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Safety vests and helmets make cyclists look ‘less human’ to other road users
(theconversation.com)
this post was submitted on 24 Jul 2023
58 points (93.9% liked)
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There's a long term debate about the effecacy of helmets. this article from 2014 summarizes it pretty well. All the studies, both in favor and against are relatively weak compared to what we might expect, but this is epidemiology, not biology.
The biggest indicator is simply that countries with heavy helmet use have more head injuries per 100,000 miles ridden than those with low helmet use. Even that is a correlation, but causality is unclear.
Now compare that to fatalities. There's the answer to your second sentence.
Yeah, fatalities also go down. All hospitalizations do. It's not survivor bias, it's a solid inverse correlation between helmet use and injury. Netherlands, Denmark, Japan all have very low helmet use and very low injuries.
The three you just mentioned also have a heavy cyclist culture, and infrastructure in place that facilitates separate biking though
That's quite true. And they got that via sustained policy to encourage cycling. It's been quite demonstrated that mandatory helmets actively discourage cycling, leading to both a disinvestment in infrastructure and drivers being less comfortable around cyclists (thus more dangerous)
I am not making a point about individual choices. Anyone should feel free to wear a helmet. But public policy is a different beast, and the data on mandatory helmets laws are inconclusive as to benefit and clear as to cost.
Good lord, no.
If having to wear basic safety equipment that literally dons and removes in a split second 'discourages' you from cycling, you are either incredibly vain or outright lying to yourself about the true causes of not riding.
Most people are vain, yes.