Cyclists see mostly harm in adult helmet law
By Laura J. Nelson, Los Angeles Times
A proposed law that would make California the first state in the country to require that adult bike riders wear helmets has reignited a decades-long debate between regulators and the bicycling community over safety.
Senate Bill 192, introduced by state Sen. Carol Liu, D-La Cañada Flintridge, would impose a $25 base fine on adults who bike without headgear. The proposal has spurred a backlash from California’s bicycle advocacy groups, which say a mandatory-helmet law would do more harm than good. Helmet laws could make cycling appear more dangerous, they say, at a time when elected officials are working to draw drivers onto alternative forms of transportation.
Liu said she wants to encourage people to try biking and walking and keep them safe while doing so. Requiring helmets for adults isn’t the only way to protect cyclists, she said, but “it certainly protects people more than not wearing anything on their heads.”
Collisions involving cyclists in California rose 18 percent in a five-year period, from 11,814 in 2008 to 14,013 in 2012, according to the most recent California Highway Patrol data available.
Mt biking and skiing…YES…riding my cruiser bike to the beach?…ridiculous…and WALKING??…come on CA lawmakers!!
We better put on our helmets before we get out of bed, we may hurt our self in the shower. More rules for more fines. Give me a break!
Another California legislator with too much time on her hands. And obviously not a bike rider.
Citizens would be better served by wearing protective headgear while visiting the State Capitol.
I went over my handlebars cruising to the beach. Glad I had my helmet on.
The largest cause of police disabilities is car crashes. I think the police should have to wear helmets in their patrol cars.
Went over the handlebars last April on Ward Way. Hit darn hard but never lost conscious. Had no helmet.
Rarely ride without one now.
Hello, were ADULTS!
A personal choice we make. Helmets are fine if you want one but please not another stupid law. Do something meaningful with your time in office or you may not get re-elected.
I wonder weather one the big diners to her election was a helmet lobby funded by helmet manufacturing groups?
Just a thought.
“riding my cruiser bike to the beach?…ridiculous”
Yes because as you do that, where you are going and the type of bike you are on protects you from getting hit by a car or colliding with another bicyclist on the bike path. Hey I am all for it in terms of your choice – as long as you carry a card that demonstrates you have full insurance coverage or adequate private financial resources and will not be using public funds for any medical treatment you may need from a head injury!
Wearing a hazmat suit every time you leave your house protects you more than not wearing anything else…
I just love to see the no-regulation folks supporting these regulations. Why not make it illegal to have high-fructose drinks, high-fat foods (McDonald’s) and salt, too? Well, unless you can prove that you have insurance to cover your high blood pressure, of course. LOL.
Rooster….being legally an adult and making mature decisions and engaging in responsible behavior are not synonymous.
Don’t wear a helmet. After all this is American and we all have the right to be stupid, to ignore statistics and to have the chance to be an organ donor. However, don’t fool yourself to think what you are doing is safer than skiing or even Mt biking. Annual skiing deaths is 20-50 (mid 20s is common), Anywhere from 700-1,000 are killed on their bikes (around 80% of deaths are due to head trauma) and most of those are on the street. There are over 10,000 bike accident head trauma hospitalizations annually . The pavement on that short cruiser ride to the beach is just as hard as the pavement on a 100 mile ride. So feel free to not wear a helmet, but certainly be armed with facts and know what you are doing.
Life is dangerous; hardly anybody gets out alive.
Good point except: Head in juries are preventable.
Great info Lisa! But the ‘it’s my right to be stupid’ people don’t care about facts, don’t care if they leave their families to change their diapers or forgo the family vacation or sending their kids to college(???) so they can exercise their right…to be stupid.
Hmmmm, can you guarantee that, by some quirk of fate, you will never be a burden on your family? Regardless of how careful you might be? Strokes and heart attacks happen. Should I be able to determine what you are allowed to eat because I think I know what is healthier for you?
Enough government interference already! The State’s intrusions into our private lives is out of control. Are we adults or are we perpetual children, incapable of taking responsibility for ourselves and our own choices?
Dog…no I can’t. What I can do is make an attempt to be careful and responsible. A couple of years a ago or so I used the term ‘kamikaze bicyclists’. You are free to ride a bike….but don’t spatter what brains you have all over the hood of my car. If you don’t want the state ‘intruding in your life’ then don’t be an irresponsible dick. I honestly don’t have a great problem with the notion that people and corporations are often in need of regulation.
