TEDx Talks
2 HN recommenders · recommended in 6 months, 2012–2024
16:35 · 421K views · Dec 16, 2010
Copenhagen's bicycle ambassador Mikael Colville-Andersen argues in a TEDx talk that bicycle helmets threaten bicycle culture. He says they distract from road design and make cycling look dangerous.
Pointed to in helmet-law debates as a watchable argument that helmet mandates may cost lives by discouraging cycling.
7 comments from Hacker News
this video Anyone just blindly downvoting snovv_crash should check out the video above and any number of other resources, such as this one: [LINK] There are strong feelings on both sides, but many cyclists feel helmets are a distraction from the real issues which make cyclists unsafe: poor road design and unsafe driving. Cycling itself is (counter-intuitively) a very safe activity which looks dangerous; everyone assumes driving and walking are safe but often they are not. Yet nobody seriously proposes helmets for pedestrians or drivers, just cyclists.
If this is a new topic to you (I don't mean, you , SturgeonsLaw, as you are clearly familiar with it :) -- I mean the reader), you would do well to consider both sides. I personally find the arguments that bike helmets cause more harm than good persuasive, and a good and thorough introduction may be found here: [LINK] If you would rather watch than read, there's this: this video
When I was a kid, my best friend's brother died because he was not wearing a bike helmet. I do, in fact, always wear a bike helmet. The argument is not whether, if hit in the head, you are more likely to get a head injury. It is clear that bike helmets reduce those injuries. The question is, if we required everyone to wear helmets, or required everyone to not wear helmets, which would result in less injuries/fatalities. And secondarily, if it turns out that bike helmets reduce injuries and fatalities, has it been worth the cost, vs other things we could spend money on, say legally required non-slip surfaces for bathtubs. There are multiple factors that could affect this, here are two such things: * [LINK] * this video
reminds me of the bicycle helmet stuff. There was a ted talk that said bicycle helmet laws would kill more people than save. The reasoning was preventing people from riding would also prevent increased fitness, and more lives were lost from that than saved from accidents. EDIT: I think this one: this video
There are studies and talks that would suggest the opposite is true. For example:- For example: [LINK] TED talk discussing the issues: this video Common sense would dictate that the helmet is safer, but we could argue the science leaves a lot to be desired.