I guess in Canada since you aren’t allowed to choose and pay for your own healthcare, there is the argument that going without a helmet is putting undue risk on the taxpayer if you get into an accident. I never had a helmet riding a bike as a kid. Living in a city with a helmet law where if you go without you risk a fine and the police confiscating your bike certainly doesn’t encourage bike riding as an activity. To be honest, I try to stay away from activities with heavy government interference, driving a car is one of them, lol, and now bike riding. Luckily they haven’t mandated helmets for pedestrians yet, though I’m sure in this insane nanny state it is only a matter of time.
Pushing helmets really kills cycling and bike-sharing in particular because it promotes a sense of danger that just isn’t justified—in fact, cycling has many health benefits. Piet de Jong, a professor in the department of applied finance and actuarial studies at Macquarie University in Sydney, studied the issue with mathematical modelling and concludes that the benefits (of letting bike riders ride without helmets) may outweigh the risks by 20 to 1 (because of more obesity, heart disease and diabetes as a result of less bike riders from ridiculous helmet laws).
That’s the real risk we should be avoiding, not forcing people to wear helmets under penalty of fines or jail time. According to science (not the over-inflated egos of nanny state supporters), we should have helmet laws for bath time, walking out your door, and stepping onto a ladder if we are to make our citizens safer. Ski hills and bike riding aren’t even in the top 100 dangerous activities that cause brain injury.
And now I read in the paper today, Helmet laws have been expanded, complete with taxpayer funded inspectors, to the ski-hills all around the province. Perhaps it is Darrell Dexter who should’ve been wearing a helmet all this time—whatever happened to him, all the helmets in the world won’t save him—or us, from him! —Fed Up with the Government Saving Me From Myself
This article appears in Nov 1-7, 2012.
Right or wrong I guess these laws are put in place to protect idiots from themselves. It’s too bad we can’t let natural selection do its job anymore…
The frequency of accidents (and therefore the likelihood of danger) according to you may not be high enough to justify a helmet law but in the event you do get in an accident, your melon is not going to win against pavement/a car/etc.
Are you mental? You’re not going to wear a helmet because it’s law? Well I guess the only person who would suffer because of this stupid outlook is yourself. Worst bitch I have seen in a long time.
You’re right OB because when you hit a car or a tree your head is going to be just fine. So exactly how does wearing a helmet kill cycling? Wearing a helmet doesn’t make you forget how to ride a bike and of course there should be no laws in regards to driving a car. Even hockey players realize the benefits of a helmet. In the words of Bugs Bunny “What a maroon”
‘according to science’
um. what science? whose ‘science’
if for every 1 million people who walk ‘out their front door’ everyday, 2,000 people ride a bicycle everyday, and 2 people walking out the door get injuries vs 1 person riding the bike, does that mean that walking out the front door is more dangerous than riding a bike?
show us the study, because if that’s what you are talking about, you already have head injury.
What’s wrong with wearing a helmet? Do they not look ‘cool’ enough for you to be seen in public with one?
Personally, I don’t find them uncomfortable, and even if they weren’t mandatory I’d still wear one. The integrity of my brain bucket is my responsibility, and I’ll not chance cracking it when I decide to catapult myself over the handlebars.
one wonders about OP’s statement of refusing to drive a car because of interference by government. eh? so….you have made some kind of idealogical stand against driving a car?
really?
license get taken away? can’t pass a driving test?
send me the contract to buy that bridge, ok?
I didn’t wear a helmet as a kid either. Know what sucked? Crashing into fences and going over the handlebars without one, even as a bendy-squishy kid. There’s a little dent in the side of my head from the last one. Sure, I bounced right up then, but I’m not going to forgo extra safety as a brittle adult, and it’s a freaking bike helmet. My motorcycle and combat helmets weigh at least 5 times as much, ffs.
You go ahead and do your thing, sunshine. I’m sure the tickets and your massive hyperbolic ego will pad your skull.
“Heavy government interference” aside, it’s just common sense, as far as I’m concerned. And really, what’s the big deal? Modern helmet technology is such that helmets are, (for the most part), no longer the big, bulky, heavy, uncomfortable pieces of equipment they once were. Most new ones are super lightweight, strong, well ventilated, reasonably priced, (although, like anything else, sky’s the limit when it comes to price point), and not to mention, fairly stylish, if that’s considered a factor. I would argue that you would barely even know that you were wearing one in most instances. Also, I don’t think the 3.5 seconds it takes to put one on is overly inconvenient in anyway.
As a motorcyclist, I’m required by law to wear a helmet. While you may not get up to highway speeds on a bicycle, I HAVE witnessed cyclists travelling at speeds upwards of 40, 50, even 60+ km/h, (especially racers and club riders). Then you get the mountain bikers who ride knarly switchbacks and trails full of stumps and rocks. I’d consider that MORE dangerous than riding on the road in a lot of cases. So my question is, what’s the difference, aside from the fact that I’m motorized? Is it somehow less dangerous? Personally, I don’t think pushing helmets promotes a sense of danger. On the contrary, I think it promotes a sense of safety and responsibility for your own well being. Peace of mind, (no pun intended). You hope you never have to use it, (and in most instances, you won’t), but if something DOES happen, you potentially stand a better chance of escaping/reducing serious injury. And I personally don’t think that a mandatory helmet law plays as big a factor as you seem to think it does, in reducing the amount of people taking up the sport. Maybe you or someone else could quote some stats on this, but I really can’t see it being that big of a factor.
