Excellent sift. *promote

Promoting this video and sending it back into the queue for one more try; last queued Sunday, May 22nd, 2011 3:18pm PDT - promote requested by LarsaruS.

*wheels *health

Adding video to channels (Health, Wheels) - requested by ant.

It's logical and everything, but it really needs to start with good city and urban planning so that cyclists can not only feel safe, but also that they are safe.

Interesting, but for a Ted talk it was a bit light on information.

So is his point that requiring people to wear helmets makes them think it's a dangerous activity and therefore they are disinclined to ride? I think in addition, the image-conscious don't like helmets messing their hair and making them look uncool.

Here in Aus, we have helmets legislated, and I hear it is an impediment to ride. I even saw one study that suggested that wearing a helmet makes drivers less inclined to give you space on the road.

I would like to see the data showing that bike riding is less dangerous than driving in a car. Also that the health benefits of riding outweigh the risks by 20 times. If anyone has links, please send on.

Um yeah, you know what makes me afraid to ride a bike in my city? Its not the idea of needing a helmet, its seeing the God awful drivers around my city. They have a hard time seeing me and not suddenly pulling into my lane when I'm driving a red 3k pound vehicle. I was in a near miss the other day when the car that had been driving next to me suddenly decided my lane was the one to be in. Our cars got so close I think a gnat that just happened to be between them got squished. So yeah no way in hell I'd ride a bike on the streets of this city. Even where they have bike lanes they've decided to measure about a foot away from the curb and paint a line down the normal street. So bikers have this tiny lane to stick too, and the people in cars, who already have a hard fucking time staying in their own lane, now have less room.

So yeah, I'd wager the rest of the world's cities that aren't so concerned about the danger needing a helmet might produce, and more about the danger of morons driving 2 ton boxes of steel and glass at 50 mph or more and their effect on you if the slam into you.

>> ^Crosswords:

Um yeah, you know what makes me afraid to ride a bike in my city? Its not the idea of needing a helmet, its seeing the God awful drivers around my city. They have a hard time seeing me and not suddenly pulling into my lane when I'm driving a red 3k pound vehicle. I was in a near miss the other day when the car that had been driving next to me suddenly decided my lane was the one to be in. Our cars got so close I think a gnat that just happened to be between them got squished. So yeah no way in hell I'd ride a bike on the streets of this city. Even where they have bike lanes they've decided to measure about a foot away from the curb and paint a line down the normal street. So bikers have this tiny lane to stick too, and the people in cars, who already have a hard fucking time staying in their own lane, now have less room.
So yeah, I'd wager the rest of the world's cities that aren't so concerned about the danger needing a helmet might produce, and more about the danger of morons driving 2 ton boxes of steel and glass at 50 mph or more and their effect on you if the slam into you.


Are you from the US? If yes, I can understand why you wouldn't wanna ride a bicycle. On different occasions, different US friends of mine noticed independently that there are fewer car accidents in Europe/Germany. Then I researched a bit and found out that US driving tests are far easier than the german tests are; and the US tests are very possibly kept easy to have as many drivers on the roads as possible, influenced by the car and gas-industry.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag.(show it anyway)

This talk really resonates with me. I would ride my bike a lot more if I didn't have to worry about getting fined for not having a helmet.

I crashed my bike when I was younger and fractured my skull simply because I didn't feel like wearing a helmet. My advice is WEAR A FUCKING HELMET! For this talk to have any context you must first look at Copenhagens roads. They are designed extremely well for bicycles. Riding without a helmet here in Melbourne is insane!! The amount of times I have nearly had serious accidents let alone the times when I have intentionally been targeted by random drivers (No, I did nothing to piss them off) was enough to scare off of road cycling for good. My life and brain is worth more than the whim of a lazy or psychotic driver.
Get over how your hair looks or how you look and do the right thing. Your wife/mother/nurse does not want to be wiping your ass for the rest of your life because of the threat of helmet hair.

There is some statistical evidence of helmets improving safety. For example, a Cochrane review found that "Helmets reduce bicycle-related head and facial injuries for bicyclists of all ages involved in all types of crashes, including those involving motor vehicles."

Good to see Helsinki on the top 5 cities for cyclists though

>> ^DerHasisttot:

>> ^Crosswords:
Um yeah, you know what makes me afraid to ride a bike in my city? Its not the idea of needing a helmet, its seeing the God awful drivers around my city. They have a hard time seeing me and not suddenly pulling into my lane when I'm driving a red 3k pound vehicle. I was in a near miss the other day when the car that had been driving next to me suddenly decided my lane was the one to be in. Our cars got so close I think a gnat that just happened to be between them got squished. So yeah no way in hell I'd ride a bike on the streets of this city. Even where they have bike lanes they've decided to measure about a foot away from the curb and paint a line down the normal street. So bikers have this tiny lane to stick too, and the people in cars, who already have a hard fucking time staying in their own lane, now have less room.
So yeah, I'd wager the rest of the world's cities that aren't so concerned about the danger needing a helmet might produce, and more about the danger of morons driving 2 ton boxes of steel and glass at 50 mph or more and their effect on you if the slam into you.

