BICYCLE HELMET
RESEARCH
FOUNDATION
cyclehelmets.org
Home page
Main topics
News Headlines
Frequently asked Questions
For Policy Makers
Research evidence
Misleading claims
Helmet laws
Analysis
Search Engine
Australia
Canada
New Zealand
UK
USA
Other countries
Full index
Links
BHRF
Policy statement
The Case for Not Wearing a Bike Helmet
Helmets have been mandatory in the pro peloton for well over a decade. Where’s the data that it’s helping?
read more ...
Bicycle Network campaigns for helmet law reform
Australia's Bicycle Network has come out in favour of reforming Australia's mandatory bicycle helmet law.
read more ...
Cycling Tips: Commentary
Commentary: Why I stopped wearing a bike helmet
by Peter Flax
read more ...
Bicycling Magazine
It’s Okay If You Don’t Wear a Bike Helmet
read more ...
Carlton Reid, transport writer
I Do Not Wear A Bicycle Helmet
read more ...
More on Why We Shouldn't Have Mandatory Helmet Laws
Over on VOX, Joseph Stromberg rounds up the studies about bike helmets and concludes that if you want to get more people to ride bikes, then you shoul
read more ...
Give Kids Bikes, Not Helmets
Why helmet giveaways are an act of surrender
read more ...
Enough with the Smashed Watermelons! Helmet Mania Is Scaring Kids Away from Biking
Free Range Kids
read more ...
Mandatory helmet laws have "unintended consequences" says a paper published in US Journal of Law and Economics
According to the study, bicycle helmet compulsion for children brings with it a likely drop in the amount of youth cycling. Children don't exercise any less, finds the study, but children ditch cycling and switch to other sports and activities.
The study - Intended and Unintended Consequences of Youth Bicycle Helmet Laws - is by economists Christopher S. Carpenter of the Merage School of Business at the University of California, and Mark F. Stehr of the LeBow College of Business at Drexel University.
The professors show that, in America, 650,000 fewer children ride bikes each year after helmet laws go into effect.
"As other states consider helmet laws as a way to reduce bicycling related injuries and fatalities, they should keep in mind that although the laws increase helmet use and reduce fatalities, they are also likely to reduce bicycling among the targeted group," says the study.
The professors conclude that "in addition to the increase in helmet use, there is also robust evidence for an unintended and previously undocumented mechanism: helmet laws produced modest but statistically significant reductions in youth bicycling participation of 4-5 percent…[but that] it is likely that overall bicycling miles travelled fell even more."
Sun 1 May 2011
