Equipped with the knowldege that obesity is more likely to kill us than smoking, it is time to address the issue of our inconsistent and outdated mandatory helmet laws. If Europe, Asia, the Middle East, some US states and some Canadian provinces can modernise their approach to transport, traffic decongestion and the environment within the framework of their laws and cities, then surely Australia can do the same.Repealing laws will probably require that the states and territories work together and presumably with federal government input especially considering that the Federal government was instrumental in their enactment all those years ago. The process would not be easy, but it could be achieved with committed political cooperation and determination - we only have to look at what Copenhagen achieved 30 years ago to realise that we can achieve this too!
Yet in a brief statement to ABC News Online, Brisbane City Council, on the verge on implementing their wonderful bike-share programme, said there was 'no chance of loosening the state's tough helmet laws.'
Groan!!!! why are so many of our muncipal organisations staffed by so many ill-informed helmet proponents consistently averse to a little spot of evidence? You hardly have to enter any type of 'bicycle search term' into "Google" to be inundated with facts on the perils of helmet promotion and mandatory helmet laws - and sadly Australia wins the oscar-winning-cyber-performance for the doomed bicycle protagonist every single time!!
The Queensland government's stubborn stand & their bullish rejection of current facts does not bode well for their exciting bike-share programme...
...don't our governments realise, we have no time to waste, only tubbiness!
In a way I hope the bike hire scheme gets off to a very, very slow start; and I hope it is because of the helmet laws... and people say as much.
ReplyDeleteBrisbane has also started a new bus service to run in conjunction with the CityCycle scheme - it is called CityGlider and guess what the enormous logo on the side of the bus is? A sugar glider wearing a helmet. Unbelievable! HTTP://www.brisbane.qld.gov.au/BCC:BASE::pc=PC_5855
It is good that the story is even making the news headlines I suppose.
I had another cyclist yell at me for not wearing a helmet this evening - while he ran a red light! The mind boggles...
Cheers,
Dr Paul Martin
Brisbane, Australia
It's quite hilarious all this 'flat earth' stuff!!
ReplyDeleteRe self-appointed helmet guardians, someone yelled at me yesterday concerning my lack there-of; to which I responded they were dangerous and always would be; to which he replied: 'awww well you're looking pretty good though' ...!!!
...ha! ha!...there is nothing isolating about cycling; you're always part of someone's community...imagine all those 'chance conversations' we would miss if we were driving...or cycling with helmets for that matter!!