Do helmets actually protect cyclists?

'Helmets on,' for Saskatchewan?

If you're a cyclist in Saskatchewan who likes to feel the breeze in your hair, the fun might soon come to an end. At its recent convention, the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association adopted a motion calling for a province-wide law requiring helmets for all cyclists.The goal is to reduce the number of serious brain injuries and deaths related to cycling crashes. And if adopted, the law would bring Saskatchewan in line with provinces like BC, which has had a mandatory helmet law since 1996.  

Hooray for helmets?

The helmet debate is something Glenda James brings up as often as she can. No surprise, because James is the Executive director of the Saskatchewan Brain Injury Association.
Every year she hosts thirty or so cross-Canada cyclists in her home. Not one cyclist she's spoken to, she says, could imagine doing the journey long journey without their helmet. And her statistics back this up. James says helmets reduce cyclists  risk of head injury, brain injury or death by eighty percent.
"You can think of it in terms of physics, or you can think about it in terms of  common sense," she says, "but quite simply if you go flying off the bike, whether you hit a rock, whether you hit a stick, a pothole, or whether somebody hits you, you are going to be a little bit like a missile."     

Are helmets the wrong focus?

But cycling safety researcher Kay Teschke says by focussing on helmets is all wrong.  Teschke is a professor in the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia. Her research finds head injuries only account for between ten and twenty percent of all cycling injuries, which is a very small proportion.
"That leaves all the other injuries, many of which can very, very serious," says Teschke, "so we basically say we give up on those other injuries."
Teschke argues helmets discourage people who might otherwise get health benefits from cycling. She says in Australia,  there were dramatic reductions in cycling after helmet laws were implemented. Teenagers, and women, she says, are the demographics most likely to stop cycling if forced to wear head protection, so she thinks the health benefit of cycling outweighs the possible risk of injury that comes from not wearing a helmet. 

Balancing benefits and risk.

In Northern European countries where they don't emphasize helmets, Teschke's research finds injury and fatality risks add up to a measly one third to one twentieth the risks of biking in North America. She says instead of trying to make helmets mandatory, Saskatchewan should work on developing infrastructure that separates cyclists from drivers. 
"If you put in separated bike lanes, people love it. That is where they need to put their emphasis."
She says she was disappointed that while in Saskatchewan for a conference, she didn't see any sign of separated bike lanes. Teschke points out that when bikes don't have to share the road with cars, it means small mistakes on the part of cyclists or drivers don't  become synonymous with catastrophe. As a cyclist herself, she admits to only wearing a helmet part of the time, even though BC requires cyclists to wear a helmet by law. If she's using Vancouver's separated bike lanes, she'll probably go helmet-less, because she feels safe, riding in traffic means she will probably clip put one one...most of the time.

What about transit infrastructure? 

Back in the pro-helmet camp, Glenda James says there is no question she backs bicycle infrastructure like separated bike lanes. However, she knows they don't happen overnight.  Helmets, on the other hand, are simple, inexpensive measures to increase personal safety, and children's safety too. "They're as easy as a twenty-five dollar instant purchase," she says. 
In the same way society adjusted to no-smoking laws, seat belt laws and cellphone laws, James says Canadians would adapt.
"Once it becomes law, it starts to become a socially accepted norm... Safety should become a socially accepted norm, and [in Saskatchewan] we are trying to develop that culture of safety."
What do you think? Are mandatory helmet laws a good way to promote cycling safety?
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