Road Safety

[Fog]

I'm a cyclist. The following was bulletin was put on my desk and highlighted with the words - Fog - don't wear a helmet wear a wig.

Road safety

Bath University traffic psychologist Dr Ian Walker, who used a bicycle fitted with an ultrasonic device

to measure the margin for error given to cyclists by drivers in 2,500 overtaking manoeuvres, half of

them recorded when he was not wearing a cycle helmet, has concluded that cyclists wearing safety

helmets are more likely to be involved in a collision with motorists, who, on average, steered an extra

3.3 inches further away from cyclists not equipped with helmets. Dr Walker, whose research will be

published in 'Accident Analysis and Prevention', also found that drivers gave him a wider berth when

he disguised himself in a woman's wig.

(G 12/09/2006 p8; Ind 12/09/2006 p13; T 12/09/2006 p15; Tel 12/09/2006 p3) (D0602888)

Thinking of SP's and Pata's photos and videos, I wonder what sort of findings he'd get wearing heels.

[Ozzard]

I believe the London Evening Standard article on the subject is at http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23366491-details/Helmet-wearing+cyclists+more+likely+to+be+knocked+down/article.do

I used not to wear a helmet, but went over a car bonnet some years ago. Snapped the bike frame, landed with my head 6" from the kerb and my legs under the car engine, and the driver was so shocked he rabbit-hopped the car forward. At that point I decided that looking like a mushroom was a reasonable exchange for keeping my brains inside their preferred container. As I have a helmet *and* a long ponytail, I guess I come out neutral :-).

[Fog]

I'm firmly in the no-helmet league. I hate them, not for the looks, you don't wear lycra and day-glo yellow goretex for the looks of it (well not the yellow goretex anyway). But the problem with helmets is what they do to your neck - they're even worse riding a bent. I've been over a car coming the other way - luckily I walked away - actually, I chased her down the road and caught her, she was trying to make a getaway and by the time I'd caught her I was in so much shock that I accepted her story "I don't give my address to strangers". Never mind got her number and the CTC took the case and got me £975 for a bike I bought from an attendant at Sutton Council rubbish dump for £2. If you hit something solid at over 12 mph a helmet is useless. So if you get knocked off it will protect you from the impact with the ground, but not a head on with a lorry.

[Ozzard]

If you hit something solid at over 12 mph a helmet is useless. So if you get knocked off it will protect you from the impact with the ground, but not a head on with a lorry.

Yep. In the same way that a seat belt doesn't protect you from kids dropping a concrete block through your windscreen from a motorway bridge. Personally, I'll take the narrowing of the odds in both cases: from the helmet and from the seat belt. Neither solves the entire problem; both improve the marginal odds of my survival across the expected range of accidents.

[jmc]

I ride a motorcycle sometimes -- a Goldwing 1200. And here in Michigan we have a helmet law -- and an activist group trying to get it repealed. But to me a helmet is natural on a motorcycle. Even without the law I would probably still wear it. Maybe I'm just a square (well, no maybe about it). It is probably true that at any speed above that of a brisk run, the helmet is probably wearing me for protection but going without it is just not right.

Oddly enough, though I haven't made the jump to wearing a helmet on a bicycle. But it probably does make sense.

[Fog]

The problem is that when car manufacturers talk about safety, it's only the safety of the driver and passengers they consider. The same goes for transport planners until recently.

[Guy N. Heels]

I ride a motorcycle sometimes -- a Goldwing 1200. And here in Michigan we have a helmet law -- and an activist group trying to get it repealed. But to me a helmet is natural on a motorcycle. Even without the law I would probably still wear it. Maybe I'm just a square (well, no maybe about it). It is probably true that at any speed above that of a brisk run, the helmet is probably wearing me for protection but going without it is just not right.

Right on, JMC! Wearing a helmet on any kind of open vehicle just makes sense. Any kind of protection is better than none at all.

But I found nothing more convincing than the stories of the ancient Hawaiian warriors wearing coconut shells and, believe it or not, dried gourd hulls into battle as helmets. Now any right thinking soldier today knows that a coconut shell or a gourd isn't going to be worth much in a fight, but still better than nothing. For thousands of years people have known that you've just got to protect that noggin.

[chris100575]

I used to ride motorbikes and got knocked off one day when I slowed down for some roadworks and some arse in an XR3i coming up behind me didn't bother. I owe my life to the fact that I was wearing a helmet, and my right leg to the fact that I was wearing leathers. (Initial impact with the road, plus 40 feet of sliding along it.) The day before I'd been wearing jeans and a pair of workboots. Apart from anything else I found wearing a bucket more comfortable once I got past 30mph or so as it kept wind blast and bugs out of my face, and reduced the noise. As a nod to the first post though, I found that cars got a lot closer when I wore a high-vis jacket, and gave me a wider berth in my black leathers. Apart from the idiot mentioned above of course! Chris

[Dr. Shoe]

I am firmly in the helmet/hi-vis vest/lights league. Moreover I ALWAYS stop at red lights. I actually hate dark-clothed, unlit, unhelmeted cyclists jumping red lights more than old ladies in fiestas.

