Did you wear a......

[Tundra]

Bike helmet, knee pads, and elbow pads when you were a kid? Why as parents today do the majority put their kids in bubble wrap to go outside and play? I have raised three kids the youngest is 10 and have never made them wear any of it and some of he comments I've gotten through the years just cracks me up....I don't care that others strap their kids up... To each their own, I just can't figure out went it all,changed and why....

[Achilleslastand]

Bike helmet, knee pads, and elbow pads when you were a kid? Why as parents today do the majority put their kids in bubble wrap to go outside and play? I have raised three kids the youngest is 10 and have never made them wear any of it and some of he comments I've gotten through the years just cracks me up....I don't care that others strap their kids up... To each their own, I just can't figure out went it all,changed and why....

Never wore a bike helmet or pads, played football, baseball , cops and robbers and cowboys and Indians. Proud to say this "budding Bronson" also has never had a broken bone even though a LAV ran directly over one of my feet while in the USMC. Also crossed the street many times as a youngster.....all w/o the help of a crossing guard. I did however return some movies to Blockbuster w/o rewinding them.

[kevinpate]

If you've ever sat up overnight in a hospital room watching over a child who did a bad ditch tumble sans a helmet, you tend to view helmets differently afterwards. I don't agree with all the bubble wrap apparatus, and we didn't wear helmets in my youth, well, most of us did not.

[BBatesokc]

When I was a kid nobody wore helmets or pads. They were available, but there was this unnecessary and illogical negative stigma about them. I spent more than one visit to the hospital because of a bad spill on a bike or skateboard that would most assuredly been avoided had I wore some safety gear.

When our son was around 12 it still wasn't as popular to be wearing helmets and such. We had them, but he wouldn't wear them.

He took a header over his bike one day and it knocked him out. A neighbor called an ambulance. Wife made it in time to see him being loaded up and taken to the hospital. First thing the doctor said in the ER - "Why was this kid not wearing a helmet?" A couple of thousand dollars and a day later and he was home.

He never fussed about wearing one again.

Personally, I'm very glad it's quite normal to see an entire family out biking, roller blading or skateboarding and everyone from the parents to the kids is at least wearing a helmet. That said, it's still not as accepted in other countries.

Now that the stigma is removed from them, I think the last thing we need is parents arguing against them.

Do I think they should be made mandatory? No way. Let each parent, parent the way they want to. In reality, your kid is probably more likely to suffer a head injury doing something other than biking anyway.

Fortunately, most kids sports roll models not only wear safety gear but endorse others doing the same thing.

[Urbanized]

If I had kids I would definitely want them to wear helmets, especially when younger. But there is lots of interesting conversation going on in the cycling and planning communities that helmets - especially compulsory helmets - can cause the overall activity to be LESS safe. This is for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the different way motorists react to helmeted cyclists vs helmetless.

There is also concern that compulsory helmets deter people from a statistically very safe activity with tangible health benefits. In other words, they make an overall safe activity SEEM unsafe, and many people (especially women) don't want to wear helmets for vanity/convenience reasons, so they pass on an activity that has a proven, guaranteed high health benefit all over not wanting to use a device that statistically speaking they'll probably never need.

The thing that more than anything reduces the rate of cyclist injuries is MORE CYCLISTS, because their visibility makes the activity seem safer and more culturally acceptable AND causes cars to expect bicycles and be more apt to give way. Compulsory helmet laws cause the activity to be perceived as unsafe, thereby reducing the number of people who participate, AND they can cause cyclists and motorists to act in a more aggressive manner.

Here are some interesting reads on the topic, if anyone is interested:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...027_story.html

Should bike helmets be compulsory? Lessons from Seattle and Amsterdam | Cities | The Guardian

Mandatory bike helmet laws do more harm than good, Senate hears | Life and style | The Guardian

[BBatesokc]

The problem with the "here's a link" game is that within the vastness of the Internet both sides can usually go tit-for-tat with links.

I also never buy into the reasoning that, "Well this other idea would be better, so I'm gonna crap all over your idea." Sure, more cyclists would be better, but that doesn't IMO negate the benefits of encouraging children to wear helmets. Adults - do as you choose. Kids, lets parent them in a way that fits best for your family and your kids activity level.

[Pete]

As an avid cyclist and coach (I've ridden more than 10,000 miles on a bike), I have seen many times where someone has cracked their helmet in a fall and came out relatively unscathed. Why on earth would you not wear one??


