Hard-headedness

Yeah, this one rambles a bit. Maybe there will be some nuggets you can use, though...


During Friday's lunch meeting, there was some oohing and aahing over my helmet--the Lazer Urbanize commuter lid with the integrated lights and nifty sizing system pictured here. I admit to being fairly happy with the helmet--I especially like the adjustment system and how it would allow for different shapes of head not just different sizes, and it's a secure mounting site for my mirror.

I'm even one of those folks who is not bashful about saying, "I'm still alive because I was wearing a helmet at a key point in my life," even though that helmet was made for motorcycle use, and that key moment in my life was my one and only motorcycle crash, in September of 1986, and that in the two or three falls from a bicycle since then (some thirty or forty thousand miles of cycling), I've not done a "helmet test."

As a cycling instructor, I advocate wearing a helmet. I ride the ride, too. I have a helmet for each of my bikes, cognizant that I have a different posture on each, and the relevant mirror is adjusted differently, but that I also want a different look for each bike.

Besides, as I mentioned, my helmets provide great sites for mounting mirrors, the better to see what mischief the road user behind me is preparing to visit upon me.

The League of American Bicyclists, and the local affiliate club, the Louisville Bicycle Club, insist that folks participating in their rides wear helmets.

However, I know a lot of folks who disdain helmet use, for various reasons. Some see mandatory helmet use rules as infringement on their freedoms. Some simply enjoy the breeze flowing through their hair. Some point to European riders, who rarely wear helmets and who seem to do just fine. There have been studies that suggest that increased helmet wearing leads to MORE injuries, and others that have found cycling to decline in the face of compulsory helmet wearing.

A quick look at just about any online forum thread on helmet use will find lots of controversy, too, leading to flame wars over "nanny staters," "organ donors," and so on. I've been quoted, accurately, as referring to the old expression, "If you have a ten-dollar head, get a ten-dollar helmet," by commenting that a passing motorcyclist "knows what his head is worth." The two or three of you who read my musings are smart enough to figure out the implication I'm making.

However, I'm re-thinking the whole helmet issue. I'll continue to wear mine, certainly. In the context of club rides, my personal riding, event rides and such, I'll advocate for their use--partly because, as I mentioned, I'm still alive because, well, you know. You already read that. As a League Cycling Instructor, I'm supposed to discuss the importance of a properly-fitted helmet in the classes I teach, and am happy to continue doing so.

In my teaching, I've learned of several hierarchies and mnemonics that are part of one's safety awareness. A favorite is the Five Layers of Safety, as it emphasizes, in order of importance, that we must have a certain level of mastery over our machines, we must know and follow the rules of the road, we must choose our lane position well, we must deal with road hazards intelligently, and, lastly, it's a good idea to have passive protection in place before it's needed.

Helmets are part of that last layer. The takeaway for me is that they should very rarely be necessary, especially if we and all around us are paying attention to the first three layers. The reality is that sometimes, being human, we don't pay attention. Hopefully, our safety margins allow for this, but sometimes they don't. That's when passive protection is important. Not until then.

So, where am I going with this? If you are still with me, I'm thinking about how we as a community "market" bicycling. We portray it as a good thing to do, yet we emphasize the risks by saying, "Wear your helmet!" We cycle around, doing errands, getting to work, working on our fitness, riding together with friends as social activity, and remind each other to wear bright clothing to be visible and thus less likely to be hit by a car. We set up education systems, so that folks who realize they don't already know everything can come to us and learn how to ride more safely and intelligently, and in those classes we discuss the various dangers inherent in cycling.

What if, instead, we focus much more on the positive aspects? It's fun to ride a bike. It's almost as quick as driving, especially for short trips like the Clif Two-Mile Challenge stuff, and pretty easy to find a parking place (I'll agree that more businesses could be more inviting on that score...). Once we get folks ON bicycles more, enjoying that feeling of pedaling through the environment to enhance well-being (the definition of cycology), we say, "You know what? It's a good idea to do this in a way that doesn't infringe on others' enjoyment of the same sport. Let's follow established traffic rules, in part to not aggravate folks who don't "get it," but more importantly, to keep it fun for more of us more of the time."

There are some interesting statistics that suggest that cycling is pretty safe in the overall scheme of things. There is even a quiz online that lets you see how accurate your own perceptions are. In reality, and this is part of our lesson plan in the cycling safety classes, the most frequent causes of cyclist injury are things we can take out of the equation by sticking to the first couple layers of safety mentioned above. One example is cited by Ken Kifer: the largest percentage of cyclist deaths is cyclists entering the roadway from a driveway or parking lot without looking to see what other traffic was already there. Wearing a helmet doesn't affect whether one looks both ways before entering the roadway.

Having another look at Michael Bluejay's site (one of my faves, for sure), he never mentions "wear a helmet" as a way to keep from getting hit by a car. Just about every bit of advice he offers falls into one or another of the first three or four layers of safety. "Prevent needing that helmet" by riding intelligently is a more inviting message than, "wear your helmet, I'm afraid you'll get hit!"

Or are we too hard-headed to get it?