Cambridge - record low for helmet usage

apreading

Went to Cambs for the weekend and on Sunday went into the city centre - was amazed by the number of bikes around - there must have been 3 or 4 chained up outside the front of every house, and you couldnt see a railing or wall of a building without there being a bike in front of it (3 or 4 deep in many places).

Equally amazing was the complete lack of helmet use. I must have seen several hundred cyclists and all day only saw 2 wearing helmets that I noticed. I dont want to start a debate about whether or not they should be compulsory (but this thread will probably do just that) but I was surprised by the total lack of them whatsoever - I see people all the time not using them but never a complete population, almost bar none.

Amazing place - very interesting (not just for cyclists, but for all sorts of reasons).

meanredspider

I grew up in Cambridge & cycled there most of my life (only left 6 years ago). I ran a company of 15 people in the centre and everybody (bar none) cycled in. Everybody wore a lid too.

2 elements that probably colour your observations:
- Foreigners - loads of language students and visitors on fleets of hired bikes
- Students - moving between lectures (though possibly not on Sunday but usually so)

Neither wear lids.

Plus most of the centre of Cambridge is traffic-free these days. I think you'd see something different out of the centre at rush-hour

EKE_38BPM

The more cyclists there are, the safer it is for the cyclists, so the less need for a lid.
Australia made wearing lids compulsory, the number of cyclists went down (some people really don't want to mess their hair up) and the number of collisions went up (per distance cycled).

Lots of collisions (I would guess most) between motor vehicles and cyclists happen because of bad observation by motorists. They don't expect to see cyclists so the don't really look for cyclists.
In a place where motorists know there are lots of cyclists around (e.g. Cambridge, Copenhagen or Amsterdam), they observe a bit more because they expect cyclists to be around and actively look for them. As they are looking for cyclists they are more likely to see cyclists and then not collide with a cyclist.

When it comes to cycling, there really is safety in numbers. This is the main reason I'm totally against making helmet wearing compulsory, even though I nearly always wear one.

meanredspider

EKE_38BPM wrote:

The more cyclists there are, the safer it is for the cyclists, so the less need for a lid.

Hmm - I don't think that's particularly true as far as Cambridge is concerned - plenty of bike accidents and people killed in the time I lived there. As i said, centre of Cambridge is car-free - leads to peds stepping off pavements right in front of bikes - but obviously less car/bike crashes so safer in that respect. But both students & vistors also generally inexperienced on bikes leads to plenty of issues too.

The two accidents I had were just me and a patch of diesel.

wgwarburton

meanredspider wrote:

....The two accidents I had were just me and a patch of diesel.

Surely you should have known it was there when you came back to it the second time round?

Cheers,
W.

PS I'm starting to see why you're so keen on helmets :-)

PPS This is a joke... it may not be a very good joke, in fact, as jokes go it may well be a limp, lifeless sort of joke, washed up by a receding tide and condemned to die a sad, lonely death, abandoned by its fellows... nevertheless it remains a joke and should be treated as such...

meanredspider

WGWarburton wrote:

meanredspider wrote:

....The two accidents I had were just me and a patch of diesel.

Surely you should have known it was there when you came back to it the second time round?

Cheers,
W.

PS I'm starting to see why you're so keen on helmets :-)

I'm ashamed to say that they were on the same patch of diesel - just one year apart in time!

And, yes, as I skated across the road, my lid kept my nose from being grated off by the tarmac!

t4tomo

not surprised by the OP observation. WHilst there is a Uni in the town, its pretty second rate so would expect lots of sub optimal decision making on whether to wear a helmet. Natural selection in action.

forgot the

CyclingBantam

t4tomo wrote:

not surprised by the OP observation. WHilst there is a Uni in the town, its pretty second rate so would expect lots of sub optimal decision making on whether to wear a helmet. Natural selection in action.

Oh the irony...

meanredspider

t4tomo wrote:

not surprised by the OP observation. WHilst there is a Uni in the town, its pretty second rate so would expect lots of sub optimal decision making on whether to wear a helmet. Natural selection in action.

Err - there is

http://www.anglia.ac.uk/ruskin/en/home.html

Used to be called CCAT (Cambridge College of Arts and Technologies)

Daz555

apreading wrote:

Went to Cambs for the weekend and on Sunday went into the city centre - was amazed by the number of bikes around - there must have been 3 or 4 chained up outside the front of every house, and you couldnt see a railing or wall of a building without there being a bike in front of it (3 or 4 deep in many places).

Equally amazing was the complete lack of helmet use. I must have seen several hundred cyclists and all day only saw 2 wearing helmets that I noticed. I dont want to start a debate about whether or not they should be compulsory (but this thread will probably do just that) but I was surprised by the total lack of them whatsoever - I see people all the time not using them but never a complete population, almost bar none.

Amazing place - very interesting (not just for cyclists, but for all sorts of reasons).

