I think the Helmet Debate has become high enough profile to deserve its own category – and colon – beyond items in Annals. So here we go:
A city-wide bicycle-hire scheme, similar to that introduced in Melbourne and Brisbane, will be considered as part of the City of Perth’s long-awaited draft cycle plan.
The council will fund a feasibility study into a bike-hire scheme with a view to having it up and running as soon as 2015.
Perth Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi admitted that similar schemes in the Eastern States had been held back by compulsory helmet legislation and said she supported a relaxing of the law in WA.
“People should have a choice – it should be up to them whether or not they want to wear a helmet,” she said.
“From a hiring perspective, I think we could perhaps have people sign a disclaimer to say they have made this choice not to wear a helmet and take responsibility for it.
“While I think people who are riding fast through traffic on major roads should probably wear a helmet, people who are just enjoying a leisurely bike ride should be able to ride with the wind in their hair if they choose.
“What the Melbourne and Brisbane examples show is that helmets can be a deterrent.
“For hygiene reasons companies there had to provide a hairnet to wear under the helmet as well as the helmet itself and that just becomes cumbersome.”
If Vancouver’s mayor and councillors had the cajones of Ms Scaffidi, here’s how the City Hall motion might look: http://goo.gl/3o4Xx
—
Amendment to the Bicycle Safety Helmet Regulation
MOVER: Mayor Gregor Robertson
SECONDER: Councillor
WHEREAS
1. Minister of Justice and Attorney General for British Columbia, Shirley Bond MLA, has jurisdiction over the Motor Vehicle Act;
2. Section 184 of the Motor Vehicle Act makes it illegal to ride a bicycle without wearing a helmet;
3. Adult helmet laws have led to the failure of Public Bike Systems in Australia;
4. Vancouver wishes to implement a Public Bike System;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED
THAT the Mayor, on behalf of the City, write to Minister Bond to request that all users of the Vancouver Public Bike System be exempt from the requirement under section 184 of the Motor Vehicle Act to wear a bicycle safety helmet.
Remember that hygiene is not the major issue with helmet sharing: hairnets and washing can handle that.
The problem is that it’s safety theatre. Accident reporting cannot be guaranteed, and interior foam cracks can be invisible to inspection. Manufacturers recommend buying a new helmet if you so much as drop your helmet from waist-height. Never wear a helmet for which you do not know the history.
If the province and city allows helmet-sharing, it will show how little they care about the safety of their citizens, and how much about theatre and charade.
Finally, thank you Gordon for highlighting this issue with its own category.
Until Minister Bond sees fit to endow poor unbelievers with matching legal privileges, the Church of Sit Up Cycling of course welcomes into the flock all Vancouverites for whom wearing whatever hat they please is an “essential religious practice”.
Nice to see sanity at least given a chance to prevail… The Australians led the way on plastic money and scrapping the penny, so maybe they can lead us here as well.
I wanted to raise another point about the helmet issue and bike share programs. The attention being dedicated to helmets and a bike share program in Vancouver is completely diverting attention from something that has been a huge part of such programs elsewhere: miles of separated bike lanes. While we have a few km of such lanes, it is nothing compared to what has been done in Montreal, Paris and elsewhere. This kind of investment need not be as expensive/km as our separated lanes, but having a connected system that makes riders of all demographics feel comfortable is key. And this has been completely left out of the discussion here because of the forced focus on helmets. This is the real tragedy of our law.