[chris100575]

Unlit cyclists are a pet hate of mine, as are those poxy green LED front lights. It's only since I've been driving a car that I've realised just how hard they are to see, especially after dark, and if it's raining too they're virtually invisible. Chris

[Guy N. Heels]

I'm a cyclist. The following was bulletin was put on my desk and highlighted with the words - Fog - don't wear a helmet wear a wig.

Road safety

Bath University traffic psychologist Dr Ian Walker, who used a bicycle fitted with an ultrasonic device

to measure the margin for error given to cyclists by drivers in 2,500 overtaking manoeuvres, half of

them recorded when he was not wearing a cycle helmet, has concluded that cyclists wearing safety

helmets are more likely to be involved in a collision with motorists, who, on average, steered an extra

3.3 inches further away from cyclists not equipped with helmets. Dr Walker, whose research will be

published in 'Accident Analysis and Prevention', also found that drivers gave him a wider berth when

he disguised himself in a woman's wig.

(G 12/09/2006 p8; Ind 12/09/2006 p13; T 12/09/2006 p15; Tel 12/09/2006 p3) (D0602888)

Thinking of SP's and Pata's photos and videos, I wonder what sort of findings he'd get wearing heels.

Upon re-reading this story, I must say that Walker's study and conclusions are very interesting.

For one thing, I find his conclusions counter-intuitive. Since I would expect a cyclist wearing a helmet to have more restricted hearing, I tend to give them a wider berth. But at any rate, I feel most uncomfortable if I cannot give a cyclist at least half the width of my car as clearance (about a yard). Needless to say, that's not always possible.

Moreover, I've often wondered how do the cyclists feel about this thing? I think matters are bad enough with our American cars, but a cyclist encountering one of our monster 18 wheelers, especially on a bridge or near some kind of wall, ought to be enough to scare anyone witless.

[Francis]

Sorry, but I was one of those unhelmetted, unlit, wearing black clothing, cyclists who regularly used to cycle 16 miles in the pitch black and I'm still here. Although, there was one time, a lorry, who was doing far more than the limit, nearly got me and that was two days after I fitted the lights. And yes, they were proper lights, not those stupid LED affairs that you can't see until you are 3cm away from them. I cannot see why cyclists are allowed to use them, they are so bad, they may as well not be there at all. As a driver, I always try and give a cyclist as much room as I possibly can. The general rule for me is that you give them 6ft of room, allowing them to fall flat on their sides. I enjoy cycling, although I haven't been doing so since my bike was stolen, and would expect the same sort of courtesy from motor vehicles, but we all live in the real world and know it doesn't happen. When I last went out on my bike I wore a hi-vis jacket in daylight and had my elbow clipped by a white van man. White van men. Now there's a pet hate.

[Fog]

I didn't notice this had come back to the top a couple of times. My pet hate is cars creeping up behind you and then turning left across your path (that's right for you guys in the states). They just expect you to stop dead, which you can't do if you're doing around 20. I've tried to explain to a couple of them that they just wouldn't overtake a car and when half way through the manouvre then cut across it.

[Guy N. Heels]

I didn't notice this had come back to the top a couple of times. My pet hate is cars creeping up behind you and then turning left across your path (that's right for you guys in the states). They just expect you to stop dead, which you can't do if you're doing around 20. I've tried to explain to a couple of them that they just wouldn't overtake a car and when half way through the manouvre then cut across it.

Yer absolutely right! I don't know what the average bike weighs, but I should imagine that some of the big Harley's might tilt the scales at close to 1/2 ton. Now anyone with any sense knows that you can't get that much mass up to speed and then stop on a dime! So barring some kind of James Bond rocket propulsion, that really leaves the biker with nowhere to go!

[Leggman]

I don't ride bike, but I do drive cars and tractor-trailer. I always give people on bike a wide berth. What I find annoying is the people who don't ride by the rules of the road. I'll stay behind a bike until it's safe for me to pass, or stay behind until the bike clears the intersection before I turn. We have very serious cross walk laws, I stop for pedestrians. I will not stop for a bicycle in a cross walk unless the rider dismounts and walks in the cross walk. I had a cyclist show me I'm number one with his middle finger. I stopped an opened my window and he asked, "You know what a cross walk is?" I replied, "Yes, do you know what a pedestrian is?" I stopped for a woman walking in a cross walk and I looked in my right mirror as she passed in front of my tractor, a car in the right lane didn't slow down or stop and I blew the air horn just before the woman would have stepped in front of the moron. The car behind me was a state trooper and he had the car stopped about a half klick up the street.

[Guy N. Heels]

...I stopped for a woman walking in a cross walk and I looked in my right mirror as she passed in front of my tractor, a car in the right lane didn't slow down or stop and I blew the air horn just before the woman would have stepped in front of the moron. The car behind me was a state trooper and he had the car stopped about a half klick up the street.

Right on about the pedestrian in the crosswalk! That happens to be one of my peeves as well. But who said there's never a cop around when you need one?