Helmetless in Philly

[Rev Bob Dobbs]

I’m visiting Philadelphia and am shocked at the number of cyclists commuting without wearing helmets in center city. Is this a Philly or east coast thing?

[redir]

Ever been to Amsterdam? Paris? Berlin?

[Nomadmax]

Riding without a helmet can save lives.

[Pegoready]

Normalize not wearing a helmet. I'm here for it.

[BumbleBeeDave]

. . . one with a broken neck and the other with a brain bleed where my helmet absolutely, positively 100% saved my life, I don't understand it. But it's no use preaching to folks about it. Sooner or later they will learn from experience–or not.

Originally Posted by Rev Bob Dobbs

I’m visiting Philadelphia and am shocked at the number of cyclists commuting without wearing helmets in center city. Is this a Philly or east coast thing?

[Louis]

It's pretty simple...

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK554988/

[dmitrik4]

Having done both, cycling in Amsterdam is not cycling in Philly. Amsterdam is completely fine w/out helmets because most traffic is bikes and pedestrians and speeds are generally low and bikes are upright. The odds of getting dumped by a car or doored in Philly is not low, and most cyclists are moving faster, with drivers that are much more aggressive/less attentive.

I don’t generally wear one rolling around my small suburban town, but I wear one in the city.

[redir]

Are helmet designs tested to get hit by cars, with upright bikes, doored, with faster cyclist and aggressive drivers?

[dmitrik4]

Not sure I understand the question, but helmets—generally—are designed to protect the human head from impacts resulting from any number of causes.

Thus my habit of changing head gear based on the risk of said causes

[nonprophet]

I don't fully understand the fixation of correlating helmets and car danger. In my opinion there are plenty of ways I could hit my head while cycling where a helmet would offer me protection, even in a hypothetical car free world. For this reason, I am never on a bike without one.

[marciero]

I'm all for wearing a helmet (though I did ride the helmetless to vote yesterday) but there is definitely a culture of fear and hysteria around helmet use in the US.

[-holiday76]

We dont wear helmets when we wheelie our atv jawns around the city either. What’s your point?

[merckxman]

Don't need a helmet for a motorcycle in PA if you are over 21.