possible to have one's head his side windows in car and that can result in serious injury or even death. Thousands of people are serioulsy injured this way each year. db, are they idiotic for not wearing helmets? I assume you are advocating for helmets in cars.
sure, you could wear a helmet every waking hour of your life, but most cars have seatbelts AND multiple airbags, making the need for one miniscule. regardless, airbag technology and seatbelts have not yet come to bikes, so a helmet is the least a rider can do to protect himself. it won't prevent every injury or death, but in many cases it can mean the difference between a headache and a head injury.
your argument is pretty silly. in fact, it seems like a fairly bad argument to say that just because one activity has inherent dangers, that it negates the need for safety in another. it doesn't matter how many people die in subway or taxi accidents or in skydiving or walking to their bathroom. a helmet helps prevent serious injuries in bike accidents in many cases.
looking stupid for the small fraction of time you spend on a bike is surely a lot better than being a vegetable for the rest of your life or dying because you crack your skull spill your brains on the sidewalk. as an emt and cyclist, i've seen lots of major head injuries that could have been avoided had the rider been wearing a helmet.
anyone who argues against helmet use and uses arguments such as jt's is just looking to pick a fight. i suspect that's exactly what jt was trying to do. why complain about people who are saying that cyclists should take some responsibility for safety too?
Looking to pick a fight? I'm pointing out a major logical inconsistency in your statements. If you can't deal with that in a logical means, then you're an idiot.
You write "it seems like a fairly bad argument to say that just because one activity has inherent dangers, that it negates the need for safety in another."
That works both ways. Why is it important to wear a helmet in cycling but not in a car? Please explain that with some sort of actual evidence. Perhaps accident statistics? We know tens of thousands of people sustain serious head injuries in cars. Or perhaps with some sort of statistical evidence that shows that helmets reduce overall rates of serious injury on bikes? I doubt you can do that, since the evidence actually points the other way in places in which the proportion of people using helmets on the bike has increased.
The fact is, you're talking out of your ass.
So I'll ask you one more time: do you wear a helmet on a bus? In car? Cars go 55mph you know. No? Then shut the f*ck up.
I know pedestrians always have the right of way but if they don't obey traffic laws its just as bad for all.
JT - G already answered. Many cars have airbags and many other safety features. And cars and bikes are obviously entirely different modes of transport, with different safety mechanisms as a result (ditto for the subway). A helmet is not going to do a lot of good when you car is crushed by an SUV or other car at 55mph, but if you're on a bike and happen to fall (or whatever other accident) then a helmet could very well save your life. It's a matter of degree. Of course a helmet won't save you if you're riding your bike and get pulverized by a truck, but, as I imagine is the case in most bike mishaps, if you simply fall off or have a low-impact collision then it makes all the difference.
Since you have such a hard on for statistics jt, here you go:
- About 800 bicyclists die in the US every year
- About 540,000 bicyclists visit emergency rooms with injuries every year. Of those, about 67,000 have head injuries.
- 1 in 8 of the cyclists with reported injuries has a brain injury.
- Two-thirds of the deaths here are from traumatic brain injury.
- A very high percentage of cyclists' brain injuries can be prevented by a helmet, estimated at anywhere from 45 to 88 per cent.
Still not satisfied that wearing a helmet while bicycling is a good idea? What a ridiculous argument...
This is such a typical Gothamist argument: attack people making an entirely reasonable comment - bike helmets make people safer, but not invincible - because they aren't offering "statistics" but don't offer any statistics of their own. Then they just call you an idiot for advocating common sense.
What a ridiculous comment: "the evidence actually points the other way in places in which the proportion of people using helmets on the bike has increased." For someone who loves statistics, where are they when you cited this tidbit? I'd argue that the statistics actually point to an explosion in the number of people who are biking in recent years (thanks, Lance) which means that the number of people wearing helmets and, yes, the number of people hurting themselves is bound to go up.
JT, if you want facts, you can check out the websites for the National Highway Safety Institute (which mostly focuses on cars, of course, but has quite a lot of info on bike safety, fatalities, and, yes, statistics), the Consumer Product Safety Commission, etc.
Those, and a lot more are catalogued here:
http://www.bhsi.org/stats.htm
A woman died last week.
Please kindly let go of your callous conversation. Her death had nothing to do with anybody's helmet.
Take a moment to remember her and to consider her family (who may be reading this page). Her death is a sad and senseless loss.
Hopefully the memorial ride will make an impression on the media, drivers, and our city's lawmakers so that we can make the streets more safe for riders.
Thank you for M for remembering what was important in regards to this rally. I am a close friend of Liz and this has been incredibly hard on everyone. She was a tremendous person and we hope that by participating in this rally that some good can come out of such a tragedy.
We weren't saying that anyone would have been saved by a helmet and it is indeed tragic that a real person died so horribly.
What we are talking about is the hypocrisy or foolishness of bicycle advocacy groups such as TA making lists of ways to make cycling safer, but not including steps cyclists should take such as wearing a helmet. If TA wants cyclists to be taken seriously, it should lobby cyclists as well as drivers on ways to make cycling safer. No one would trust Mothers Against Drunk Driving if they officially took no position on seat belts.
Nevertheless, I don't want the focus to be off of the people who have been hurt recently. From the sound of it, they were responsible, safe riders who did nothing worse than be in the wrong place at the wrong time. My heart goes out to their families and friends.