> It's also a good example of the danger of statistics. It > quotes Australia as > a more dangerous place to cycle than the Netherlands, despite > Australia > having widespread helmet use and the Netherlands practically > zero.
When Australia and New Zealand, and I believe all countries where it has been measured, introduced compulsory helmet-wearing the number of cycle journeys dropped dramatically, which tends to reduce general health and increase death rate and obesity - including among children - while the rate of cycle injury rose. Although there were absolutely fewer cycling injuries, the laws had detrimental effects on general health and early death rates because fewer people were cycling. > zero. Most > European cities are much more cyclist friendly than > car-oriented Australia. > Separate cycle paths are a rarity in most Australian cities > with cycle lanes > on busy roads the usual alternative. One of the paradoxes not mentioned explicitly in the article, but demonstrated elsewhere, is that separate cycle paths increase the rate of injury and death among cyclists. It is safer not to separate bikes and cars, as the Naked Road movement shows. Personally I almost never use cycle paths when a proper road is available - it tends to be faster and more convenient to use the road. But I was brought up to cycle on the road and by and large know what I'm doing and what the other traffic is doing. > Low driving standards with higher > average speeds don't help much either. "These drivers are really bad and drive too fast so let's get the cyclists off the road and force them to wear helmets!". Not sure I see the logic of that one. Anyway, that comment probably touches on the heart of the matter - better cycling and driving training increases safety for everybody by orders of magnitude more than any other factor. http://www.cyclehelmets.org/index.html Bob > > > Here is an interesting article (with which I agree) about the > paradoxical dangers arising from our safety culture: > > http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/sep/19/transport.transpor > t -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
