Kids wearing cycling helmets, parents not

[Faveusernamewastaken]

Sorry but this is such a bugbear whenever I see it - a child on the back of their parent’s bike rightly wearing a helmet but the parent cycling isn’t. What if there is an accident, yes the child will be safe but their parent is risking their child seeing them with head injuries or worse. Please, please, please, from an ex-A&E nurse, wear a cycling helmet (cycling with a child or not)! No one thinks it will happen to them until it happens to them. Looking after your child means looking after yourself too!!

There is very little actual evidence that wearing a cycling helmet reduces the risk of dying whole cycling.

https://www.cyclehelmets.org/1155.html

Rotational head injuries and crushing injuries are most common - helmets may possibly make the first worse (although MIPs helmets are better) and do nothing for the second.

Most cycle helmets only make a difference in low speed crashes in favourable circumstances.
Have you held one? It's just a bit of plastic and polystyrene - not like a motorbike helmet.

They are useful for preventing head cuts and grazes in accidents.

Kids in the Netherlands rarely wear cycle helmets on bikes. It's a cultural thing - here, parents worry more about being judged for not doing so even if the chance of it saving a life is quite small.

For what it's worth, I wear a helmet about 90pc of the time when cycling but sometimes I grab a hire bike without one.

I don't judge others for not wearing them.

There is a fairly strong argument car passengers should wear helmets though (I still wouldn't make them)
colvilleandersen.medium.com/the-case-for-motorist-helmets-d1d6c4ae3ed2

I’ve seen this too and it’s such a peculiar thing to do. Wonder what the reasoning is? Or maybe they have odd beliefs about what their own head is made of?

It's only riding a bike.

Well for consistency neither I nor my children wear helmets.

I did put one on my toddler's head when he was on the back of my bike, but this was so others didn't judge, not because I think they're useful.

There is research suggesting that drivers give cyclists without helmets more room on the road (perhaps because perceive them to be less competent!), resulting in less collisions. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/vehicles-drive-closer-to-cyclists-wearing-helmets-415656.html

While I'm cycling with my kids in my cargo trike I don't wear a helmet, as my number one priority is not getting hit in the first place! The bike is quite big and stable, so I'm unlikely to come off it unless something hits me.

When I'm cycling on my own on a normal bike I wear a helmet. I've fallen off my bike before without anything hitting me (due to ice, hitting a kerb wrong, etc) so on balance it feels safer to protect my head and take the risk of closer passing cars.

Helmets aren't necessarily as effective at preventing injury as you might think. As PP said, some injuries can even be made worse if the rider is wearing a helmet.

Most bike helmets are just polystyrene - if you're in a really bad accident they're not really going to make much difference if you fall and hit your head.

I put a helmet on my child but not on me when riding my cargo bike but wear a helmet on my road bike.

reasoning being as posted above - less likely to be hit overall not wearing a helmet which is frustrating because I’d like to wear one all the time but I can’t risk my kid by doing something that’s more likely to get us killed

helmets appear give more protection against falls off the bike rather than head ons with HGVs - so I put one on my kid because if the bike falls over such as on ice she’s going to be less likely to be able to protect her head in a fall than I am, however it’s a heavy sturdy low center of gravity bike and is very unlikely to topple m. I don’t wear a helmet in the hope it makes us less likely to be hit by a lorry by giving the impression of being an incompetent cyclist - it’s a thought out decision to make my dd as safe as can be - I appreciate I may be increasing my risk of a head injury in a fall but hopefully I’m reducing my dds risk of being hit by a lorry.

when I’m on my road bike I feel that at passing traffic isn’t going to think I’m going to incompetent whatever is on my head as I’m in Lycra on a fast bike and there’s a much More chance of a fall off the bike as it’s more unstable/goes faster so I wear a helmet.

so you may well find that the parents not wearing helmets like me have taken a reluctant decision to risk a head injury knowing it’s more likely to save their child being killed - judge carefully

Well actually don’t stop judging parents not wearing helmets - it’s that judging of us helmet-less riders as being incompetent/unsafe that causes drivers to give us a wider berth and so makes us more safe

My kids don't wear helmets while riding bikes. I didn't either while growing up. I live in helicopter parenting central (north London) and rarely see kids wearing helmets unless they are having lessons or out on the A1000 cycle path with lorries and double deckers.

