For those of you not from NYC, the NYPD is apparently giving tickets for riding without a helmet--which is perfectly legal--because a cyclist was killed by a hit-and-run driver on Monday: https://t.co/SPPRIMW3Pn— Bike Snob NYC (@bikesnobnyc) February 6, 2019
This is far from the first time the NYPD has targeted cyclists for made-up infractions:
...by the way, there have been multiple instances of the NYPD ticketing for the non-offense of not wearing a helmet, including this notorious one, which is the origin of my penchant for spelling helmet as "helment:"https://t.co/iMCKzHGyOB— Bike Snob NYC (@bikesnobnyc) February 6, 2019
Yet oddly, as far as I know, no motorists have been summonsed for driving without wearing a flame-retardant suit or any other improvisational non-violations.
Of course, even the most staunch helmet apologists recognize that the police can't just go around ticketing you for stuff that's perfectly legal...well, most of them anyway:
Really astonishing to read the long line of replies to the police daring to issue tickets. Nobody cares to say: “Hey, just wear that damn helmet. It may save your life. “! #rememberjason https://t.co/x3t50G7qN8— IsraelCyclingAcademy (@yallaACADEMY) February 7, 2019
More wisdom from the professional peloton.
Speaking of helmets, recently I shared my profoundly insightful Outside column about why that recent scooter study is fucking stupid:
And now Consumer Reports has released its own...report:
As you know, I visited Consumer Reports not too long ago. Not only was I grateful for their hospitality, but after touring their headquarters I'd trust the fuck out of them when it comes to which washing machine will clean my underpants more thoroughly or which phone is least likely to shatter when dropped. Also, they've got a fantastic salad bar:
By the way, sorry for the non-sequitor, but my four year-old just typed this while I was in the bathroom:
dddddddddddddddddddddddddddffffff bgtrdfghjuytrfdfggggggg ggtf45tyhbgfde34567'
One day my entire publishing empire will be his.
So right, Consumer Reports. What I was saying is that, while they definitely know from TVs and stuff, I'm not sure they should be weighing in on transit. Here are just a few troubling portions of their study--which of course opens with an anecdote:
As he set out, Grasso noticed construction ahead and steered from the side of the street up onto the sidewalk. As he maneuvered, the scooter hit a bump, and he crashed head-first into the ground. “The whole unit just flipped forward and smashed my face into the cement walkway,” he said.
Yeah, I realize this is going to sound victim-blamey, and I apologize, but YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO RIDE THE SCOOTER ON THE SIDEWALK.
Grasso’s story is far from isolated. He’s one of an estimated 1,500 people across the country injured in an e-scooter-related crash since late 2017, according to a Consumer Reports spot tally from major hospitals and other public agencies, such as police departments, we contacted in recent weeks.
Sucky for sure, but is that even a lot? Consider:
According to the American Association for Justice (AAJ), "for every accident that happens on an elevator, there will be 18 accidents suffered on escalators."
The AAJ also states that "escalator-related injuries and deaths in the U.S. have been steadily rising every year." In 1990, there were just under 5,000 escalator injuries and deaths. By 2000, that number had doubled, with over 10,100 people hurt or killed on escalators. In 2013, there were 12,260 reported escalator injuries and deaths in the United States.
Of course none of this means much without knowing the total number of scooter trips--which of course they don't:
CR’s analysis is limited, to be sure. Without average trip lengths in each city, for example, it’s impossible to calculate the rate of incidents. A recent study from Portland’s Bureau of Transportation found the city’s injury rate to be 2.2 per 10,000 miles traveled and 2.5 per 10,000 e-scooter trips taken. The study noted that figure “may not be related to rental e-scooters, so the actual rate is likely lower.”
So in the absence of anything truly alarming let's just worry about helmets...
Experts told CR they’re concerned about the availability of helmets, especially when considering the nature of the ride-share business model, which allows anyone with a smartphone to rent a scooter from wherever the last rider leaves it, often from the side of the road.
And helmets...
“Who’s carrying a helmet with them?” says Oscar Guillamondegui, M.D., medical director of Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s trauma ICU. Guillamondegui estimates treating about 20 patients for scooter injuries. “I have only seen one person wearing a helmet. And that was my son, because I demanded it.”
And of course helmets:
Part of the reason for the low helmet use, some medical experts suggest, is that riding a scooter is a decision made in a flash, whereas riding a bike is more deliberative. A study published last December on Seattle’s bikeshare program found 90 percent of cyclists wore helmets when riding their personal bikes; only 20 percent of bike share riders did the same.
