teenagers and cycling helmets...

Deals_2

should they not be wearign helmets in and around town. my partner's teenage kids say it would be a waste of time and money to buy them one as they would not wear them anyway. shoudl i encourage them to one one? if so how would you encourage? thanks in advance.

Generali

Bike helmets reduce head injury by over 80%. I wear one and I'm a pretty serious cyclist that would rather not.

se999

It's not only how good a cyclists they are, it's also how good other road users are and simple 'accidents' like hitting a tree root.

One of my sons was knocked off his bike by a car going the wrong way down a oneway street, he'd done nothing wrong. He hit the edge of the kerb head first, his helmet was destroyed. He's sure he'd have been dead. He's a student. If you look around more people are wearing helmets. Including teenagers.

The only way to encourage is to give them the facts. Admittedly the rule in our family from when they were little was simply no helmet, no bike.

Edit - They buy their own bikes now but we still subsidise the safety kit.

matty_c608

SPAM Post. ^^^^

andyrules

Deals wrote: »

should they not be wearign helmets in and around town. my partner's teenage kids say it would be a waste of time and money to buy them one as they would not wear them anyway. shoudl i encourage them to one one? if so how would you encourage? thanks in advance.

The safety value of helmets is patent, but whilst it's easy enough to put children in helmets, teenagers are a different kettle of fish as they are (generally) more focused on image. Where we live, if you wore a helmet to school you'd be verbally lynched and banished to the 'nerd' wilderness. Consequently none of them wear one, and so it continues.

Personally, i think helmets should be mandatory. Adult motorcyclists and car drivers have had to be enforced legally into wearing safety helmets and belts, and teens are arguably the most vulnerable group with their road habits and blase attitudes. i was discussing this with the LEA safety rep recently, and he pointed out that it is the Cycling Association (think that's the term) who are opposed to enforcing helmets as they consider it will put youngsters off using bikes. Shame, wearing seatbelts hasn't put people off driving cars, has it?

Idiophreak

Clearly *everyone* should wear helmets whilst cycling. The best way you can encourage a teenager to wear a helmet is to buy them an expensive one, basically. Get them something like this:

http://www.evanscycles.com/product.jsp?style=21807

and there's a chance that a teenager might see it as "cool" to wear.

Get something like this:

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/3333815.htm

and you have *no chance*

matthewking26

Most teenagers won't wear helmets in my experience. At the college where I work I've never seen a student wearing a helmet on a bike. There was a study carried out at Bath university about the effectiveness of bike helmets.

"a traffic psychologist from Bath University, completed a study that also disputed the effectiveness of helmets. He argued that while helmets are effective in low-speed falls, they could in fact make a collision with a car more likely as drivers often don't leave as much room for helmet-wearing cyclists: they perceive them as "Lycra-clad street warriors" who can handle themselves on the road."

http://lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk/guides/cycling/story/0,,2022687,00.html

They are useful in collisions, if they are not fitted properly though they could simply slide back on the head and be no use at all.

I wear one sometimes. The main reason I like mine is for the sun visor on the front alongside the accident protection. It cost £30 about 5 years ago.

The cheapest and most expensive will both protect someone but the more expensive ones are lighter and have more air vents to stop the head getting too hot.

There was another study but I can't find the reference that showed people take more risks when wearing a helmet because psychologically they think are safer/more protected. Anyone know the study?

In my opinion if you try and force them to wear them they will just be more likely to rebel and refuse, or do what I did as a teenager, wear it until out of sight of the house then take it off and stuff it in their rucksack. But a cool expensive one could appeal to them (or sit in a cupboard getting dusty!)

I wear a helmet on road rides to work as the traffic is heavy but don't normally on offroad country rides where there's no cars about. I've crashed a few times over the years both with and without helmet on and been ok but I may not be representative.

Think about where they go riding and how likely they are to stand up to mocking from their friends before you shell out. If you really want to get them one then point out all the top mountain bike riders wear them and they are mandatory if you enter most mountain bike races. Let them choose one so they can pick style and colour and point out the useful nature of the sun visor.

NafUk

This is a very controversial ands complicated topic. There are some studies in Australia that seem to indicate that wearing helmets does put people off cycling and so the overall health of the population decreases. When there are less cyclists it becomes more dangerous for the remaining cyclists.

Some countries with a larger percentage of cyclists have fewer people wearing helmets and a have fewer fatalities.

Also, there are issues to do with risk avoidance; I am wearing a helmet so I do not have to be so careful; I am driving a large 4x4 and so can push my way around in traffic etc. An oft quoted example is if car drivers had a metal spike sticking out of their steering wheels there would be very few crashes.

Another example; lets cover the country in streelights so that it is safer to drive at night. The result is that people drive faster at night and have more accidents. The energy used in constructing, installing and maintaining the light causes more pollution (the UK has one of the worst asthma rates in Europe). The money would be better spent on directly making people fitter by reviving smoking cessation programs etc.

Also, there is evidence to show that during an accident the helment, despite its light weight, can contribute to neck injuries during head rotation etc.

There is no simple answer to this and anyone who says there is has not given the subject much thought and certainly does not know the facts.

By the way, people who cycle regularly live longer on average, so it's not all that dangerous

See http://www.cyclehelmets.org/ for more info.