To answer your question, I think most Americans beliefs and desires are ruled by marketers and the media, which wants them to have the emotional maturity of a middle schooler. Libertarian thinkers(that would be you) set the bar much lower. They tend to act like preschoolers.
http://www.alternet.org/youre-not-boss-me-why-libertarianism-childish-sham?akid=12833.1140786.5Q09h8&rd=1&
You just have to throw insults, don’t you? Pre-schoolers? More like conscious, responsible adults. I don’t expect my neighbors to pay for my medical insurance, or my retirement, or my groceries, or my house.
Your view is that YOU are so much smarter than everybody else that we must all follow arbitrary rules that YOU make up for us, and in return, you will take money from working people and give it to irresponsible people who will not.
That’s not charity, that’s not love, and that’s not adult behavior.
Conscious? Adult? I gotta stop drinking coffee when I read your posts….sprayed it all over my desk and everything on it….You will stand by cheering while corporations and greedy people pee in the water, poison the food, pollute the air, steal from the workers so the uber-rich can profit even more. Go ahead, call that ‘loving, responsible adult behavior’. Nobody believes you except Kits, BO and a few other mentally deficient whackjobs.
I did not wear a helmet as a kid on my mini bike, bicycle riding over the years or in ski racing. Only strapped on a “brain bucket” when it became the law in California when I was still cruisin’ around on the “Snortin’ Norton”. Just a pair of old goggles, leather jacket and a head band. Man, those were the days!!!!
I’m not in favor of helmet laws. It should be left up to the individual to decide if they want to wear one.
I think helmets restrict your vision to those around you whether they be stationary or in movement and to your hearing of oncoming vehicles, both of which make you more prone to accidents because of a helmet strapped to your head limiting your two vital senses.
Just my take on it . OLS
sorry…I meant to say ‘morally deficient whackjobs’.
“Your view is that YOU are so much smarter than everybody else that we must all follow arbitrary rules that YOU make up for us,”
Yeah Hmmm, why you so much more smarter than us and making us follow all kinds of rules and stuff? Why you taking money from people and giving it to dum-dums?
hahaha. strawdog
@Duke of prunes…. Funny how many the ‘Lord of the Flies’ Libertarians get their undies in a twist when called on their BS.
I will try to dim my brilliance a bit, just for you. Maybe I should ride my bike to the liquor store without a helmet or light this evening, right after I disable the brakes.
@Dog-Not saying I’m smarter than everyone else. I am saying I’m less selfish, less of a crybaby and more nuanced in my thought than you.
Seriously??? Sen. Carol Liu, YOU think YOU know what’s best? Find some other ridiculous way of getting revenue. Figures, you live in LA. Land of liberal idiots!!
Since you want this, why don’t YOU provide $25.00 to every tax paying, bike riding person, you seem to think needs a mandatory helmet?! Put YOUR money where your pie hole is. Get a real job!
The previous two comments read like they are coming from the same person… it’s happened before.
Statistics? You mean like those about improperly stored firearms? OK, let’s open the can of worms…
This is, and has become some of the best comedy around! Computer trolls taking shots at one another, doesn’t even matter if it’s about the article. How does wearing helmets become, improperly stored firearms. I love differing views, actually provokes thought. Political nut jobs slandering one another for no other reason than trying to make yourself feel intelligent or for that matter just be outright mean. No longer my cup of tea. Peace out freaks, I will find my option/news elsewhere.
Still waiting for my big check reflecting all the insurance savings from the existing helmet laws, seat belt laws, dog tie down laws…ETC.
By the way we all have insurance now right??
Joby, obviously the conversation has lost it’s relevance in our instant world. However, I must say that the idea of regulations is hardly limited to bicycle helmets and excludes gun ownership. My point was to bring the discussion into perspective with the inclusion of another safety topic. I do agree with you on the constant personal attacks that seem to be present in this corner of the internet. It hardly seems necessary to carry on a conversation. I do not participate in those particular methodologies as regards discussion and do not want to be included arbitrarily. Bicycle helmets did not “become” gun control, the two are similar in their regulation of otherwise benign activity that some want to regulate. There is the connection. All the best.
ljames…Its my right to not wear a helmet, “while riding my cruiser bike to the beach” riding my cruiser to the beach is inherently less dangerous than riding Toads, or skiing anything for that matter. And thanks but I don’t suck and drain off the system, I have a job, pay my taxes (and then some) and “carry my card” showing that I pay for my own healthcare insurance. And cars aren’t aloud on the bike path man, so please keep your car of them