Op-Ed: Are Boise Bicycle Riders Wearing Helmets?

Frank H. Loucks
Instructor: Christy Vance
English 102-013
November 12, 2009
Op-Ed: Are Boise Bicycle Riders Wearing Helmets?
Has the insistence of wearing a bicycle helmet taken the fun out of riding bikes that we all hold dear in childhood memories. My bike, when I was a young boy, was my way to adventure and exploring. When the neighbor kids would come screaming by on their sting rays with banana seats, cards carefully fastened with clothes pins, I could run out the front door, jump on my bike and be riding in the pack in no time. Now what if I had to go find my helmet? This mere requirement could have been devastating to a shy boy who just wanted to fit in with the other neighborhood boys.
Joan Gluckman, New York Times, Nov 12, 2009, wonders if it has occurred to anyone that the declining use of bicycles correlates with the increasing insistence on the use of bicycle helmets? Could we go so far to saw that required helmet laws may be the root of our society obesity problems? Has the social pressure of wearing a helmet been the cause of increasing larger and immobile society?
Even if there is not a helmet law it has become politically incorrect to go down the block without one. Dirty looks and whispers follow the parent who is riding down the greenbelt with their non-helmeted child. Community organized bicycle rides and fund raisers prohibit un-helmeted rides from participating. The Hiawatha Bike Trail in northern Idaho will not allow riders without helmets to ride this state-maintained bike trail. We are shamed to the point we choose to not ride at all if we prefer to not wear a helmet.
What happened to personal choice? Are we creating a society that is so “safe” that children no longer have opportunities to learn from challenges and risk. We learned to jump safely from our bikes when they were going down. We learned how to hang on tight if that was our best option. We learned how to ride and control our bikes, not let the bike control us.
In 1990-92 Australia introduced compulsory helmet laws for cyclists, resulting in 30 per cent fewer people cycling. An article in the Health Journal of Australia, “Bicycle helmets and public health in Australia” by Bill Curnow, concluded: “Compulsion to wear a bicycle helmet is detrimental to public health in Australia.”
Are we taking the pleasure out of bicycling riding? The declines in bicycle related accidents correlates to the decline in children riding bicycles. Have we discouraged this childhood freedom because of society’s compulsion to make life risk-free?
Ed Goldberg, New York Times, May 20, 1999, makes a similar point with playgrounds. All playgrounds from the 60’s are being removed, the maypole, the metal slippery slides, the teter-todders, monkey bars, merry-go-rounds: gone all gone. Goldberg states “when our children grow up, having played in the safest playground money can buy, they will be more safety-conscious than we are. And we will shake our heads when they pass laws enforcing use of pedestrian helmets.” Now that would be something, pedestrian helmets.