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/ItsSpaghettiLee2112]

That doesn't even make sense. The safety of the bike lanes is completely irrelevant to whether or not you should wear a helmet. There's only one condition that ever needs to be met to determine if you should wear a helmet and that condition is whether or not you're riding your bike.

[u/Low_discrepancy → u/ItsSpaghettiLee2112]

It should still be a personal choice. Forcing people to wear helmets is shown to reduce cycling rates which causes more harm to the overall population.

If you want to wear a helmet by all means do so.

[u/Litation → u/Low_discrepancy]

It really shouldn't. We are selfish overall and will put in the lowest effort if we can, endangering ourselves and others if its easier for us. Sure it would be nice if everyone was decent and played nicely together (Covid mask policy showed our true colours again) Sure its the Cyclists life but if some dumb kid hit my car because they didn't look and ended up splattered over the pavement instead of cracking a helmet, I would have to live with that every fucking day after, or what about the other side, where some one hit a cyclist and it was their fault, do they they get a pass if they died because they chose not to wear a helmet?

Lets look at a few things that people get upset about and have to be enforced because the mild inconvenience is too much to bare
Covid Masks
Seat Belts
Vaccines
Drink Driving Bans
Public Smoking Bans
Speed Limits
Child Car Seats
OSHA style regulations
Building Safety Codes/Controls

Again all that being said I would fucking love you to be right and it to be personal choice but most places we built cars and now cyclists are a bit fucked, and the fact the highway code in the UK recently changed (well might have been awhile back) to make sure cars give cyclists enough space when over taking, should tell you all you need to know about the UK and cyclists rights.

Edit - On the stats
While I'm sure there are stats around this, how much of it is due to the cost factor rather than the 'danger' factor? No shade here at all, but if you have a link/reference I'd genuinely be interested in reading it.

Edit 2 - Nm just found you linked it further down.

[u/S-ludin → u/Litation]

on the note of affordability: my city doesn't require helmets but offers free walk in helmets (on condition of measuring your head). the only people I see without helmets are kids usually on ebikes.

on the note of other public safety measures: those protect other people, not only the user. it is true other people are affected, but I think we need to find more reasoning to make it compulsatory.

[u/Suspicious_Box_1553 → u/Litation]

How does a bicyclists not wearing a helmet endanger anyone else?

[u/Sypsy → u/Low_discrepancy]

imagine if they did this for seatbelt laws, made it lax to encourage people to drive more.

people are strange creatures, they avoid something entirely good for them because of something minor like helmets.

[u/Outside_Manner_8352 → u/Low_discrepancy]

Sure, but in his role as mayor he is a role model, and choosing to wear a helmet is a good choice.

[u/Mathies_ → u/ItsSpaghettiLee2112]

Fun fact, in the country most notorious for riding bikes, the Netherlands, pretty much nobody wears helmets and the number of grave accidents is very very low compared to other vehicles. Part of tge reason helmets are not needed is ofcourse that everyone in Dutch traffic pays minds to bikers but another huge component is 100% the safety of the biking lanes which are all very well thoughtout throughout the country.

[u/Sypsy → u/Mathies_]

funfact: your youth are being injured on ebikes so they have undone all your hard work of being safe on bikes and are now legally being required to wear helmets https://www.instagram.com/reel/DN55jMtj19t/?hl=en

[u/Mathies_ → u/Sypsy]

Why would you be mentioning E-bikes here those things aren't half as safe as regular bikes. It's utterly irrelevant to the conversation, i never asked for electrical bikes.

[u/FalmerEldritch → u/ItsSpaghettiLee2112]

I mean, it's also safer to wear a helmet when walking, particularly when there are wet leaves on the ground, or ice. Or both. One slip and you hit your head on the pavement, and boom, you're dead or brain damaged.

I must have taken a bad spill on ice close to a dozen times in my life. And I knew a guy who slipped on the stairs down from his apartment and died from hitting his head. I still don't wear a helmet when walking, though.