Should cyclists be forced to wear helmets?
It’s a subject guaranteed to start an argument.
Driver: Have you got a helmet on? No! Cyclist: I don’t have to wear a helmet!
Everyone has an opinion.
The problem is,
they’re normally not based on evidence.
Let’s start with something straightforward.
I don’t have a problem with bike helmets.
In fact, when I ride a bike, I usually wear one.
And if I fall off my bike
and my helmet is properly fitted
and I hit something at low speed,
the evidence shows it’s probably going to help me.
So making cyclists wear helmets is a good thing, right?
Well, here’s where it starts to get complicated.
Let’s hear first from a doctor
who has to deal with head injuries.
I’ve seen patients sustain devastating skull fractures,
brain injuries, indeed unsurvivable brain injuries
as a consequence of the head striking the ground.
Last year when I was cycling across America,
a truck’s wing mirror smashed
into the back of my head at 70 mph,
knocking me off my bike and onto the road.
But I was lucky.
I was wearing a helmet.
If I hadn’t been, I’d be dead.
I honestly believe that cycle helmet legislation
would significantly reduce the proportion of cyclists
that are currently killed on our roads.
So it’s pretty clear: helmets can save lives.
But let’s hear from another doctor -
one who looks at health not just for individuals
but across whole populations.
There are very good indications
that forcing people to wear bike helmets
makes cycling less appealing to people
and probably reduces the amount
of cycling that takes place.
And there’s an overwhelming body of evidence
that the health benefits of cycling
vastly, vastly outweigh the health risks.
Also, cycling isn't as dangerous as people think.
Here in Britain there is one death
for about every 30 million miles cycled.
That’s around 100 cyclists killed every year.
In fact, it’s about as safe as walking.
But in that same year,
well over 85,000 people die early
because of illness caused by inactive living,
mainly things like heart disease, diabetes and cancer.
And these are precisely the sort of conditions
that cycling can play a really,
really big role in preventing.
Cycling is one of the best ways
that we can help fight that,
I mean cycling as part of transport,
as part of everyday life
means that people get a moderate workout regularly.
It’s not something that you have to go to the gym to do.
They can do it on their way to work,
on their way to the shops and so on.
So enforcing the wearing of cycle helmets,
even if it were the case that it made cycling safer,
would still lead to an overall cost in public health terms.
And something else happens
when cyclists put on a helmet,
something that seems hardwired into our nature.
Scientists call it ‘risk compensation’.
Basically, that means if you have more protection,
you tend to take more risks.
We got people into the lab
and we told them we were going
to look at decision-making
whilst they wore an eye-tracking device.
It came with a baseball cap
or it came with a bicycle helmet.
And then we got them to do various decision-making tasks
and gambling tasks.
We found that the people who were given the helmets
took more risks on the gambling tasks
and seemed to show
higher sensation seeking measures.
So riders seem to be using that extra protection
to be more reckless.
But here’s where it gets more scary.
Other road users then seem to take more risks with cyclists too.
In another experiment, Ian went out on his bike
fitted with a measuring device.
Sometimes he wore a helmet,
sometimes he didn’t.
And he found that when he was wearing the helmet,
traffic would, on average, pass him more closely.
Sometimes dangerously so.
We had two possible explanations for that.
It might just be that if you’re wearing a helmet
you look more experienced and drivers respond to that.
Or the other possible explanation
was drivers were essentially thinking:
‘he’s protected, I can take risks’.
So what has happened when countries
have made bike helmets compulsory?
Scientists have done major studies
in three countries:
Canada, New Zealand and Australia,
to try and find out whether helmets
improved overall safety.
Keep your head together, wear a helmet!
Their conclusion?
There’s no evidence that they do.
This is why lots of cycling experts get really frustrated
when cycle safety campaigns
get based around helmets and high-viz only.
Wear a bicycle helmet every time that you ride,
gotta strap it on kids, wear your helmet with pride.
Someone who knows these frustrations
better than most, is Chris Boardman,
the former Olympic champion turned cycle campaigner.
Helmets are quite a divisive topic.
They tend to be people’s reaction to an environment:
"I feel helpless, there’s nothing I can do."
Cycling is a safe activity.
It’s the environment that’s dangerous.
It’s that that we need to change …
The Dutch have spent 40 years building safe bike lanes
and over there almost nobody rides wearing a helmet.
But in the Netherlands, cycling is about four times
as safe as it is in Britain.
One thing the Dutch do is removing
a lot of the motor traffic from neighbourhoods.
So that residential streets are not really busy
with people trying to cut through,
avoid the main road, you know, take a short cut and so on.
I would suggest to people,
if you want to wear a helmet, wear a helmet.
Whatever makes you feel comfortable to ride a bike.
And I think for all of us the message is:
if there is a freedom to choose,
which, of course, there should be,
then let it be a freedom,
which means I’m not going to impose my will
on you either way.
In fact, if you look purely at head injuries
for all road users,
the greatest number is amongst motorists.
So maybe if anyone should be forced to wear helmets.
It should be them.
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