A seemly innocent piece of legislation meant to keep bicycle riders safe has reignited a decades old debate. The bill, California SB 192, was introduced by State Senator Carol Liu (D-La Canada Flintridge) and originally was designed to require adults in California to wear protective helmets when riding their bikes or face a $25 fine.
The bill was drafted in response to an 18% uptick in bicycle related accidents in recent years, from 11,814 in 2008 to 14,013 in 2012, according to data complied by the California Highway Patrol (CHP).
However, many of the people Liu was trying to protect did not seem to appreciate her efforts. An online petition posted by the California Bicycle Coalition that called her bill “ineffectual at best, dangerous at worst,” received over 3,500 signatures.
A scant two months after Liu introduced the bill, she amended the bill based on feedback received. The modified version instead asks the CHP and Office of Traffic Study (OTS) determine whether helmet use reduces cycling injuries and report back to the State Senate in 2017.
Perception, more than science, galvanized the much of opposition. Many said mandating helmets would make riding a bicycle seem unsafe and discourage people from riding them. “Our primary goal is to get more people to ride in their daily lives,” said Andy Hanshaw, executive director of the San Diego Bicycle Coalition. His and other bicycle organizations have spent decades promoting bike ridership and argued that mandating helmets would undercut their efforts.
Not all in the cycling community agreed. “When they made helmets mandatory for children, people said children would stop riding their bikes, but that didn’t happen. Just look at the number of bikes parked in front of the middle school and high school,” said Eddie Warner, former co-owner of Coronado’s Holland’s Bicycle.
Warner is undecided on how she feels about a mandatory helmet law, but she does feel strongly that all adults should wear a helmet whenever they ride a bike, even if it’s just to go to the gym or run an errand around town.
“It’s my obligation to the people I love to take care of myself,” she said. “I don’t want to wind up in a vegetative state and have them have to take care of me.”
Hanshaw agrees that helmets have saved lives and says that his organization encourages their use. Still, he argues that mandating wearing one is the wrong approach to bike safety.
“We must focus on changing our built environment [roadways] and provide safe spaces for people to ride,” Hanshaw said. This notion has been born out in the Netherlands, where bicycling is ubiquitous and bicycling accidents rare. Almost no one, not even children, wear helmets. Instead officials focus on road conditions.
“The infrastructure in the Netherlands is entirely geared towards cyclists, with separate cycle lanes and special traffic lights catering for those on two wheels,” according to dutchcommunity.com. Dutch law also favors cyclists. Motorists there are more vigilant because they know they will pay the price if they hit a cyclist. Their road law (185 Wegenverkeerswet) holds motorist responsible for accidents involving bicyclists, unless the driver can prove that the cyclists did something illegal, such as running a red light.
The Dutch experience might well be unique that to culture and legal system. Studies on helmet use outside the Netherlands have been contradictory. A metaanlysis by the Journal of Pediatrics reported that injury and death rates were 20% lower in states with helmet laws. But a study by the University of Bath in the UK submitted that wearing a helmet actually increased cyclist’s risk of being hit. Researchers attached sensors to bikes that measured how close cars came to bikes. On average drivers gave cyclists without helmets 3.3 more inches of passing room than they gave to cyclists with helmets.
Hanshaw doesn’t think much will come of the CHP/OTS investigation either. “Studying helmet use is not the solution,” he said. “Legislation like the 3-foot passing law and the Protected Bikeways Act that passed last year are more effective and a better response to increasing safety.”
There is evidence that bike lanes do protect riders. New York City saw a significant decrease in bicycle related accidents on streets that had protected bicycle lanes, according to a 2014 study by the Department of Transportation. Having a bicycle lane on Broadway from 59th Street to 47th Street, for example, increased ridership 108% while crash-related injuries dropped by 18%.
Despite the controversy, experienced riders do commonly wear helmets, especially when traveling long distances. “It’s the smart thing to do,” said Larry Hofstetter, member of the city’s Bicycle Advisory Committee. “For the casual ride around town, where the pace is slower, it’s not so important.”
While adult riders debate whether it’s important for them to wear a helmet, there is little controversy over children being mandated to wear a helmet when they ride a bike. The law has been around for some time and is vigorously enforced by the Coronado Police Department — just ask any local teenager.
“With kids, it’s different,” said Hofstetter. “It’s a matter of skills. They don’t hold a straight line as well; they don’t always make the right decisions, and they’re more apt to goof off.”
Of course, the skill of the rider is not the only issue in preventing bicycle collisions and injuries, Warner countered. “It isn’t always about how experienced you are. It is also about how invisible you are to some drivers.”
What do you think about helmet use laws? Let us know in the comments below.
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Gloria Tierney
Staff Writer
eCoronado.com
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