So basically, Americans are making somewhere between one and a gazillion scooter trips a year, some of them are getting hurt, so in conclusion everyone should wear a helmet.
I'm fine with that just as long as we extend the same warning to people who ride escalators.
Otherwise, I'm automatically discarding any study that includes repeated use of the words "concern" and "helmet."
39 comments:
to whom it may concern, podium.
I'm looking forward to investing in your new escalator helmet empire.
Some quote about betting against us being dumb comes to mind...
I've found great success avoiding face plants by lifting the front of my body above obstacles as I approach them, it works well on bicycles, scooters, skateboards, skis and while walking. While swimming, I find going underneath to be more effective.
Hey old man, I’ll get off your lawn in a second. It took me several years to recover from a TBI because I wasn’t wearing a helmet. I had to relearn how to walk, talk, and feed myself. It was probably a 1 in 100,000 injury, but could have been prevented with a helmet. The stupid little foam hats are completely unnecessary right up until the moment you or someone else fucks up or something breaks. You don’t get to choose when it happens, but you can choose to wear a dork dome. Just know that it can and does happen, and the consequences, even though rare, really, really suck. You can have your soapbox back now. Awesome blog, love it.
WEED!
Vanderbilt Medical Center. My wife worked there at one point. It is a good place to receive medical care for just about anything that ails you, but it is in a city where car-dependence is a way of life for most residents.
To wit; some of the ladies in my neighborhood invited my wife to travel downtown from our suburban (but somewhat bike-infrastructure enabled) neighborhood to celebrate a birthday. (She declined) Of course, they drove there in a giant 4x4 SUV that is de rigueur these days. The bar-hopping commenced, and one of the ladies eventually tripped over an immobile scooter and face-planted on the sidewalk.
When the story was re-told back in the 'hood (which is how I know about it), it was the scooter's fault. Cursed scooters.
Only a full-face helmet would have helped poor Grasso.
When you go on the sidewalk with your scooter, aren't you supposed to schluff it? Wait, isn't that what traditional (non-electric, non-app-supported) scooters do best?
Escalation of concern.
So... a 50-year-old man is riding an electric scooter with wheels maybe 4 inches in diameter, and doesn't realize that a relatively small "bump" will pose a hazard?
I'm against mandatory brain-buckets, because they interfere with the Law of Natural Selection!
Who do you want contributing to the gene pool... smart people or dumb people wearing mandatory helmets?
I smell a money-making idea - racks at the bottom and the top of the escalator. Before mounting the up escalator, you put on the helmet, then you take it off at the top and re-rank it, and the person riding down the escalator repeats the process.
I'm going to be rich, I tell you, rich...
Not sure I dig the Israel Cycling Academy's responses; he/she/they seem kind of haughty about helments. I get that helments help avoid injury, but he/she.they seemed so obtuse about the root of the problem, which, at least here in the US, is that car driver of all stripes get away with a lot on our roads and are treated like gold by the police.
We've created a perfect world . . . for the SUV.
So depressing - I think I'll stop at the liquor store on the way home (my backpack has room for at least a bottle).
In my commuting life from 2006 to present, I had one fall on black ice. No injuries but it was the winter when I was given a helmet for Christmas, I dont think it made much difference. I 100% support the idea of not wearing a helmet even though I do. I've had a bigger injury taking a piss than anything while commuting.
Israel Cycling Academy, you’ve taken my band’s name, you bastards.
Chamois butter
But how does Anonymous 11:27 know that a helmet would have prevented his injuries? That's quite an assumption. I have heard of plenty of brain injuries and deaths that occurred to people who were wearing helmets. I don't mean to belittle his trauma, just that everyone seems to believe that it is possible to prevent all injuries and deaths and achieve immortality. Maybe a helmet would have helped. Maybe. Maybe not. I think a better way to look at such incidents is to think about how to prevent them from occurring in the first place. Instead of telling cyclists to wear helmets, stop drivers from running them over. That seems like a better solution to me. Of course, every activity assumes some sort of risk and you can't prevent all of it no matter what you do.
anyone walking around in a mall should be required to wear escalator shoes.
Bummed out but still getting about,
I feel like an asshole for even pointing it out, but the dead teammate they cite was killed by a driver. Given he was a pro cyclist and it happened in Australia it's pretty safe to assume he was wearing a helmet. This makes their response doubly puzzling.
--Tan Tenovo
These attacks on the Israel Cycling Academy sure came out of nowhere.
Six degrees of separation from Hitler, indeed!
BikeSnobNYC @ 2:40 pm,
I agree, extremely puzzling. Perhaps someone at the ICA got on the web while nursing a bottle of what I'll be buying later and just started arguing about helments for argument sake(?).
