Helmet

my helmet protects me / helmeted cyclists have more fatal accidents than un-helmeted / it protects me from self-righteous nagging to wear a helmet
Self-righteous helmet naggers are a much more prevalent danger to cyclists than physical injuries.  There’s little evidence my helmet would increase my physical safety in case of an accident (there’s as much evidence for the opposite, in fact), but it does protect my social safety. If I suffered an accident, I’d need the support of my friends and family, and they threaten to withhold this if I don’t wear a helmet.  So I do. And then I make cartoons complaining about it.

14 comments to Helmet

  • Uh oh! Watch out for the Naggertarian Safetyarchy.

  • Paul Vahur

    I wear helmet because I drive fast on bicycle. I guess if you drive normally you have much less need for a helmet but I would still wear it. It’s a kind of life insurance. Generally I have noticed that the skull is more fragile than the pavement. I got some valuable stuff up there.

    I think the regular helmet is too sporty looking. Google “design bicycle helmet” for cool helmets…

  • Nina

    I wear it so friends and relatives (and total strangers) don’t give me shit. It makes me safer from them.

  • Derek

    Interesting… The only two people that I know that have gotten into bicycle accidents would both be dead had they not worn helmets. My sister’s helmet cracked completely in half. Without a helmet, that would be her head. And my brother in law was mountain biking, fell, and hit his head on a rock. Thank goodness for the helmet.

    I’m not saying we should have mandatory laws for bike helmets. I just don’t think it’s the smartest thing to go without one.

  • Mark

    Cracked in half is not absorbing much energy. Brittle is not good!

  • Dave

    Amusing. Thanks for presenting one of those “for every solutions, comes new problems” cases.

  • (snort chuckle) you said helmut….

  • Paul

    Helmets aren’t designed to absorb energy; they’re designed to disperse it without imparting it to the skull. A helmet that breaks upon impact is far better than a skull that does so.

    When I was teaching my son to ride his bike, he lost control and went over the handlebars and headfirst into the curb. If he hadn’t been wearing a helmet he definitely would have sustained more than a bruised ego.

  • Rafael

    This helmet war thing reminds me of Bob Dylan’s lyrics (Black Cross):

    Then they hung Hezekiah high as a pigeon.
    White folks around there said, “Well… he had it comin’
    ‘Cause the son-of-a-bitch never had no religion!”

    I think pretty much the same would happen if I got run over by a car while wearing no helmet: “Well… he had it comin’, ’cause the son-of-a-bitch wasn’t wearing no helment!”

  • Sarah

    The hell do you live? Must be somewhere people mainly ride their bikes for exercise instead of necessity. Helmets? I thought you only put those on autistic kids so they didn’t hurt themselves when they threw a tantrum.

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