In England, They Don’t Want No Stinkin’ Helmet Law
By Michael Frank, Adventure Journal on December 30th, 2011
The claim: Helmets don’t increase safety, only improving infrastructure and driver/cyclist education does that. Further, the petition by several cycling groups suggests that helmet laws only put off would-be cyclists because it tells society that cycling is something to fear, and is dangerous. While the petition says that helmet laws in Australia have directly contributed to the rise in obesity, and the Netherlands, which has no helmet law, has a much lower rate of obesity and much higher rates of cycling, the logic here seems pretty specious. There’s no national helmet law in the U.S., either, and yet we have very few cyclists and massive obesity problems.
