Poking Holes in Bike Helmets
This thoughtfully culled article provides a lot of support for something I have always felt, “bike helmets are basically worthless”.
A few very brief points:
- the kinds of injuries bike helmets aim to mitigate, and are tested against, (linear) are not the kinds that cause long term damage (rotational), and in some studies have been shown to convert linear injuries into rotational ones.
- studies showing helmet effectiveness are not based on primary research, but extrapolated case-control studies with potentially flawed methodologies.
- many other primary research studies indicate no reduction in head trauma.
- cycling is safer than walking (regarding head injury statistics).
- helmet laws always reduce cycling numbers, which does increase cycling danger.
So read up, think critically, follow your heart.
Oh yeah, also, add stories of your bike wrecks to This Map.
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