To me, you sound less like an avid cyclist, (one who rides bikes for the pure enjoyment and exercise), and more like someone who is forced to out of necessity, or perhaps by choice as a form of activism/personal protest? (Reducing carbon foot print, sticking it to big oil and all that) Maybe I’m wrong but, whatever. To each their own. The reason I say this is because if you were merely cycling for the enjoyment, the prospect of having to wear a helmet wouldn’t be any kind of a deterrent from persuing that activity you enjoy so much. It wouldn’t even be a blip on the radar. In other words, you wouldn’t care about HAVING to wear a helmet as it’s practically effortless and has little to no interference with that enjoyment. A moot point, if you will.
You also wouldn’t be concerned about this legislation somehow starting us down that slippery slope of gov’t controlled police state. (Today, mandatory bicycle helmet usage; Tomorrow, bar code tattoos and tracking devices) Ok, maybe I’m over playing that one, but to me, I’d wear a helmet whether it was legislated or not, (and I HAVE), because a.)It’s just not that big a deal and; b.) It’s a no-brainer (pun intended that time)
What are the odds a seat belt is going to save you in a plane crash?
Yet they still enforce them, aggressively.
It’s because it MAY HELP should something unavoidable and out of your control happen.
I’m fine with people choosing to or not to wear a helmet. It should be your choice. I’ll be keeping mine on, though, regardless. I’ve gone over the handlebars/gotten squirrely while barrelling along on slippery pavement and landed on my head enough times with a helmet on that I’d be damned to pedal about without one.
keep going on bitch cant understnd your shit anyway. fuck your bike fuck you laws get a fucking car you cheap bitch
lancelot chooses the peril!
you don’t use a helmet, well then you deserve whatever the fuck happens to you. any idiot that doesn’t go by the rules, or gets shot from drug deals gone bad, or the bangers, should have to pay the full costs of their visit to e.r., or doctors.
i’m getting sick of hearing that some idiot got shot,stabbed, or had the shit kicked out of them, but refuse to help cops nail those that did it to them. fuck this rat out shit, you are not in a big gang, prison, or a fucking movie. if you fuck with me, then you will be dealt with accordingly. if the cops won’t do anything, then your ass will be mine, and you wouldn’t like what i could do.
“…then your ass will be mine, and you wouldn’t like what i could do.”
I had a feeling you taught David LeBlanc everything he knew…
(too soon?)
no zzz, i didn’t. but any fuckhead starts trouble with me, i’ll finish it. and i don’t worry about the smelvins or harriots either. they are just big time punks who people are afraid of, because of their rep. i’m well known in sprytown as someone you don’t even dream of fucking with,or stealing from. their was one guy that found that out a long time ago. he ripped me off for some cash where i worked out there. money wasn’t mine, but was in my care.
yep, i can be be nitemare, no one wants to have. generally i’m quite laid back. but there are times zzz, that i just have to go apeshit on someone or something, just to keep the edge on. and i bet you are the same way, from what i’ve read over the past couple years here.
blow me fuck you bitch aint running shit out here. you a fucking old man that we rob the shit out. keep fucking talking stupid like all that other bitchs on here. fucking dog fucker blow me talk shit about melvins again and you get smashed old fuck. bring your nikkles cuz we robbing you bitch bible boy.
Classic case of someone getting lost in the abstract when the issue is protecting your head from an accident.
OP sounds like he or she thinks that there’s “one reason” for each thing. What’s the motivation to go directly into politics. Sure everything is politics in a way but that doesn’t mean all must be motivated from there. This IS that is a difficult issue; with the exception of your head is required for you to live.
Your dancing around reality OP
Hey what happened to “beyond treason”? She switch her name or has she left in embarrassment for judging me based on how my head is “shaped”???
nukka pukka, bring it on little man/girl. you talk like you are all up in the hood, but we know you are just a pathetic little douchebag loser wannabe whatever. what the fuck are you trying to say idiot, that you will wipe me out or wipe me off the floor, either way, better than you have tried and FAILED.
what a fucking misbegotten piece of phony dog shit you are. most of the time, you don’t even make any reasonable facimile of sense, and that says a lot right there. must be the trolling season people, and we hooked another one. seems sort of like the douchebag that was on here a few months ago. but at least they made some sense.
and pukka, i would guess you rode your bike without a helmet too. that’s why you suffered brain damage. quick people, get this flake to india for some seriously needed brain surgery.
Helmets help protect society from the mindless, those who go out and take unnecessary risks and sustain injuries where we taxpayers must pay for the rehabilitation therein.
I gotta agree with the Jerry Seinfeld bit though. What’s the point of a helmet on a skydiver?
^^ maybe to keep it all in one place for the relatives?
I know. Move to New Hampshire where you pay for your own health care and Darwinism will take care of the rest.
A ha…..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDaOgu2CQtI