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by limsup 4226 days ago
I think there's something to say about it being safer to bike in general in Netherlands vs in the US. Often in the US you are riding next to busy traffic, while in NE the bikes are better protected. Along with other things too: like a car driving population that is careful about bicyclists.

So, it's not exactly like saying I don't wear a seatbelt because I drive the speed limit. Rather it's like saying I don't wear a seat belt because I live in a different country where accidents are less probable.
2 comments
georgemcbay 4226 days ago
Accidents may be less probable, but if you happen to be one of the unlucky ones who does have one you could still die or suffer severe brain damage, so why not just wear the helmet? Sure it makes you look a bit goofier, but that's a small price to pay to protect your melon.

I do a lot of downhill mountain biking, snowboarding, etc, so I'm not one of these people that tends to be overly worried about safety, but whenever I get on wheels or something that can easily slide out of control I wear a helmet, period. I'm (pun intended) painfully aware of the amount of impact force a rotational component can add to an otherwise relatively low-speed, low-altitude fall.

Maybe the drivers are more cognizant of bikers in the Netherlands vs the US, but I still wouldn't trust them, they are not infallible and it only takes one of them one fuckup to mess me up. A helmet is a very effective (though non-perfect) fail-safe for this that costs virtually nothing (amortized over time of use before it is needed, hopefully never) and has no real downside other than pure cosmetics.

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Someone 4226 days ago
Something to say? There is no way to disagree with that. http://www.policy.rutgers.edu/faculty/pucher/Irresistible.pd..., figure 10 shows that fatality rates per 100 million km cycled of 1.1 and 5.8 and injury rates per 10 million km cycled of 1.4 and 37.5. In 2007, it was 5 to 25 times as dangerous to ride bicycle in the USA as in the Netherlands.

I doubt that has changed for the better for the USA since.

(Found via http://www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/2008/09/three-types-of-..., a great article on safety on a great site about dutch cycling infrastructure and culture)

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raarts 4226 days ago
Anecdotical evidence: when my (Dutch) son of 18 went on a student exchange to the US, he woke up in intensive care after six weeks of helmet-less biking. Nothing ever happened on his 6-year daily 45 mins commute to school in Amsterdam.

When in the US, where nobody is used to bikers, and there are no bikelanes: wear a helmet, when in The Netherlands: nobody does it.

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