Mandatory Bike Helmet Laws Suck

Headlines like this disturb me

Cyclists should be forced to wear helmets: study

A new study is calling on provincial governments to pass laws that force cyclists to wear helmets.

The study, published in the August edition of the journal Injury Prevention and conducted by researchers at the University of Manitoba and the University of Ottawa, suggests cyclists are much more likely to wear helmets and avoid injuries if they live in a province with a mandatory helmet law.

There are several problems with this.

Firstly, I, as an adult, can make the choice whether I want to wear a bike helmet or not' the choice is mine, the risk is mine. If I have an accident, I face the consequences of not wearing one.
Force should never be the default option in these kind of cases, public education is. THAT is how behaviour changes, forcing people doesn't change their hearts, and that is where real lasting change happens.

Secondly, the idea that wearing a bike helmet reduces injury isn't actually supported by evidence.

Study co-leader Ryan Zarychanski had this to say;

Clearly, helmet legislation works and clearly it reduces serious head injuries
and facial lacerations.

And where is the evidence for this?

It doesn't exist.

Of the small number of studies about the efficacy of using bike helmets, a negative correlation is found. From the wikipedia...

There are many other studies. The largest, covering eight million cyclist injuries over 15 years, showed no effect on serious injuries and a small but significant increase in risk of fatality

And then there is this study that was done in Britain

Cyclists who wear protective helmets are more likely to be knocked down by passing vehicles, new research from Bath University suggests.

Dr Walker, a traffic psychologist from the University's Department of Psychology, said: "This study shows that when drivers overtake a cyclist, the margin for error they leave is affected by the cyclist's appearance."

We know helmets are useful in low-speed falls, and so definitely good for children, but whether they offer any real protection to somebody struck by a car is very controversial."

So if we look at the actual evidence we see that it's not so much of a cut-and-dry issue.

The main issue here is personal freedom; while the authors of the study by researchers at the University of Manitoba and the University of Ottawa may correctly state that mandatory rules may increase usage, the claim that this is correlated to increased safety is not supported by the evidence.

And to conclude this entry, here are some selected posts from readers of the CBC article.

Another bullshit law brought in to protect a few stupid cyclists and grab more money, while taking police off of pursuing real criminals. Sounds like a great law. What will be next? A license to operate a bike? One more step toward communism. It is no wonder that crime is on the rise in Canada. We keep passing stupid laws to make more people criminals and take the attention off of the real crimes.

I support making laws, where failure to follow said law could result in injury to others. That's not the case here; therefore helmets should not be mandatory. You can't legislate common sense. So stop with the nanny state mindset!