Freestyle Cyclists

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Father cries in the dirt at his son’s grave, insulted that the driver who killed him will walk free Jack Davey, 11, was in the school playground with his friends when Shaymaa Oun Ghazi Zuhaira crashed her car through the fence and killed him.

The maximum fine this person will receive for driving through a steel fence, killing an innocent child, and severely injuring several more, is less than 10 fines for not wearing a bicycle helmet.

www.theage.com.au/national/vic...

YouTube video by Wheel Reinventor Australia’s bike helmet laws are the stupidest in the world

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Wouldn't a bike lane like this have prevented it?

Unsafe roads and hard helmet laws are sides of the same coin. Roads are death traps because our approach to safety focuses on criminalizing riders for wearing insufficient safety equipment rather than building safe infrastructure.

? Heaps of people bike in Melbourne and live in apartments. And heaps more would ride if there was more of a focus on better infrastructure rather than criminalizing riders for not wearing enough safety gear.

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Jeanette Sadik-Khan, who set up NYC's highly successful bike share scheme and made NYC's roads a lot safer for bikes, blames mandatory helmet laws for the failure of Melbourne's bike share.

The result is less bikes -> more cars -> more cars hitting bikes -> more cars killing/injuring bike riders.

- Safer infrastructure would have prevented that crash entirely.

- By discouraging cycling, mandatory helmet laws create more crashes like this, by putting more cars on the road.

- You can still wear a helmet if you want to if they aren't legally mandatory

Indeed, the main risk to bike riders is from cars and trucks, rather than individual falls.

So why do you think the government pursues helmet laws so vigorously (with enforcement over 5x harsher than anywhere else in the world) while mostly neglecting safe bike infrastructure?

Who said anything about fancy e-bikes? Lots of kids, particularly low income kids, ride around on cheap or even donated bikes.

The Netherlands has much higher bike usage and much lower helmet compliance, but much lower per capita road deaths.

Why do you suppose that is?

It's sad to see an otherwise progressive person like Greg Jericho arguing for laws which are enforced overwhelmingly against disadvantaged people and non-whites, often young indigenous kids or recent immigrants who are completely unaware of Australia's uniquely harsh mandatory helmet laws.

A helmet is certainly a good idea if riding at dangerous speed - or when in a dangerous vehicle like a car.

Helmet law is overwhelmingly enforced racistly, against non-white people in disadvantaged neighbourhoods - often against recent immigrants who are likely to be completely unaware of mandatory helmet laws.

Extremely unjust.

So can you confirm you always wear a helmet when in a car, where far more head injuries occur?

And when in the home, where most head injuries occur of all through falls?

Do you wear a helmet when in a car, where more head injuries occur?

Does your car rarely get above about 15km/h?

What about when you ride in a car?

Many more people suffer and die from head injuries while in cars than on bikes. Do you wear a helmet when in a car?

Australia is the only country in the entire world with such harsh helmet laws (>$200 in VIC, >$300 in NSW, next closest is NZ with $60).

Why do you think that is?

Many more people suffer and die from head injuries while in cars than on bikes. Do you wear a helmet when in a car?

You know you can wear a helmet even if they aren't compulsory, right?

Australia is the only country in the world with such harsh helmet laws (>$300 fine in NSW, harshest in any other country is New Zealand with ~$60). Why do you think that is?

Instead of banning social media, if the government wants teens to get off social media and get outside, why not start by abolishing laws that criminalize teens on bikes such as mandatory helmet laws?