This "when I was a kid..." stuff is a pet peeve of mine. We simply know much more than we did then and therefore are much smarter and more educated about how we do things. Like all information, you can ignore it if you want but it doesn't make it any less valid.

[stile99]

I did however return some movies to Blockbuster w/o rewinding them.

Well great, now we know why they went out of business. Thanks a lot!

[Tundra]

I'm pretty sure I logged close to 10k miles from the age of 10 to 15 1/2 , had many of crashes but never felt the need for pads or helmets. I'm in the 40 yr old range why didn't the older generations makes us or at least give us the choice? Why is it that every sucky thing in life come from this generation? And as far as if you going to go ride your bike on the main roads with cars you probably should be protected... I would argue that most people are not smarter today, that's honestly insulting........

[bradh]

Did you start this thread to talk down to those who do wear helmets or put them on their kids?

For the record, I am not a cyclist but when I do ride (which requires borrowing a bike) I don't wear one. I do absolutely snow ski with one though. I went skiing recently with a buddy who grew up in Colorado and he hadn't been in years. He never wore one growing up but decided to grab one this trip just to try it out. That next day in the terrain park we were goofing off and he ate it hard on a box, and without that helmet it woulda been ugly. He's been sold on one ever since.

[Tundra]

[QUOTE=bradh;934929]Did you start this thread to talk down to those who do wear helmets or put them on their kids?

No!, I'm not the one that said people are smarter now though.... I just find it interesting that somehow making your kids wear a helmet or elbow pads makes a parent smarter than the next, that doesn't require it....

[Urbanized]

The problem with the "here's a link" game is that within the vastness of the Internet both sides can usually go tit-for-tat with links.

I also never buy into the reasoning that, "Well this other idea would be better, so I'm gonna crap all over your idea." Sure, more cyclists would be better, but that doesn't IMO negate the benefits of encouraging children to wear helmets. Adults - do as you choose. Kids, lets parent them in a way that fits best for your family and your kids activity level.

That's funny, because that's pretty much EXACTLY what you did to my post. And I never said that helmets were bad, I said that MANDATORY HELMET LAWS are curiously counterproductive. This is being borne out by studies and statistical analysis. Did you even bother to follow and read the links I posted? You're quick to demand them, but don't seem to follow them when provided.

Again, none of them say helmets are bad. Quite the opposite. And they didn't just come from random sources. I didn't just go out and grab some links to spar with someone online. I follow this topic quite closely because it ties in with urbanism topics, books, blogs and thought leaders that I follow.

There is a dawning awareness among planning experts that more bicycling creates better, healthier cities, and that the health and community benefit derived from it vastly outweighs the risks of helmetless riding. If it becomes an either/or for some people they are statistically better off riding, even if it's without a helmet.

There is far more public health benefit from investing in bicycle infrastructure, including protected lanes and the like. There is a reason why a place like Copenhagen (virtually nobody there wears a helmet) has a tiny fraction of injuries/deaths per 1000 cyclists than a place like Australia, which has a compulsory helmet law. The reason has nothing to do with the cyclists or their gear; it is because of the way cars see and interact with them in those respective places.

And Pete, if you are talking about road bikes (the type ridden fast in traffic by aggro middle-aged men wearing spandex), ABSOLUTELY they should be ridden with helmets. What commuter cycling advocates and urban-oriented city planners want to encourage is more casual participation, bike shares, trips to work and to the store, cycling by women, etc. the kind that happens on upright city bikes. The more of those we get on city streets, the healthier will be as a city on multiple levels. If requiring a helmet is a barrier to that (and statistics show that it is) bicycle helmet laws are a bad thing.

[gopokes88]

Tundra are you the guy that doesn't wear a helmet when skiing despite the fact most skiing deaths are preventable with a helmet? Most of us realize our brain is a pretty big asset in life and take steps to protect it.

[gopokes88]

Did you start this thread to talk down to those who do wear helmets or put them on their kids?

For the record, I am not a cyclist but when I do ride (which requires borrowing a bike) I don't wear one. I do absolutely snow ski with one though. I went skiing recently with a buddy who grew up in Colorado and he hadn't been in years. He never wore one growing up but decided to grab one this trip just to try it out. That next day in the terrain park we were goofing off and he ate it hard on a box, and without that helmet it woulda been ugly. He's been sold on one ever since.

Growing up in New Mexico all the local skiers have been wearing helmets for years and years. Every year there was at least one sometimes two tourists (most of the time from Texas or OK) die because they fell, hit their head, needed a hospital only to realize it takes hours to get there and die in transit. Fortunately it's changing and I'd guess 90% of people on the mountain nowadays wear helmets.

