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In an effort to stem the recent increase in bicycle-related injuries around New York, city officials have launched a new campaign to improve bike safety in town. Some new innovations include creating 240 miles of dedicated color-coded bike lanes and handing out free helmets (97% of the 225 people killed on bikes over the past decade were not wearing one). Over 3,000 riders were injured during the same time period. So here's what you do:
1. Get yourself a free helmet.
2. Look cool, cruise.
3. Increase likelihood of being hit by a car.
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where is the free helmet link? why is daily news down all the time?
"Lifting weights can help you lose weight, vision!"
Make sure to smoke plenty of marijuana while lifting weights.
The study released this week by NYC showed that 97% of cyclists who died during the period examined were not wearing helmets, including most of the more recent, highly publicized deaths, includign the doctor on the West Side bike path.
According to Streetsblog: "Helmet use among those bicyclists with serious injuries was low (13%), but it was even lower among bicyclists killed (3%)."
I can understand that people are against being FORCED to wear a helmet. Fine. It's a free country. I don't agree with helmet laws any more than I agree with across-the-board smoking bans or any other nanny-state politics. But why would someone who claims to be a health writer practically advocate that people not wear helmets? Aren't you the same Gothamist writer who posted the now-deleted post about people who actively try to get AIDS?
97% of the cyclists killed were not wearing helmets (according to the study). This does not tell us that all 97% may have died regardless of whether or not they were wearing helmets.
The city's focus should NOT be: it's dangerous out there, be sure to wear body armor. It should be: let's make the streets less dangerous for cyclists and pedestrians.
Not to get all Freakonomics on you, but it would be statistically improbable, if not impossible, to connect a near 100% commonality--that nearly none of the people who died were wearning helmets--with the idea that they would have died even if they had. Surely in some individual cases that would be true, as in the sad case of the man on Houston street who was crushed by a truck. But it's impossible to ignore such a statistic.
If a study found taht 97% of people who lived near a toxic waste dump developed cancer, would you argue that such a study did tell us whether they would have died regardless of where they lived?
Hey, what's up with free helmets? I want one. Those things are expensive. The Daily News article doesn't say.
Does anyone know what percentage of who died of head injuries while travelling by car were wearing helmets?
If people don't want to wear helmets that is fine and it is also natural selection.
Toby -- do you use that "natural selection" line about people killed in cars, or while walking, who don't have helmets?
and here come the defensive cyclists! hurray!
So NYC thinks just b/c they're handing out free helmets that this will #1)Make bicylists wear them, and #2)Save lives? Bwwwaaaaahaaahaaaa. That's a good one. I'm a bicyclist myself in Orange County, CA. I live on the Stepford side of the county, so there are plenty of bike lanes and plenty of 300 lbs Stepford execs decked in full Barney-gear...$5,000 Trek bike, $500 matching Trek attire, etc.
There are also a good sprinkling of professional bikers, including myself, and we all use the bike lanes and wear helmets. And obey the traffic rules. But that doesn't stop the assclowns from mowing you down while wearing your special little helmet in your special little bike lane. I was hit by an SUV while in a crosswalk several months ago. He knocked me flying out of the saddle and broke my leg.
I'm still physically rehabbing my leg. Drivers in Stepford mow over bicyclists because they're too busy paying atttention to everything in their SUVs *except* the road. But drivers in NYC mow down anything in their path just because they're hostile and ornery and just don't give a good one. Bike paths and helmets aren't going to stop the sociopaths behind the wheel over there anymore than it stops the empty headed cell phone yakkers over here.
Actually Zen, in my experience the sociopaths behind the wheel in NYC are also talking on their cell phones - making them EXTRA special (and by special, I mean dangerous).