Been to Holland? Dripping in bikes and not a helmet to be seen.

meanredspider

Daz555 wrote:

Been to Holland? Dripping in bikes and not a helmet to be seen.

Yup - but they're all so doped up, they never get above walking speed

apreading

When I went to Amsterdam 20 years ago we used some hire bikes - and they had no brakes on them! Terrifying....

fnegroni

Oxford is pretty biked up too.

I can even say that at some busy junctions, with lights, most cyclists and pedestrians would ignore the lights and just proceed with caution and be safe. Made traffic smoother for both, IMHO.

Hardly any helmet either.

Although, I must say, for my 4yo son, who will cycle the London Bikeathon Kidz this year, I just purchased a Bell Fraction (a kids helmets shaped after a pro's skateboard helmet) *because* he will be mixing it with many kids whose cycling abilities might be lacking...

That_Bloke_Just_Off_The_A

Working at Halfords in Cambridge one of the biggest questions we get from people looking at the rack of helmets is "Are helmets required under law like Motorcycles" and other varients. As soon as you say no then people automatically assume that it is not worth their while purchasing a device which could save their life. Plus a lot of Halfords customer base assume that £300 is a lot to spend on a bicycle and mock the idea of spending £50 on a kryptonite D lock or £40 on a Bell Helmet because they assume that Riding a Bike is completly different than riding a motorcycle, because they are so used to driving a car that they don't really catch onto the fact that as soon as they ride a bike they become another vulnerable road user.

wgwarburton

That_Bloke_Just_Off_The_A wrote:

Working at Halfords in Cambridge one of the biggest questions we get from people looking at the rack of helmets is "Are helmets required under law like Motorcycles" and other varients. As soon as you say no then people automatically assume that it is not worth their while purchasing a device which could save their life. Plus a lot of Halfords customer base assume that £300 is a lot to spend on a bicycle and mock the idea of spending £50 on a kryptonite D lock or £40 on a Bell Helmet because they assume that Riding a Bike is completly different than riding a motorcycle, because they are so used to driving a car that they don't really catch onto the fact that as soon as they ride a bike they become another vulnerable road user.

They are right, though, arn't they? I mean, £300 is a fair chunk of cash, £50 is a lot to spend on a lock for a £300 bike and riding a bicycle is completely different from riding a motorcycle... No-one is advising full-face motorcycle helmets and leathers/cordura for cyclists AFAIK...

Lets face it, Halfords arn't selling cycle helmets as any sort of public spirited gesture, it's just another accessory that they are offering in the hope that their customers will like the idea and buy them.
I notice they don't sell motorcycle helmets... Why's that then?

Cheers,
W.

fnegroni

WGWarburton wrote:

No-one is advising full-face motorcycle helmets and leathers/cordura for cyclists AFAIK...

Indeed, no one would even dream of wearing a helmet when jogging with a club in the evening. Yet I see many more irresponsible joggers on the road on my winter night commutes that cyclists...

meanredspider

WGWarburton wrote:

They are right, though, arn't they? I mean, £300 is a fair chunk of cash, £50 is a lot to spend on a lock for a £300 bike

Not in Cambridge it's not. Turn your back for 3 seconds and your bike will be gone. Even 30 years ago my brother (as a small kid) used to collect the locks from bikes that had been nicked at the railway station. I'd never dream of spending less than £50 for a lock in Cambridge - and a cable to keep both of your wheels. I lost the front wheel of my Kona Cinder Cone within a week. Pinched from a very public bike rack right under a police camera. There's a dept in the police station just for stolen bikes - most of which they reckon end up on Holland by the van load. There was a plan to turn over a whole level of Park St multistorey car park to secure bike parking. Give that parking there would cost you £25 for more than 5 hours (10 years ago), the council were giving up a huge chunk of cash to this problem

WGWarburton wrote:

I notice they don't sell motorcycle helmets... Why's that then?

They don't sell motorbikes either.... :? Or horse-riding helmets, WW1 helmets, motorsports helmets. Why would they?

fnegroni

meanredspider wrote:

WGWarburton wrote:

I notice they don't sell motorcycle helmets... Why's that then?

They don't sell motorbikes either.... :? Or horse-riding helmets, WW1 helmets, motorsports helmets. Why would they?

I think you missed his point...

As for locks: it has been shown that it is not so much the lock, but how you lock the bike. And as for £50: that *is* excessive for a single lock, considering a Secure Silver or Gold rated lock can be had for less then £25.

meanredspider

fnegroni wrote:

I think you missed his point...
.

Not for the first time.... :roll:

fnegroni wrote:

As for locks: it has been shown that it is not so much the lock, but how you lock the bike. And as for £50: that *is* excessive for a single lock, considering a Secure Silver or Gold rated lock can be had for less then £25.

30 years in Cambridge, I think there's teaching grandmother to suck eggs. As for the locks, as well as having plenty of experience of which locks work and which don't, my brother used to be in the whole security marking/locks business - £50 isn't too much, believe me. But you continue to feel happy with your £25 lock.