Advocacy & Safety - Sunday NY Times Magazine-helmets

Interesting "bit" story in the NYT magazine section this past weekend. Short story, shorter. A biker who rides in NYC did a limited study with sensors on his bike that showed cagers actually got physically closer to him when he rode with a helmet. He actually got into two "mishaps" when wearing a helmet. His ultimate theory was that motorists(subconciously) believe(right or wrong) that bikers with helmets are more experienced than those without, therefore they would get closer to biker. The biker who did the study did not personally endorse helmet use.

Not surprising.

The more safety features there are, the more people feel removed from the consequences of their actions.

I wouldn't give too much credence to the anectdotal evidence of one rider. Is the guy a serious, everyday rider/racer, or just some reporter?

But did he endorse not using a helmet? In other words did he endorse it on either side?

This is as bad as people thinking that for those that wear helmets makes cycling out to be a dangerous sport. When it is far from it.

I wonder if people think that because helmets are worn & even required in other sports, such as football, baseball, etc. that those sports are dangerous.

To save supcom or anyone else from having to do so I'll go ahead & say it this time. "Yet another helmet troll thread for this week." :rolleyes:

I seem to recall reading about this a few months ago, only it was a British guy in the U.K. who did the same thing with the same results.

I seem to recall reading about this a few months ago, only it was a British guy in the U.K. who did the same thing with the same results.

That's correct. The cyclist mentioned in the NYT story is a professor at the University of Bath and his study was conducted in Salisbury and Bristol. Here's a press release (http://www.bath.ac.uk/news/articles/archive/overtaking110906.html) from September.

Previous Discussion
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=227728
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=227999

The 'professional briefing document' (closest to actual study I could find):
http://www.drianwalker.com/overtaking/overtakingprobrief.pdf

For a range of reasons, I think it was a very poor choice of the NYT to pick this as a top idea for 2006.

Al

I'd like to do a study on "snot-rockets over the left shoulder" on cager passing behavior.

Anecdotally, they seem to naturally avoid mucous-based defense systems...

Is the guy a serious, everyday rider/racer, or just some reporter?

He's just an everyday bike commuter who wears a wig. How serious can he be?

While this thread is once again 'active' I'll take the opportunity to note that the most recent New Yorker has a letter to the editor in response to the 'biking in NY' article from a few weeks back regarding 'personal responsibility = helmet use and bike lanes = safer'

edit: ooops, I originally posted that this was in the NYTM, but then later remembered it was a different NY magazine, doh. But instead of erasing this post I'll figured I'll let it stay, but corrected.

Al

While this thread is once again 'active' I'll take the opportunity to note that the most recent New Yorker has a letter to the editor in response to the 'biking in NY' article from a few weeks back regarding 'personal responsibility = helmet use and bike lanes = safer'
Yes, and it has all the marks of a Letter to the Editor usually found in the Podunk Gazette. Both the original article and the letter are far below the normally high standards of writing and intelligent thought usually found in the New Yorker Magazine.