You don't wear a helmet while walking or running so I'm not sure why you'd need to while cycling around the neighbourhood - if you're a London courier or doing road racing fair enough.

@MojoMoon

My brother had a serious bike accident. The hospital consultant said his helmet probably saved his life and definitely saved h from having any serious head injuries (his leg still is affected though, pedal into soft tissue ick).

Ideally they would toughen the regulations to ensure people wore the better standard ones

I don’t get it either OP.

Do you judge other 'dangerous' lifestyle choices too, driving too fast, obesity, smoking etc

It isn't law to wear one so really you need to mind your own business.

Yes I always wear one, my children always wear one (now grown) and I wear full protective gear on my motorcycle even at 35 degrees c ... yes its pretty hot under a jacket with back protector, elbows, shoulders, Kevlar jeans with hips, knees, heavy boots and gloves!

There is a lot of evidence that helmets dehumanise cyclists and encourage drivers to be more aggressive.
In the Netherlands very few people wear helmets and there is much less aggression towards cyclists.

When my DD was 3yo I saw her hit a raised paving stone on her bike and catapult over the handle bars at a garden wall. Her helmet and head missed it by an inch.

It might not do much if you are hit by a lorry... but had DD fallen a few inches towards the wall the helmet would have saved her from serious injury.

I'm shocked at some of the responses here! It's really not always within your control whether you're involved in an accident! Moreover, does it matter that in certain very specific situations it can increase the risk, when in general it reduces them? Would you decide not to bother with a seatbelt in a car? After all, in certain situations (car fire or submersion in water) it might increase the risks

I grew up in the Netherlands and used to think it was completely ridiculous to wear a bike helmet. Up to about ten years ago, they weren't even easily available in shops.

Since moving to the UK and a slightly less cyclist friendly town, I am a total convert. In the meantime, a friend of my DPs in the Netherlands was knocked off her bike whilst stationary, by the rear of a turning lorry. She fell over and smashed her head on the edge of the pavement. She has sustained permanent brain damage and will never be the same again. That kind of injury would absolutely have been less severe had she been wearing a helmet.

A quick Google comes up with this:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2598379/

Strikes me as a pretty ringing endorsement of bike helmets!

As for parents not wearing a helmet while their kids do: no clue what the thinking behind that is, it makes no sense!

I don't wear a helmet when walking or running, as I am not going at an unnatural fast speed and I am not sharing a space with faster and more powerful objects (cars) as a weaker/ more fragile one (cyclist)

That's a false analogy. There is a lot less aggro towards cyclists in the Netherlands because almost everyone cycles. The whole infrastructure is geared towards cycling as well. It's got very little to do with not wearing helmets.

Sadly the data says drivers see cyclists as less human. https://road.cc/content/news/cyclists-wearing-helmets-seen-less-human-301661

That's actually one of the points raised in the research linked above.

In low-speed accidents (ie. the kind children are likely to be involved in) helmets generally provide good protection, but in high speed crashes (ie. with adult involvement) they provide negligible protection and can even cause more damage).

The misinformation on this thread is staggering

Everyone should wear a helmet, it should be illegal not to

yeah I mean, if I were going to fall from the height of a bicycle onto the pavement, or across the bonnet of a car, I'd much rather have my head in a helmet rather than it just slamming into pavement on its own.

DH got into a cycling accident (in NL, funnily enough, we were living there at the time) and thankfully he's German so he was wearing a helmet 😄(as noted above, the Dutch don't typically wear them). Given the state of the helmet, I'd hate to have seen what his head would have looked like.

I don't disagree with that. I merely disagreed with your statement that there is less aggro towards cyclists in the Netherlands because no one wears helmets.

I don't wear cycle helmet and choose to cycle defensively instead. What really winds me up is people cycling on the pavement with all the safety gear. They shouldn't be on the pavement but if they are they shouldn't be going fast enough to need a helmet or high vis.

Didn't used to wear one. The argument that persuaded me to start was: if you had to headbutt a wall would you rather have a helmet on.