Feels nice to pretend you are free to enjoy yourself as you feel fit, doesn't itI took a Joycean trip today on my bicycle from the hotel, along Ross Creek, and out to the airport, and down the Bruce Highway to Nathan St. The wind was in my hair and finding the Ross River I cycled back down to Bowen Rd., and thence by a perambulation back to the hotel.
And I didn't have a bicycle helmet on my head.
And I didn't see one copper.
Glorious and safe.
Well really its all beside the point. What right does a cop have to say what you must wear during the activities you engage in? He has none, nor does any politician. We need cops for the cops.I have followed this thread for a bit and understand that, as usual, there are many facets to the debate. I have one issue which the more knowledgeable may be able to clarify for me.
Why is it a blanket edict for bicycle helmets? I can appreciate that if one were a member of the "lycra heart monitor beat the personal best set", traveling at speed a helmet has the potential to avoid serious head injury. Fair enough. But if peddling along at walking pace or a couple of k above that, why is a helmet essential?
This website provides a compendium of reports and studies into cyclist injuries and cycling participation rates in a mandatory rather than voluntary bicycle helmet jurisdiction, and compensates for the Australian media's lack of interest in public health and safety.
The legislation has been enforced in Western Australia for 18 years - a timescale providing abundant data to analyse the effect of an all-age mandatory bicycle helmet law.
Government data shows an increase in cyclist hospital admissions and total injuries despite also showing fewer people cycling on West Australian roads during most of the 1990s - a downturn in public recreational exercise with further negative consequences for community health and safety.
Fascism is not defined by the number of its victims, but by the way it kills them.
Jean-Paul Sartre
Another good website on the evils of bicycle helmets.
http://www.cycle-helmets.com/
And another quote. From JPS
Bicycle helmets gnaw at a free society.
gg
Blanket mandatory wearing of bike helmets at all times is
(a) Un-Australian
(b) Un-democratic
The post enforcement data which shows the in-effectiveness of helmets in significantly reducing cyclist head & total injuries whilst cyclist numbers plummeted & motor vehicle crashes mysteriously soared at the same time is damning evidence IMO.
You have to wonder why there is so little official, recent and up-to-date data coming out? Perhaps the authorities don't want to know how badly they have screwed us over since 1992?
Will I ever see a back down in this insane policy in my remaining lifetime? I figure I've got at best 20 years cycling left in me, so I don't like the odds, given the stubborn intransigence of your typical Oz polly when it comes to admitting a serious mistake in social engineering has been made.
Bastards.
:angry:
Wear a helmet GG. It's the lycra that kills, especially the lycra suits emblazoned with make believe sponsor logos. One needs to appear as if ready for Le Tour.
Cyclists are currently among the most serious individuals on the planet. Without "sponsor" logos on their lycra, they would lose precious seconds on their ride to a and from work. Serious.
May I suggest a plain head-shaped helmet, as opposed to the brightly coloured alien space craft style of helmet. You will lose another second off your trip time due to wind resistance, but you'll feel happier about it.
:jump:Well I am cycling to the Townsville Show.
I will leave the Ross Island Hotel in ten minutes and will go directly via Boundary St. and Ingham Rd, sans helmet, on my Malvern Star.
Should any Townsville coppers be reading this, I will be wearing a black hoodie.
Sometimes one needs to take a stand against unjust laws.
gg
A helmet saved a close relative's life a few years back; this thread is a joke.
If you don't like the government right telling you what to do because you're not smart enough to figure it out for yourself, perhaps you should move to Somalia.
Sometimes a helmet is not enough.
A helmet saved a close relative's life a few years back; this thread is a joke.
If you don't like the government right telling you what to do because you're not smart enough to figure it out for yourself, perhaps you should move to Somalia.
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