"I've had a bigger injury taking a piss than anything while commuting."
Story, plz.
I mean, really, that's just mean-spirited to not finish that one off.
Looks like there are even more news services getting on the "e-scooters = death" bandwagon, from BBC:
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-47158007
Emergent Escalating Escalator Emergencies
These scooter incidents are adding fuel to a general helmet debate that's already heated beyond reason, and that's the real danger these things pose. I would not be surprised if a mandatory schmelmeth law for bikers was the ultimate outcome (among others), complete with the inevitable decline in ridership that follows, and that's just fucken depressing.
For those of us who don't live in NYC - how does that actually work: fining people for non-infringements? How is that administered, and do you get your money back? Asking for a friend...
Your whole country is governed by irrational fear and authoritarianism.
Things Americans are continuously told to be afraid of; Muslims, Mexicans, transgender people, socialism, taxing the uber-wealthy, environmentalism, Iran, abortion, human rights, nudity, riding bikes/boards/etc. without helmets
Things that are fine; guns, pharmaceutical opioids, theocracy, racism (institutional and otherwise), lack of healthcare, police violence, war without end, privatized prisons, record breaking prison populations, imprisoning asylum seekers, losing children, wealthy pedophiles, legislative capture, obesity
Anonymous @ 11:27
No one's telling you that you can't wear a helmet on your fucking lawn or wherever.
If you tell everyone else they have to wear one, cycling/boarding/etc. declines and your country becomes even more morbidly obese than it already is. Ergo, helmet laws decrease public health.
I'm a lifelong commuter cyclist and have skateboarded as long as biked, but the escoots scare me because I ride the mean streets of atlanta, where a 2" steel plate is considered an infrastructure improvement.
In my personal opinion, If you can't bunny hop an escoot, you should wear a full face helmet. (or at least have dental insurance).
The linked article says the cyclist was conscious when emergency services arrived. Very little chance then that he died from injuries preventable by a healment.
i was once doing some radical bmx shit on my radical bmx and this one time i wasn't so radical and did not land the jump and cracked my head rather open.
i didnt die or suffer brain injury. i cried, got stitches, drank some cement then hardened the fuck up.
that was a hell of a spill too. we were coming off the top of a long hill in the neighborhood and hitting a nice sized ramp in the street. we didn't even have the sense to angle the ramp into a yard or something to soften the blow.
point being: you suck at falling if you hurt yourself on something as absurd as a scooter and you probably SHOULD be wearing a helmat for EVERYTHING in life because you are a giant pussy and the helmut will soften the blows when your wife beats you and leaves you for someone more radical.
maybe you fools who are against wearing helmets want to enrol in the randomized study in the no helmet group and we can hurtle your unprotected head at some asphalt....wonder which is harder?
Unknown,
Which is heavier, a pound of lead or a pound of feathers?
--Tan Tenovo
TRUE STORY - A Brodude on an escooter riding on the sidewalk nearly knocked my takeout sushi lunch out of my hands today - my pearls!
Also - escalators should be banned, at least all in outdoors locations like mass transit. Walk the fucking stairs.
I would say something profound about how helments don't really make you safer, as I know from personal experience, but it looks like it's all been said already.
Damnit. We need a mandatory escalator helmet laws. If people don't want to ride the escalator. they can take the stairs or the elevator.
Mr anonychicken@ 7:22?
Don't worry. You don't have to hide your identity from us, even if you are completely clueless. We are all very impressed that you can still chat with such a big stick up your ass.
Nobody here is against wearing a foam hat, and in fact most of us wear them whenever it is appropriate. What you have completely failed to comprehend is the difference between choosing to wear a helmet, and being forced to wear one in a God forfuckingsaken stupid effort to brainwash people into thinking cycling is dangerous, when in fact a complete lack of infrastructure, and law enforcement, as well as speeding and distracted dumbfuck, murderous motorists are at issue, endangering cyclists on the roads, and a helmet will not save your life or even your particularly over accomodating fucking ass when you're hit at speed with any 2000lb plus lethal weapon. But hey, you can believe whatever you like. It's your life.
One thing? Maybe take that stick of yours out before you open your mouth next time, so we don't have to look at it. See, we are all cyclists here, we're supposed to play on the same team.
No elevator or escalator beanie for me.
Unknown 7:22 should definitely always were his helmet; otherwise, if he fell, he might not be able to comprehend the point of very simple arguments.
But helmets schmelmets, make with the pee injury story. Did it get bit by a snake? Priorities people.
Does Consumer Reports get paid for testing helmets?
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