😀🚲Jun 19, 2023

Never let your government get away with claiming that #bikeHelmets are "the first rule of bike safety".

Rule number one is infrastructure, and the 2nd is air+brakes+chain mechanical soundness of the bike, upright geometry of the bike, traffic awareness, ride with fingers on your brake levers and having practiced emergency stops, twenty is plenty... Helmets are for stunts or a footnote to "don't fall on your head" rule that applies to walking moreso than biking.

Show threadStefanJun 19, 2023
@enobacon You have a point, but I still would advise a helmet. I don’t wear one myself though, so that makes me a hypocrite..
Show thread😀🚲Jun 19, 2023
@IngenieurStefan It doesn't help that there are more bad studies than good ones, and of course there's always someone who broke a helmet with their head and wants you to know that. The helmet laws are insidious though, particularly the kids one like Oregon so it's only required until you're old enough to drive. 🙄
Show threadStefan
@enobacon As a Dutch civil engineer I’m familiar with a high standard of cycling infrastructure. We shouldn’t take it for granted and it is very important to get people to bike. The last year’s fatalities and injuries are on the up because of the fast electric bike it seems. Helmets are not a solution. But it would help reduce negative effects.
Jun 19, 2023 at 7:29pmWeb
Show thread😀🚲Jun 19, 2023
@IngenieurStefan yeah if infrastructure is designed for 8mph but suddenly everyone is doing 28, that's not quite what we're facing in the US though, where about half of the modal shift, during a land-use transition from parking lots to housing+shops/jobs, will have to come from 5-10 mile car trips. The 5mph sidewalk bikeways are totally unfit for the speeds & volumes required, the "last mile" is 4 miles of hills, and transit isn't meeting us with charging + secure storage, or 5min frequency.
Show thread😀🚲Jun 19, 2023
@IngenieurStefan but I ride more carefully without a helmet (and studies have shown this is a thing.) Would rather not have helmet-wielding 28mph e-bikers on the 5mph 8ft-wide* sidewalk with me. (* but half overgrown with thorny blackberry vines)
Show threadStefanJun 19, 2023
@enobacon It’s a beautiful and diverse nation you live in. Just not in infrastructure. Hopefully the recent additional budgets can help. The problem however seems to rooted deeper.