It is my business. If you get hit by a car, knocked 30 feet, and hit your head, your injuries are going to be worse than if you were wearing a helmet. And if you don’t pay your medical bills, the state (re: “taxpayers”) has to pick up your slack. And I don’t want to pay extra just because you don’t want your hair to get smushed. So wear the damn helmet.
Max, I understand all of your arguments, and I am not about to argue about any of them. I agree with you, and I use the same points when I’m talking to the moron I work with that refuses to wear a helmet when he rides his motorcycle to work.
I didn’t infer from the OP that she was riding in a highly trafficed area, or on sidewalks, or that she was a bike messenger, etc.
I thought she was riding her bike “on campus” and asked directions to the library. Then some guy started giving her a hard time for not wearing a helmet. Then she came here and complained. Not the PIT, but MPSIMS.
We aren’t arguing the same point. You’re saying, “no one should ever ride a bicycle unless he or she is wearing a helmet.” You are correct in this.
I’m saying, “people I don’t know shouldn’t come up to me and try to feed me a crap sandwich.”
Public streets, law requires helmets- wear the hat.
Private property (“on campus”)- nobody’s business but mine.
The fact it’s April and she still doesn’t know where the library is could be a tad disturbing, but her study habits aren’t open for discussion.
Your choice. Americans seem obsessed with their choices. The only thing is that your choice affects others who have no part in your choice making. Your parents who’ll be wiping your brain damaged arse, your friends who’ll lose a friend (vegetables lose all their friends no matter how loyal they were), your employer who’ll need to replace you and the taxpayers who will foot at least part of the massive bill. Every preventable head injury convinces ignorant legislators a little more to pass crap laws that really do fuck with the rest of us. So if the idea of a nanny state annoys you so much, look at it as the rest of us just looking out for ourselves when we insist you wear a helmet through legislation or social pressure.
I don’t want to come off preachy but…
just do as I fucking tell you, alright!
As others have said, you can be standing still and still have a head injury when some moron knocks you over. Just think about the consequences of you falling from a seated height and striking the gutter with your head whilst otherwise stationary. Trust me on this; urethral catheter = bad. I had one for a week and didn’t get a date the whole time. Think about that for the rest of your life.
So what’s your problem with helmets? Make your hair look… ooky? Too hot? Not likely in Michigan. You know, all helmets offer the same level of safety but you get greater comfort and ultra-high cool factor from the pricier models. So no need to look like a dork if that’s what your worried about. Just spend a little and save yourself and everybody else a lot.
I don’t think that’s unusual. Many universities have a few central libraries and numerous specialized ones. Even in my senior year I don’t think I could have listed all the libraries at my university, let alone find my way to them all.
I was briefly in a bike club for the purpose of learning how to trail-ride on a mountain bike. You couldn’t go on a ride without a helmet. I should think their road ride rules were identical.
I put on my safety belt every time I get in the car. I wear a helmet every time I get on the bike.
This was the medical school library I was going to, way in the boonies on south campus. I HAVE been to the main library more times than I care to recount this semester. 
No, we don’t have a law here that requires helmets, and I don’t know a single student that wears one. We are mainly a “pedestrian” campus, in that we have practically no parking spots and tons of people riding bikes or walking. There’s really no tricks to riding a bike here: look one way, then the other - no cars? Go ahead and cross. And I’m absolutely paranoid now about watching traffic, because of when I got knocked off my bike last semester and banged up my knee for a few days. Guess what? I wasn’t paying attention that time, that’s why I got hit. So I’m extra careful now.
Anyway, I can make my own decisions about things like that. And I REALLY resent anyone claiming I won’t wear one because it “musses up my hair”. Would you have said that if my username was tsar instead of tsarina? Jerks.
If you get hit by a car while walking, a helmet will protect you. If you fall down a flight of stairs a helmet will protect you. But how many people wear a helmet 24-7? I’ve never met anybody who did. Probably because the discomfort of wearing the helmet isn’t worth it. If you feel safe enough without it then what the hell is it of anybody else’s business.
Moderator’s Notes: Let’s keep it calm, cool and civil, folks. This thread is on the verge of being thrown in the pit.
Without a safety helmet.
And if I eat fried eggs slathered in butter with bacon and a side of hash browns and a bagel piled with cream cheese for breakfast every day, I’ll die of a heart attack in five years. My wife won’t be able to live on my survivor benefits and will end up in a public nursing home living off your tax dollars.
So let’s put a ban on unhealthy food.
That said, I agree that wearing a helmet while riding a bike is a good idea (I don’t happen to ride a bicycle myself). I also think that stopping for stop signs is a good idea, but I think I’ve seen maybe five bicycle riders do that in the last five years. But that’s another rant.
Hell yes! I truly would suspect it as a reason for anybody not wearing a helmet regardless of sex or nobility. The fact is, helmet hair could only be desirable to an acolyte of some eighties metal group. And it seems at least as valid a reason as any you have given for not wearing one, so why not? My insinuation about your vanity wasn’t some sexist jibe. In fact, a certain level of vanity is necessary or else we’d all smell like Frenchmen and speak like Australians.
