Cycle safely - lose the helmet!

If you drive, you wear a seatbelt.  On a motorbike you have armour head to foot.  So if you’re brave enough to cycle then at least you should wear a bike helmet.  You’d be crazy not to, right?

The argument in favour seems pretty compelling.  If a driver smashes you off your bike, your head is both highly vulnerable and very likely to either hit the road or another car. 

Around 70 percent of all fatal bicycle crashes involve head injuries.  And if you care to Google “lacerations, bruises, skull fractures and traumatic brain injuries” then I’m pretty sure you’ll want to avoid them.

On the basis that it’s a sensible safety precaution to wear a bike helmet, surely government has a role too.  They are meant to protect us from avoidable harm, which sometimes means taking brave and unpopular public health measures for our own good.  Otherwise we’ll end up like the countries where those in charge don’t enforce the seatbelts and motorbike helmets mentioned above, right?

And on an individual basis, knowing that wearing a bike helmet is right, we have a moral obligation to do so - not just to preserve ourselves, for us, loved-ones and dependents, but also to role-model good behaviour to others. 

You can’t duck this one:  every action you take sends a message one way or the other – how you vote, what you eat, where you bank – and especially how you travel.  Sure, if you cycle you’re being a good role model.  But then if you cycle with a naked head, aren’t you saying something like ‘Let’s do the right thing for the environment, but be irresponsible about our own safety’?

My little niece recently, innocently, asked ‘Where’s your bike helmet Uncle Oly?’.  I confess that my response – ‘at home’ – left rather a lot unanswered.

So that settles it, right?  Not only should we wear bike helmets, but our government should make it obligatory.  We’d all be happier and healthier.

Actually, no!

To be honest, the main reason I don’t wear a bike helmet is probably as I really love the feel of the sun on my face, wind on my, er, bald patch.  Cycling is a beautiful, liberating experience.  I wouldn’t want to constrain it with a helmet any more than I would shinpads to walk the hills or a dry-suit to go skinny dipping. 

And one of the beauties of cycling is it’s so easy – just jump on and go (ok, with a twist of the bike lock, yellow jacket and lights at night).  But there’s certainly none of the horrors and hassles of fuel, insurance, breakdown, MOT, parking and the rest – I really don’t envy those stuck in their cars.  And I don’t react kindly to anyone trying to make cycling less free and easy.

In fact, I don’t much like being told what to do by anyone, let alone by this weak and unprincipled government.  Surely even Cameron and co wouldn’t be so stupid to make cycle-helmet wearing compulsory – it would no doubt be popular with the Clarkson petrol-heads and Chelsea-tractor drivers, but would rightly infuriate my strange bedfellows on the libertarian right.

But I’d like to think that is not just because of political expediency. There is actually a strong argument against wearning cycle helmets, and it goes beyond freedom of choice.

Wearing cycle helmets is actually not good for our health.

‘Really?  I don’t think many brain surgeons would agree with you on that!’ I hear you cry. 

Indeed, but that would be a rather self-selecting audience, wouldn’t it?  Would you trust dentists on discouraging children from sugary fruit, or mass-poisening of your water with hexafluorosilicic acid?

What, for example, would a public health doctor say about bike helmets?  I suspect you would get a very different take from the neuro specialists.  Basically they would look at the bigger picture, not just the individual.

You see, wearing a bike helmet will indeed reduce the risk of head injury for the individual cyclist, but may in fact make cycling in general less safe. 

Cycle safety depends very much on ‘safety in numbers’ – the more bikes on the road, the fewer accidents (per kilometer cycled).  And cycling numbers depend largely on perceptions of safety:  if it feels safe, you’ll hop on your hybrid; if you’re scared, you’ll cower in your car. 

So if you want to make cycling safer, you have to get out there on your bike and show it – and you won’t help one bit if you insist on donning ice hockey armour for an innocent little potter down the road!  Rather, take the example of Boris Bikes – 15 million hires in London in a couple of years, and not a helmet in sight.

So ok, doing your bit for society is all very well, but as an individual first and foremost, you do the best for yourself.  Even then you might be better off without a helmet.  You see, whilst you’re likely to have a better outcome when helmeted if you are smashed off your bike, if you don’t have one it’s less likely to happen to you in the first place!

It’s hard to prove, but anecdotally this makes sense to me:  on the rare occasions I’ve worn a helmet, I feel so safe, so protected – so I take many more risks.  Conversely, the very occasional times I forget my lights at night, I cycle super-carefully. 

There is a connection between the amount we perceive we are protected and our behavior on the roads.  Maybe Land Rover and Lexus drivers come across as bullies because they feel so safe?  Well, they probably are just selfish wankers, but you get the point…

So what to do?  Get on your bike?  Certainly!  But maybe you should leave your plastic bonnet at home…