Are you from the US? If yes, I can understand why you wouldn't wanna ride a bicycle. On different occasions, different US friends of mine noticed independently that there are fewer car accidents in Europe/Germany. Then I researched a bit and found out that US driving tests are far easier than the german tests are; and the US tests are very possibly kept easy to have as many drivers on the roads as possible, influenced by the car and gas-industry.


I would have put it in a slightly different manner (more insults at the driverslicense"agency" what's it called -club) but that's exactly my point.
In Germany you fail the driving test (the actual driving test, not the theory beforehands) if you do one of these things once:
- miss of red light
- entering a one way from the wrong side
- missing a stop-sign
- error of priority in traffic
- ignoring any kind of prohibition sign
- not looking in all mirrors and over shoulder as you switch lines
- no blinking lights as you turn
- blinking lights as you dont turn
- no sign of caution if children, elderly or disabled people are around
- not enough distance to the car in front of you
- and a couple of more things
The test can take up to an hour of driving.
Oh yea the whole thing (driving lessons (theory and driving itself) and tests) costs around a thousand bucks.

If I would feel more save riding a bike here, I would close my eyes, stir with my feet and juggle chainsaws while I enter the AUTOBAHN.

Oh yes and to rejoin the topic: No helmet-campaign I heard of so far. No law against riding without one. Nearly all the children in the city wear one. As they get older they apparently grow out of them.

People should be free to break their heads if they want to. Get off us, big mother.

so if a cop gives me a ticket for not wearing a helmet, can I show him this video to get out of it?

I have quite a few cyclist friends here in the UK, and all of them wear a helmet and it's never an issue. I always wear one too, and feel wrong being on a bike without one in just the same way as I feel uncomfortable in a car without a seatbelt on. This really does seem to be a culture thing, and a local culture thing at that.

Well, I've always been pro-helmet, partly because I had to call an ambulance for someone who had managed to knock themselves unconscious when they skidded off their bike. But I would genuinely like to understand the science, pertinent questions like, would it save more lives to enforce motorist helmets for everybody instead of cyclists? I also don't like the idea that the car industry are behind cycle helmets to get people into cars, that stinks of something rotten.

i thought he was going to say overpopulation

i wear a helmet so people know im a responsible biker and then they can judge how to react... but it only works because i am aware that right-of-way means nothing when physics are involved.

i think people who ride without helmets to look "cool" only make themselves look like little kids, because how .. jerky... is it to say "Hey, take care of my head trauma for me because I don't care about myself".

i take zoloft and i still wear a damn helmet.

His presentation style drove me crazy.

He paces, with his hands in his pockets, while looking down...
He says 'um' and 'uh' constantly...
He skips back and forth to see what the next slide is...
He jokes too much, and at the expense of countries sometimes...
He doesn't cite any of the "research" he paraphrases...
He states faux-fact opinions about how companies are operating against the interest of people...
He talks too fast, then pauses too long...
He likely got there late and didn't test the 'clicker' to change slides...
And worst of all he is not concise... which is a essentially a trademark of real TED talks.

I don't have the will to invest 16 minutes to find out why. I think it must depend on the type of community you live in. I live in Toronto, and there's no way in hell you'd catch me on a bike here, helmet or not... Torontonians are the worst drivers I've ever seen (myself excepted, of course). It's dangerous enough driving a damned car here.

A helmet's a pretty good idea even if there were no cars at all. It really doesn't take much of a blow to the head to kill you or rewire your brains wrong.

This talk was severely lacking in actual citable statistics, or explanation of said statistics. It set off my bullshit alarm.

Logically then we need to evolve an extra skull so we can be protected all the time.

Man's got a point about cars - why aren't they wearing helmets if it improves safety in the event of a crash? Racing drivers have them.

The lesson here is to take what the safety nuts say with a large pinch of salt.

>> ^juliovega914:

This talk was severely lacking in actual citable statistics, or explanation of said statistics. It set off my bullshit alarm.


He's just saying if you play the odds you'd be smarter to wear a helmet in your car than on a bike, which no one does.
Combined with the fact that forcing people to wear helmets on bikes puts more people in cars which leads to a WTC sized pile of bodies every month in the US alone.

It's clearly true that a city full of cyclists even without helmets is healthier, greener and nicer all round than cars; but the commercial forces that shape our lives are going in the opposite direction.

Interesting just for the absurdity of the situation, no?
The counter argument is pretty easy to sell too though..

http://youtu.be/-iaNlobvJMY

It was going to Australia that forced me to start wearing a cycle helmet, I never would have here where its not mandatory. Ten years later and I wont get on the bike without one, just feel naked without it, besides at this point the day I leave it home is the day I get knocked off.

Cycling is dangerous where I live, I have my helmet and yellow "condom" but still seem to be invisible, to the extent that I now mount a little HD camera on my bars to document the craziness that happens going to and from work.

*controversy

Adding video to channels (Controversy) - requested by MrFisk.

We should all wear helmets all the time. We should pass laws that if we do something that might cause ourselves harm we will pay fines to the government. We should have laws that keep us safe from everything.
If we start now and outlaw just a few things a year , pretty soon we will all be safe.
All joking aside... I really hate intrusive fucking pussies.

MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS MRS. KRAVITZ.

First of all this dude is a pretentious twat. I agree with everything said by bamdrew and then some about his presentation style. Like someone else said, between the lack of citations, and the literature degree, my bullshit meter almost sprayed mercury all over the ceiling. Now moving on to content.

Anyone that has ever been in a serious cycling accident, with or without helmet, will encourage you to wear one. I don't really care what the government does. I'm going to encourage their use to anyone I talk to about cycling. It's irresponsible to suggest you shouldn't. If you want to encourage cycling, get on a bike. It starts with yourself, and believe me, people notice, think about the benefits, and follow your lead. Any concerns people have about safety are likely justified. Cars hit cyclists. In such an event wearing a helmet is unlikely to add to your peril.

Most of municipalities I've lived in have had "mandatory" helmets (with the quotes reflecting the lack of enforcement). Like speed limits, helmets are a suggestion, that can be enforced if you're being a real idiot. However I'd argue that enforcing proper traffic etiquette on a bicycle is more important than enforcing helmets. So often I see people weaving on the wrong side of the road, or hipsters with their brakeless fixies plowing through pedestrians on the sidewalk, or blowing off red lights.

EDIT: My suspicion is that his results come from funny numbers/foolish normalizations. That is, a survey that says, do you wear your helmet when you ride your bike, to a random population. Many (or more likely most) of the people say no. The researcher then counts the number of serious injuries that involved cyclists with and without helmets, and does the division. Presto, helmets aren't any safer. However, they've neglected to take into account the drastically more miles likely biked by the helmet wearing crowd.

All right, so it is legislated... but how often do you actually see helmets used? I would guess about 50% of the time in Melbourne, and how often are tickets issued???

I'm completely unconvinced that the lego (which half the observed cyclists ignore anyway) has discouraged cycling... I suspect it's just anti-helmet propoganda.
>> ^kymbos:

Interesting, but for a Ted talk it was a bit light on information.
So is his point that requiring people to wear helmets makes them think it's a dangerous activity and therefore they are disinclined to ride? I think in addition, the image-conscious don't like helmets messing their hair and making them look uncool.
Here in Aus, we have helmets legislated, and I hear it is an impediment to ride. I even saw one study that suggested that wearing a helmet makes drivers less inclined to give you space on the road.
I would like to see the data showing that bike riding is less dangerous than driving in a car. Also that the health benefits of riding outweigh the risks by 20 times. If anyone has links, please send on.

Because they have seatbelts to stop drivers flying out the windscreen and airbags to try and prevent their head hitting things it can still reach.

Obviously racing is far riskier, the same reason that no sensible motorcycle or mountain biker would fail to use suitable head protection.

Away from heavy traffic, I think a cycle helmet is probably not needed for a regular bicycle. However, I wouldn't be without one when sharing a road with vehicles (*shakes fist at evil buses*).

>> ^Deano:
Man's got a point about cars - why aren't they wearing helmets if it improves safety in the event of a crash? Racing drivers have them.

In Melbourne I rarely see people riding without helmets. Most of my friends have been fined and now wear helmets but I am not 100% sure that the two are linked.
The point about cars is bullshit. Cars have seatbelts, airbags, crumple zones etc. A bike = 5 feet of falling over onto some skin, some bone and your mental life. Like I said, don't wear a helmet for your sake. Wear it for the sake of the people who have to look after you when you brain turns to goo.

Interesting. It must depend where then, I'm talking about Northern suburbs, and mostly teenagers.

I totally agree with your other point.>> ^Kofi:

In Melbourne I rarely see people riding without helmets. Most of my friends have been fined and now wear helmets but I am not 100% sure that the two are linked.
The point about cars is bullshit. Cars have seatbelts, airbags, crumple zones etc. A bike = 5 feet of falling over onto some skin, some bone and your mental life. Like I said, don't wear a helmet for your sake. Wear it for the sake of the people who have to look after you when you brain turns to goo.

I am in the south-east but I guess I am mainly referring to road cyclists and uni students. Plus I am kind of biased as I used to do amateur road/mountain biking and NO ONE didn't wear a helmet but then again they are far more seriously about it than teenagers mucking about after school etc. However, if I see someone riding without a helmet it usually sticks in my head . I used to live in the north and you are probably right. Not that they are necessarily bad kids but they do seem to respect authority less.

In copenhagen where this guy us referring to the roads in the CBD are bike oriented and they don't have helmet rules to encourage everyone to ride. There is far more adequate road safety there where you don't have to compete with cars like normal cities. So while his argument is slightly less invalid in Copenhagen it does not transfer to almost anywhere else.

This thread has explained how modern politicians behave for me, an alarming lack of critical distinction between content and presentation style.

This discussion on Reddit reminded me of this talk. Mikael Colville-Andersen does a bunch more writing at www.copenhagenize.com *promoting healthy cycling.

Psst, Sifty. I said *promote. Thanks, buddy.

Promoting this video back to the front page; last published Sunday, May 22nd, 2011 3:18pm PDT - promote requested by notarobot.

AWESOME SIFT!!!