[rezman]

I'm in the 40 yr old range why didn't the older generations makes us or at least give us the choice? Why is it that every sucky thing in life come from this generation?

Not sure what that statement means, but I know the older generation didn't coddle us like kids are these days... Were were taught to get up and dust ourselves off.... But that's a topic for a different discussion.

I grew up in the era of the 60's and 70's when kids were out and about all over our neighborhood and rode bikes everywhere, and when you went into a bicycle shop, safety equipment was virtually non existent. You didn't see the rows of helmets and pads like you see today. We still rode the old fat tired bikes to school, long before they were known as "cruisers", but 10 speeds were becoming popular. We made "choppers" out of our stingrays, which were popular, but kids were starting to replace their bananna seats with 10 speed seats and the BMX craze was just starting. We didn't worry about safety so much as having fun. We did a LOT of crazy stuff and had some bad crashes. But we knew not to come home crying if we could help it. .... Times were definately different.

Fast forward to when my own kids were growing up. While we weren't helicopter parents, we made sure they at had a helmet on when they went riding. Now days, all kinds of safety eqipment is available, so it makes sense to use it.

I'll admit, I still ride bicycles without a helmet, and I don't agree with the "bubble wrapped" kid mentality, but it's probably a good idea to have them gear up to save them from serious injuries that could have been easily prevented.

[Urbanized]

This is from a study on the Austrailian law, published on the (U.S.) National Institute of Health website (as opposed to coming from a cycling advocacy site): Head injuries and bicycle helmet laws. - PubMed - NCBI

I'll paste the inflow for those who don't bother to follow links:

Head injuries and bicycle helmet laws

Robinson DL1.

1AGBU, University of New England, Armidale, NSW, Australia.

Abstract
The first year of the mandatory bicycle helmet laws in Australia saw increased helmet wearing from 31% to 75% of cyclists in Victoria and from 31% of children and 26% of adults in New South Wales (NSW) to 76% and 85%. However, the two major surveys using matched before and after samples in Melbourne (Finch et al. 1993; Report No. 45, Monash Univ. Accident Research Centre) and throughout NSW (Smith and Milthorpe 1993; Roads and Traffic Authority) observed reductions in numbers of child cyclists 15 and 2.2 times greater than the increase in numbers of children wearing helmets. This suggests the greatest effect of the helmet law was not to encourage cyclists to wear helmets, but to discourage cycling. In contrast, despite increases to at least 75% helmet wearing, the proportion of head injuries in cyclists admitted or treated at hospital declined by an average of only 13%. The percentage of cyclists with head injuries after collisions with motor vehicles in Victoria declined by more, but the proportion of head injured pedestrians also declined; the two followed a very similar trend. These trends may have been caused by major road safety initiatives introduced at the same time as the helmet law and directed at both speeding and drink-driving. The initiatives seem to have been remarkably effective in reducing road trauma for all road users, perhaps affecting the proportions of victims suffering head injuries as well as total injuries. The benefits of cycling, even without a helmet, have been estimated to outweigh the hazards by a factor of 20 to 1 (Hillman 1993. Cycle helmets-the case for and against. Policy Studies Institute, London). Consequently, a helmet law, whose most notable effect was to reduce cycling, may have generated a net loss of health benefits to the nation. Despite the risk of dying from head injury per hour being similar for unhelmeted cyclists and motor vehicle occupants, cyclists alone have been required to wear head protection. Helmets for motor vehicle occupants are now being marketed and a mandatory helmet law for these road users has the potential to save 17 times as many people from death by head injury as a helmet law for cyclists without the adverse effects of discouraging a healthy and pollution free mode of transport.

Now I ask you: if riding in a car - even with airbags and seat belts - has almost exactly the same incidence of head injury per mph and many, MANY more people travel many, MANY more miles per year at MUCH higher speeds, why doesn't the government require automobile drivers and passengers to wear helmets? The overall public health benefit and lives saved would be VASTLY greater.

I'll answer my own question: because doing so would create the public perception that automobile use is unsafe, and would discourage use. No way would auto manufacturers allow such a law.

Also - and forgive me if not having a link (I THINK this might have come from Jeff Speck) but I read somewhere a while back that WALKING on a city street is actually statistically less safe than riding a bike. Why again aren't we talking about wearing helmets when walking? If he were alive today Dr Atkins would probably be an advocate for such a law.

[Urbanized]

Nutshell: if wearing a helmet keeps you from riding a bike, don't let it. From a health standpoint, even without a helmet you're much better off riding than going everywhere in a car, statistically speaking.

