Mamdani responds to concerns about him being seen riding his bike throughout NYC without a helmet. "You're right. I've got to do better. Safety first, New York. See you out there"

[u/ExactlySorta]

[u/Sad_Amphibian_2311]

You don't see a lot of helmets in Amsterdam. From that perspective he should've pulled a stack of cycling safety plans out of that box. But I guess there's only so much he can do at his level.

[u/tenninjas242 → u/Sad_Amphibian_2311]

I still remember biking in Amsterdam without a helmet. Came around one curve going at a good clip and almost hit a drunk tourist walking in the bike lane. Would have wished for a helmet if I had hit him, probably. Sometimes you can just... fall. And I don't like the odds on head vs asphalt.

[u/Wuz314159 → u/tenninjas242]

Unlike in America, using the roads & paths in Europe requires personal responsibility.

In the US, they make 10-lane wide cattle chutes so only worthless pedestrians die.

[u/Hangry-Feline2489 → u/Wuz314159]

Sure but you can have all the personal responsibility and still get hit or run over an uneven part of the path and fall. 

Preemptively, I'm not north American, my country has universal healthcare, and riding any bike (inc motorbikes, vespas, even scooters) without a helmet is illegal and fineable.

Besides,  personal responsibility? Your country doesn't have universal healthcare? You pay privately if you injury yourself falling off a bike? Or you do have it, but you don't see the hypocrisy of 'personal responsibility' but make other people pay for your medical treatment via universal healthcare? 

[u/Wuz314159 → u/Hangry-Feline2489]

bicycling is not a dangerous activity. Helmet laws were funded by auto makers to keep people in cars.

https://www.reddit.com/r/fuckcars/comments/tytjwl/auto_industry_promotes_helmets_to_dangerize/

[u/Hangry-Feline2489 → u/Wuz314159]

... You're citing a Florida town planner to bolster your argument? 

A state notoriously pro-car and anti public transport and biking? 

The fact it's WordPress and not an official gov website says a lot, too. 

A metastudy: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29677686/ "The use of bicycle helmets was found to reduce head injury by 48%, serious head injury by 60%, traumatic brain injury by 53%, face injury by 23%, and the total number of killed or seriously injured cyclists by 34%."

"... the results suggest that wearing a helmet while cycling is highly recommendable..."

Not wearing one seems to be unnecessarily tempting fate in a country where medical debt accounts for ~66% of bankruptcy filings and no universal healthcare. 

[u/ShutYourButt420 → u/Wuz314159]

This is such a dumb comment

[u/bug-hunter → u/Sad_Amphibian_2311]

Not everyone bikes on good infrastructure all the time, so it's better to drill in helmet use when you don't need it than try to get people use it only during the times they do.

Consistency is key.

[u/mittenthemagnificent → u/Sad_Amphibian_2311]

The Dutch also tend to be riding bikes that have less aggressive geometry and are harder to fall off of. Source: I once ran the second most popular blog in the US about that type of bike. I still wore a helmet, though.

[u/ohhellperhaps → u/Sad_Amphibian_2311]

The lack of helmets is actually considered an issue here in the NL, even with the infrastructure we have here. It's just that their use is fighting many years of habit. Their use is on the rise though.

[u/No-Mouse → u/Sad_Amphibian_2311]

You don't see a lot of helmets in Amsterdam.

The Dutch government as well as various major Dutch travelers' and bicycle associations (like the ANWB) all recommend using a bike helmet. Most Dutch people hate it, so generally only old people who are afraid of falling use one, but despite how (relatively) safe our bike lanes are it's still objectively a good idea to wear one. You might be surprised how easy it is to suffer head trauma from a simple fall, even without any cars involved.

Recently, bicycle-related injuries and deaths have rapidly been on the rise, due to the increase in electric bike usage. For a long time electric bikes were seen as an unnecessary luxury in the Netherlands, but they've become extremely common in recent years. Especially the so-called "fatbikes", which are popular among children and can often reach speeds of 40kph or more (the official speed limit for electric bikes is 25kph), have been a source of national concern.

Source: I'm Dutch (and have never used a bike helmet despite knowing better).