'Boris-bikes' & funtimes

"Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner
That I love London town!"

Freezing cold London yet 'toasty' funtimes to be had on the Boris bikes!!

Verdict: fabulous - but not enough of them and/or their docking stations for Londoners & tourists today - boy! were we out in droves??!!!!

But even factoring in the little 'supply & demand' hiccough, the London bike-share-scheme is a million times better than the Melbourne one - how can this be so?

Will the 'Bicycle' & 'Australia' be loving partners one day?

(Photos: Photography Studio 33, "Men's Health")


Australia needs to be 'in bed with the bicycle' because not only would we then have healthy content added to our lives, but our desparately impoverished transport needs would get get a boost too!!!

But to do this, we need to rid ourselves of mandatory bicycle helmet laws...

...let's hope the current interest in the helmet debate finally challenges the corporate nature of our current draconian legislation.

Toboggans, horses & helmets - your call!!

(Photos: NYC with 'freedom-to-helmet-or-not' choice in action)






Did you know that in Australia no helmets are required for the horse riding or tobogganing (yet!) - it's still your call even though they can be wild & woolly experiences, albeit funtimes mostly!!!!

What's the go with helmets & bicyclists, Minister Borger?



Why discriminate against us?

Will it be 'Mandatory Padding Laws' next?

Only helmets I saw in NYC today were at Maddison Square Gardens on...

...her team's heads (Toronto Maple Leafs)...


...& his team's heads (New York Rangers)!


...I saw a lot of team 'padding' too!

(Photos: Flickr, Keenan Brown)

Jeez! - fingers crossed we can keep 'Mandatory Bicycle Padding Laws' at bay!!!

NYC & 'freedom-cycling' - c'mon, Sydney, get a wriggle on!

(Photos: 'I ♥ New York City')






It is unacceptably 'cute' of our Australian governments to pretend they care about cycling safety in their bid to continue the 'driving-is-safer-pretence' whilst simultaneously providing motorists 'carte blanche' on our roads .

We all know it's 'risky' driving a car yet we also all know that it's a risk we're all prepared to take. Moreover, and somewhat amazingly really, we factor this in whenever we turn on the ignition, albeit subconsciously.

Car-manufacturers translate this 'risk' into a bottom-line cost and governments allow this commercial reality.

Of course life is about calculated risks & judgment-calls meaning that in this instance every time we strap our babies & ourselves into car-seats we weigh up the pros & cons & then make rational decisions for ourselves & our families - we all know & do this, governments & ministers included:

Therefore, Minister Borger:

* quit being cute

* quit the undiluted discrimination towards cyclists

* quit the 'safety-wash' of helmet laws

* give me back my freedom of expression to dress how I want

* give me the equivalent privileges that motorists & pedestrians get


...basically, GIVE ME BACK MY BICYCLE FREEDOM!!!!

Crippled by a culture of 'bicycle' fear

We should never blindly place our trust in authoritarian professionals and institutions.

We should always recognise 'capitalist patriachy' for what it is, and speak out against it.

We must say "NO" to the...

* damaging
* blatant
* oppressive
* mysoginistic

...forces at play

Let's resist;

$$ - being blinded by the notion of state protection, and
$$ - being crippled by the current culture of bicycle fear

Bicycle helmet laws - Australia's false solution

(Photos: unfettered Dutch cycling - sigh!)


Without a doubt helmet laws have been & are & always will be a 'false solution' to bicycling safety.

Notwithstanding they make ED doctors and politicians feel better in a 'smug-parental-sort-of-way' as they unwittingly tumble into the arms of 'Big Oil' and 'Big Helma' ('Big Oil's' little sis').

Yet (& I don't need to tell you this) helmet laws have made no difference to cycling safety whatsoever & in fact (as many would argue) have made cycling safety a whole lot worse in a 'red-herring-sort-of-way'!

Could Gustave Le Bon have been more on the money back in 1898?

'The masses never thirsted after the truth.
They turn aside from evidence that is not to their taste, preferring to deify error, if error seduce them;
- whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master;
- whoever attempts to destroy their illusion is always their victim.'

Bubble Wrap Society

(Photos: Village store, Whistler, BC, Canada)


Reading this article in the Canadian "Globe & Mail" made me remember some of our snow practices from previous mountain moments:

1. 'ex-army-boot' skiing (stuffed with socks & tied on with laces!!!)
2. 'bikini' skiing (those were the days, my friend!)
3. 'baby-on-back' skiing (all grown up now - TG!!)
4. 'midnight poubelle-ing' (bin-liner riding in the dark!!)

...but there's one snow practice I plan to hang-on to...

5. helmet-free skiing (if I should so choose, which I do)

...oh dear, methinks, a battle looms on the horizon!!!! -
how long have I got before it all starts again?

Evangelical incoherence always attached to helmet beliefs

There is a certain 'evangelical incoherence' attached to helmet beliefs, and it will remain an 'eternal mystery' to me that we Australians, have allowed ourselves to be so blinded by the aura of respectability that all too often surrounds medical opinion.

* Why is this so?

...'Trust me, I'm a doctor'!!!

...hmmmmn...inexplicably we resolutely refuse to contemplate the evident flaws in current medical opinion on bicyle helmets.

Why?...sigh

STOP PRESS: "A 'no-helmet' saved my life" anecdote

OMG!!! You have to read this!!!!

Baby no. 2 was cycling in Newtown on New Year's eve, and her cardigan slipped out of her front basket and jammed itself in her front wheel. Strangely the back wheel kept going (something to do with science & mechanics, no doubt), and as a result baby no. 2 (wait for it!) was catapulted over the handle bars and onto the ground in a jiffy - there was no time for any contigency plans!!

Poor darling landed on her hands as she stuck them out, and amazingly they were ok - notwithstanding she did end up with 'little-boy' knees though...

...but OMG!...I keep doing the "what-ifs"...

...imagine if she'd been wearing a helmet????????????

Wow! what a 'eureka' moment - in fact, this is the counterpoint to:

- the 'helmet saved my life' andecdote...

...in fact, this is:

- the 'no-helmet saved my life' anecdote!!!

Therefore, if helmet promoters can get away with this standard of proof then so ought I!!!

Yes, dear world, from here on in, my family too is going to utilise 'The Absolute Emperor's New Clothes Standard of Proof' argument:

- a 'no-helmet saved our baby no.2's life'!!!!

New Year's Resolution: REVOKE BICYCLE HELMET LAWS

(Photos: Family in Hamburg free of 'civil-liberty-reducing' helmet laws)


Helmets are dangerous just like smoking & over-eating & over-drinking.

Therefore it stands to reason that I ought to have the choice whether I wear one or not - & maybe I might at a party or something where I have been know to over-eat, over-drink and even smoke (all of which makes for 'terrible-next-days' I can assure you!!!!)

Notwithstanding it is outrageous that the Government of NSW imperils us all by requiring us to wear helmets anytime we think about hopping on a bicycle...

...children die from wearing them, &

...66% of people killed on bicycles are wearing them at the time of their deaths (p.22, para 3.55)

Question 1: Why are our consumer and civil liberty watchdogs napping?

Question 2: What will it take to convince politicians their delegated legislation is killing us?

Over and over again we have provided our 'democratically-elected' representatives with the facts & the stats - and now our 'democratically-elected' government has conveniently gone and 'prorogued' itself!!!(?)

Does that mean I'm not going to hear from Minister Borger before he disappears into 'opposition wilderness' in March? He owes me a letter big time!!! & I've not heard a peep from him - my letter to him was sent in September.

"THEY'VE GOT TO GO!!! - HELMET LAWS ARE SO LAST DECADE!!"