I meant no hard feeling and am sorry if I caused any. I’m just tired of the increasing number of absurd laws against cyclists resulting from the accidents had by children and largely inexperienced adult riders. Lance Armstrong doesn’t need a helmet because he’s that good. The rest of us tend to fall over occasionally.
Tsarina - Your argument that you don’t need a helmet because it’s a pedestrian only area don’t wash. You don’t have to be hit by a car or come off your bike at any great speed to sustain life threatening head injuries.
I once hit a large rock while riding at low speed, the bike stoppped dead while I went up and over the handlebars. All I remember was that I came down on my feet none the worse for wear. I wasn’t wearing a helmet at the time.
A bystander said it was the most amazing thing they had seen as I had gone over the handlebars and did a perfect tuck-somersalt and landed with olympic perfection. I did the same thing on another occasion when I got thrown from a horse. In either case I don’t know how I managed to land without cracking open my skull except that I was heavily involved in gymnastics at the time and that my reflexes saved me .
If you think you can do this keep riding without a lid… if not… protect yourself. I won’t ride my bike without a helmet at any speed for any reason, I work with people who are quadrapalegics because they had low speed bicycle accidents. Imagine having to live the rest of your life in a wheelchair because you refused to wear a helmet .
Yes, and you can get seriously injured while riding a bicycle. Do you have any idea how fast those things can go? Or how vulnerable they can make you, if a car or pedestrian knocks you over?
Well, there was a time when people weren’t convinced they need seat belts either. In fact, to this day, my mother refuses to wear one because “it’s not comfortable.”
Oh and ** Tsarina** I bet you weren’t wearing your elbow pads, shin guards and back protector neither. Shame on you and did your ride have reflectors and has it been tuned recently? Do you walk it on sidewalks and obey all traffic signals? Were you riding it in a pedestrian zone (horrors) Do you have a permit for that basket? and why arent you wearing bike shoes young lady?
I cannot believe a stranger would admonish you over a bike helmet! The putz!
My first thought on reading the OP was “hey, this guy knows some one who might be a lot better off if they had worn a bike helmet”. I have the same response to people smoking, although I’ve learned to keep it to myself.
My second thought was that in my country you get a $40 fine for not wearing a helmet. You look like a dork if you are not wearing one.
Also there are a lot of sporty and fashionable helmets out there if you are worried about the dork factor. Why not wear one? You look even mere like a dork brain damaged.
Heck, I wear MY helmet when I’m WALKING.
As a matter of fact, I put my helmet on as soon as I get out of bed in the morning, and I’m considering wearing it TO bed, just in case I fall out on the floor if I have a nightmare or something. You can’t be too fucking careful.
This is my helmet:
Well, where I live it’s illegal to do almost anything that is legal elsewhere. Talk about the Safety Nazi’s, they’re alive and well in California.
The OP should tell them to STFU. :mad:
I’m a motorcycle rider in Maine. I ride throughout the year, January or July, rain or shine, in heavy traffic or none. I wear a helmet. MY choice. I live in fear of the day some do-gooder decides I nead a seatbelt on the bike (I have heard people ask why we don’t have them. Knuckleheads… Imagine being tied to a 700 pound machine doing 80 feet per second when you dump it. Yuck…) I also live in fear of the day insurance companies (or government under thier influence) deciding that motorcycle riding is too dangerous and should therefore be illegal to prevent costs to society. That is the ultimate in being fed a crap sandwich by someone who has no business there whatever.
Tsarina, I’d like you to wear a helmet. I’d hate to see your brain on the pavement. But it’s your call, and I will be happy to let you make it. And if I see you, I’ll KEEP IT TO MYSELF.
I am reluctant to climb back in here, because I fear the moderators with every fiber of my being, but I wanted to (re)address a couple of points.
I want to reiterate that I took the OP to be a complaint about the rudeness of a complete stranger. The bike helmet element just seemed to be background. tsarina was subjected to a stranger’s lecture on morality, concerning an item intended to serve a practical function. Not wearing a verdamt bicycle helmet shouldn’t be cause to be subjected to self-righteous condemnation from random loungers. I think this position is strengthed a bit by the OP’s statement regarding a lack of law or policy addressing the issue. (Dang, that was wordy.)
I would also like to point out that too many people seem to consider safety equipment to be some sort of panacea (i.e. “I’m perfectly safe from everything because I’m wearing this helmet/body armor/main battle tank, etc.”). Helmets, knee- and elbow-pads, ankle- and wrist-braces and the like are great inventions, but no one even thought about riding a bike over a cliff before they came along.
If a car hits you hard enough to kill you when you’re not wearing a helmet, you would be just as dead with one. A helmet won’t do squat to prevent internal bleeding or broken bones, including the neck. It’s just a thin plastic shell over Styrofoam.
Actually, Uncle Beer, people do seem to be keeping this fairly civil, but maybe it’s time to send it to GD?
For me, its a matter of degree. Why not wear a helmet while walking around campus? You could easily trip going down cement stairs. Someone could open a big heavy steel door in front of you. You could be hit by pieces of the Mir…
You have to decide what a reasonable cut-off point is, and for me its using an internal combustion engine.
I wouldn’t even consider riding a motorcycle without a helmet.
But a helmet for a bicycle is being too safe and, well, too gay.