[Tundra]

Tundra are you the guy that doesn't wear a helmet when skiing despite the fact most skiing deaths are preventable with a helmet? Most of us realize our brain is a pretty big asset in life and take steps to protect it.

To be honest , I've done both , not being an expert skier, I'd probably use the helmet, as far as riding my bike around the block or up and down the driveway , I'm am not going to wear a helmet, and I'm not going to force my children to do it either, if they asked for one, I'd oblige but I'm not going out and buying them one just for the sake of the Govt said to...if they are box racing or going out for a road trip of course it makes sense...

[Urbanized]

Here's a pretty excellent read on the topic - by someone who chooses to wear a helmet when riding - which I think pretty fairly addresses pros and cons of required helmet use. Read with an open mind: More on why we shouldn't have mandatory helmet laws : TreeHugger

[gopokes88]

To be honest , I've done both , not being an expert skier, I'd probably use the helmet, as far as riding my bike around the block or up and down the driveway , I'm am not going to wear a helmet, and I'm not going to force my children to do it either, if they asked for one, I'd oblige but I'm not going out and buying them one just for the sake of the Govt said to...if they are box racing or going out for a road trip of course it makes sense...

Every expert skier wears a helmet, so I'd suggest as an amateur you do too. Also, speed isn't always a factor. Packed snow is as hard as concrete but hospitals are far.

Well that's your choice, but if there's one area I'll make my kids protect, it's their head. They'll use a helmet to ride a bike, and if they play football they'll know signs of a concussion.

[Pete]

These things are always cultural.

I can tell you that of the thousands of cyclists I came across during my time in California, almost zero were not wearing a helmet. As in way, way less than 1%. I honestly believe people don't even think about it.

It's just like seat belts.... It wasn't that long ago a big percentage of people didn't wear them. Now, most people won't even put the car in drive without all their passengers buckled up, let alone themselves.

After a while all these things become the norm and habit, and for good reason.

[catch22]

I would ride without one, but if one were readily available I would wear it.

Just like a seat belt. A lot of our motorized equipment doesn't have seatbelts, it doesn't stop me from using it, but when one is installed I'm better off wearing it.

[Urbanized]

Ask the people in Copenhagen about it, Pete. There is zero chance that they are less bicycle-enlightened than people in California, yet they laugh at the idea of wearing helmets for simple jaunts, commuting or other non-race activities. And yet their bicycle injury and fatality rate is a tiny fraction of California, or anywhere in the U.S. And why is that? It is because a major factor in bicycle injuries is the automobile and how automobile drivers view bicyclists. You're right about it being cultural, by the way, because in the states "bicycle" equates to dudes in spandex, riding fast with traffic. By all means these people should be helmeted.

But that same perception causes people to view cycling as a riskier activity than it truly is. Like I said, statistically you would get equal benefit requiring helmets on pedestrians, and many, many times more public health benefit by require automobile drivers and passengers to wear helmets. Would you support that?

By the way, studies have suggested that requiring cyclists to wear a long blonde wig would have a more positive effect on cyclist safety than requiring helmets. Drivers are more likely to give way to an un-helmeted woman than a helmeted man, and the vast majority of bike head injuries come from auto/bicycle collisions.

In 2012 there were 726 people killed in bicycle accidents. There were 11,622 homicides by firearm. Why aren't we talking about requiring every man, woman and child in the U.S. to wear a bulletproof vest?

Bicycle helmet laws are a form of victim blaming, and also have the unintended consequence of deterring bike riding. If we want to make cycling safer the single best thing we can do is encourage more cycling. The correlation is statistically indisputable. When cars expect bicycles and see them regularly, cyclists are safer.

We need to worry more about creating good biking infrastructure and bicycle-friendly laws, and less about requiring auto/bicycle crash victims to be armored.

[Urbanized]

By the way, im not discouraging helmet use - nor are any of the articles I've cited - im discouraging MANDATORY helmet use. This is a major distinction that seems to be being lost on most people posting here. One thing is undeniably worthwhile; the other, not so much.

[Tundra]

Every expert skier wears a helmet, so I'd suggest as an amateur you do too. Also, speed isn't always a factor. Packed snow is as hard as concrete but hospitals are far.

Well that's your choice, but if there's one area I'll make my kids protect, it's their head. They'll use a helmet to ride a bike, and if they play football they'll know signs of a concussion.

Do biathlon competitors wear helmets? Not to point out that your wrong about how all pro skiers wear a helmet, but that's one that comes to mind....