Originally Posted by
CrankyOne
I am far from a helmet troll as you should be able to gather by my level of participation in general helmet discussions. I do though spend a considerable amount of time working with NGO's, Cities, Counties, and Companies on bicycle and pedestrian issues.
Failed projects have a very huge negative impact that can take years or decades to get over. If GM goes through with this and it fails that will make similar projects difficult or impossible for a very long time. Helmet requirements, whether in law or bikeshare requirement, have been shown to very likely decrease ridership by a significant amount. I would very much like to see this project succeed because that will make future projects like this much more likely and easier to obtain buy-in for (besides the health and other benefits to GM employees). The helmet requirement could and likely will have a very significant impact on this projects chance of success.
You're not the only one I was addressing that comment to -- I'm interested in hearing more discussion of this program without having it locked due to yet another flamewar or merged into that other helmet thread in A&S.
Anyways, your second paragraph sounds true to me, but it remains to be seen whether mandatory helmet use will be enough to dampen participation enough for the program to fail. Like tjspiel, I'd be surprised if helmets weren't also required during the successful pilot program.
Has there ever been a case where ground has been regained from the safety nannies?
