Always wear a bike helmet

Andy Thornley

When I tell people that I choose not to wear a helmet when I ride a bicycle in San Francisco (because it gives people the wrong impression about how safe it is to ride a bike in San Francisco), they sometimes ask:

So are you saying that wearing a helmet will make me less safe when I'm riding my bike? That's crazy.

Of course not. There's an obvious particular benefit to an individual bike rider wearing a safety helmet, in cases where the circumstances of a crash put that individual's (properly-fitted) helmet between his head and the pavement / truck fender / lightpost / trolly car, at the right speed and angle. Of course that person will be fortunate to be wearing a helmet, and it will probably lessen any injury to some extent.

But statistically you can live several lifetimes without coming to that moment, and you can make your very good odds even better by the way you ride your bike, and no matter what's on your head, helmet / tiara / yarmulke / toupee, riding a bike is so much more health-positive than not riding a bike, over those lifetimes. Set a good example and ride a bike.

At which point they often ask:

So are you saying that I don't have to wear a helmet when I ride a bike in San Francisco?

It's your choice (bike riders younger than 18 must wear a helmet under California law). But be sure to wear a helmet if you ever do any of these things:

• riding in the dark without lights
• riding in the dark in dark clothing without lights
• riding on the sidewalk
• riding the wrong way, against traffic
• running red lights and cutting people off*
• running stop signs and cutting people off*
• weaving unpredictably in traffic
• turning left without signalling and yielding to oncoming traffic
• turning right without signalling and checking for oncoming traffic
• stopping short without checking
• riding with earbuds
• riding with headphones
• riding with acoustic earmuffs
• riding with a basket of venomous snakes

Of course, you should almost never do any of these things. And that's the point. Live a longer, happier, healthier life and ride a bike, bareheaded or not.

* don't be a right-of-way thief, it's rude and you might break your neck or worse (and maybe get a ticket too)

[also see Some notes on helmets and bicycling and public health]

[also see Some notes on mandatory bike helmet laws]

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