Raise the Hammer

Sigh...Unfortunately I know you're being serious.

In answer to your question. Yes. I would rather children have a reversible (obesity), managable (diabetes) condition that they can live with until their old age than an acute case of something severe like death. What I'm hearing from you is that you would rather see kids die from a TBI than going out on a bike less? I can't believe that you're advocating setting children up for severe injuries and possibly death; that's pretty savage.

Why do kids avoid wearing helmets? Because it wasn't modelled for them. Neither I, nor my children go in their bikes without helmets, not because it's the law, but because we've seen first hand what a brain injury looks like, and it would be awfully cool to avoid that ourselves.

Also, anecdotal evidence, I very rarely see kids in my neighbourhood riding without helmets, and most are out daily. Managing a helmet consists of hanging it up on your handlebars when you're done riding for the day. Nothing more, nothing less.

The fact of the matter is that we are not Dutch. I know their mode share is mich higher than here, and their dedicated cycling infrastructure is far and away better than what we have here. Respecting that, why would we try to implement a solution that would endanger the portion of the population which is forced to ride their bike on the road? There are lots of hard surfaces out there that you don't have control over that include, but are not limited to: asphalt, concrete, gravel, cars etc. Maybe there will be a time in the future where we don't need helmets, but that time is not now.

If you could save one life by wearing a helmet, why wouldn't you? Why would you set yourself up for failure?

Edit: to paraphrase someone on this site: When the behaviour kills children, I prefer to use a more emotive tone.

Comment edited by LifelongHamiltonian on 2017-09-15 19:38:39