Being a West Australian & having driven in the States & Canada I'll add that W.A. drivers are all idiots.
Me included. That said, our cyclists aren't much better. It's scary how many cyclists I pass on the way home from work each night who wear all black & don't have a rear light fitted (but have a front light??) Cheers, Dave 2008/9/23 frank theriault <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > On Sat, Sep 20, 2008 at 2:59 AM, Bob W <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> 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 >> >> Interesting quote: "All vehicles are people in disguise, negotiating >> the use of common space with each other. They must never be induced to >> delegate that obligation to signs and machines. They certainly must >> not think themselves safer than others, or they will behave with less >> consideration for others as a result." >> >> Bob > > I don't buy it. > > There may be a cause-and-effect relationship between the wearing of > helmets and accidents, but which way does it go? Does the helmet make > us more cavalier, or will the cyclist who takes more chances tend to > wear a helmet? > > As far as the Netherlands (a non-helmet-wearing bike society) versus > Australia (where helmets are law), I would submit that it's specious > to isolate one element and claim (or at least imply) that's the reason > for differing accident rates. Surely there are other differences > between the Dutch and the Aussies that might contribute! > > I could go on, but I would think that there is such a complicated > relationship between helmet wearing and accident rates that I'd be > loathe to say that one's safer without a helmet. > > I think that what it comes down to is it should be a personal choice. > I choose to wear one. I don't think that my riding changes > significantly with or without my helmet (but I could be wrong). I've > had enough accidents from which I suffered significant injuries to the > rest of my body that I really prefer not having accidents - helmet or > not. The flip side of that is when I broke my collarbone my head hit > the pavement pretty hard - I'd have suffered at least a serious > concussion without the skid lid. > > I don't criticize anyone for not wearing one. I especially don't > criticize Elle for not wearing one, because she's quite beautiful. I > know that's not a good reason for not criticizing her, but there you > go... > > ;-) -- 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.
