Given that doctors and academics continue to argue amongst themselves about the actual benefits of bicycle helmets, why are we still forced to wear them and why are we enforced to wear them with increasing displays of aggression?
Disturbing tales emanating out of Victoria are revealing police patrol cars in 'flashing-lights-&-sirens' mode pursuing cycling-parents & babies because the cycling-parent has been spotted sans helmet.
$$ WTF?
$$ Why is the criminal justice system employed for blatant bullying purposes?
$$ Why are we terrorising babies?
All this is done in our name.
Never mind haggling about the head-injury safety evidence, consider the public health implications. Demanding that cyclists wear helmets results in fewer cyclists. Less cycling, de facto, means less exercise, means increased incidence of diseases of the unfit (which are huge killers, compared to cycling crashes).
ReplyDeleteIf all deaths (all years of life lost) count equally, pro-helmet is pro-death. People can claim that's not what they intend, with real humans, aggressive helmet promotion discourages cycling, which kills more people than helmet wearing saves.
dr2chase, you are so right but no-one seems to listen to your astute evidence...
ReplyDelete...in the judicial arena, we're told these are policy considerations and therefore the courts will not consider them, whilst in our parliaments, our elected representatives just refuse to listen (full stop) because it's too embarrassing for them to actually acknowdeldge that a ridiculous and dangerous mistake has been made - it's a catch-22 situation - the Australian General Public are the clear losers.
dr2chase!...
ReplyDelete...thanks for your comment which I did reply to, but for some inexplicable reason, blogger experienced a few gremlins a couple of days ago resulting in some blog-matter just 'sort of disappearing' - thanks anyway for dropping by!
Nasty police target the ANU campus in Canberra and pick on impoverished students for not wearing helmets. Meanwhile cars speed by openly flouting the (notional) 40kph campus speed limit.
ReplyDelete