Discussion
Ok you can fucking bet I am replying to this!
Mandatory cycle helmet laws just mean less cycling and an overall decline in health for the population.
This idea is by someone who is an idiot or hates cyclists.
Also what next, shall we mandate wearing walking helmets for people walking and running in the winter because statistically I think they are far more likely to be falling and hurting themselves.
P.S. I included a translation to English in the Alt Text
@ruari When I got into an accident in a roundabout here, I am damned glad I wore my helmet. Car pulled out in front of me, I slammed on the anchors and cycled into the driver's door ... granted it wasn't at high speed but enough to throw me off and if I hadn't had my helmet on, I might not still be here.
We're vulnerable road users and drivers seem to hate all cyclists and drive aggressively around them. It's one of the reasons I stopped cycling on the road. It's just too dangerous here.
Also, drivers who hit and sometimes kill cyclists aren't properly prosecuted here in the U.K.
@pertho I am not against you or anyone else wearing a helmet. As stated in the thread a couple of times. I sometimes wear them myself.
I am however against mandatory helmet laws for cyclists.
RE: https://snabelen.no/@sandberg/117246620449241394
@pertho I think @sandberg perhaps summed up my thoughts on this more eloquently than I could myself.
@pertho Also (and to be fair you couldn't have known this) but I am from the UK and commuted in London for more than a decade and that was before most of the recent imroprovements there.
I know what the UK is like for cyclists and I do feel lucky to live in Oslo but I also do not want to see us go backwards here.
@ruari Oh wow. You must have absolute nerves of steel! I don't think I could have dealt with cycling in the Big Smoke!
@ruari And the additional established matter that drivers give less space to cyclists wearing helmets.
@ruari
Glas to See, that this question can burn the Internet not only in Germany. At least you have better infrastructure for cycling. Here it feels like 'mandatory helmet' discussions are started to avoid 'safe infrastructure' discussions or discussions about how to make car drivers follow the rules to protect weaker people.
I am with you: Helmet: Yes. For me and all those I am responsible for. But mandatory: NO!
(And in summer protection against heat is kore inportant to me, than a helmet...
@ruari Do you have a link to share?
@ruari Helmets make a lot of sense on an individual level, but is stupid on a policy level. I use a helmet when it's easy to do so, but I don't think twice before biking without when I don't have one available.
@sandberg If they want to make shared helmets easily available for people using city bikes I am not against that. Go for it. Indeed it might even help some more nervous people to consider cycling when they would not otherwise.
But mandating use of a helmet is where I draw the line.
In case anyone wondered I cycle my penny farthing and tallbikes with a helmet. I also use a helmet for offroad unicycling. In the winter I sometimes wear a helmet when unicycling but as much as anything, that is to give me somehwhere to mount lights in the dark winter evenings.
Day to day commuting via uncycle in non winter months I basically never wear a helmet.
Also, if a helmet law was passed I would not wear one on principle and they can fine me or fuck off.
The problem here is the risk profile of cycling in a city for every day travel is nowhere near the risk profile of the activities cycling is typically being compared with.
And hence once you apply the same logic consistently, you end up with stupid conclusions like mandatory helmets for walking in the winter, running, or even showering because statistically these cause more head injuries than cycling.
Mandatory cycle helmet laws are good at one thing. Making people cycle less.
...and one thing that makes cyclists safer on the road is more cyclists
@ruari
Agreed. I used to have a moped. 30% faster than cycling, and less exhausting. But it required using a helmet, which made my bicycle easier for anything under 10 km, so I ended up only ever riding it one weekend per year.
@ruari make anyone who drives wear one
@humanhorseshoes I mean, that sounds logical to me!
@ruari Driving has pandered to the selfish and become too survivable for stupid, self centred, no cost bad decisions
I am certainly not against people using helmets if they want to. I aslo think it is a good idea if you cycle in a risky way: high speed, off road or on a fucking penny farthing, etc.
But mandatory cycle helmet laws will cause less cycling and have a net negative effect on the populations health.
In case anyone wondered why I don't bother with a helmet most days when unicycle commuting. Why would I? My average speed is probably about the 15-16km/h mark, when commuting. This is the kind of speed you could probably run at. Perhaps not for long unless you are very fit and/or a regular runner but for a short section most healthy adults could.
If I hit a bump I did not see at worst the uni falls behind me and I just run it off. It is much less dramatic than you might expect.
I am certainly not "hitting the deck". In fact I do not think I have ever hit my head unicycling or come close and I am also counting when I do it in more risky ways (at speed or off road).
I do not believe I am really taking any more risk than most runners. indeed in the winter (when I do sometimes use a helmet) I would argue less risk. I have a studded tyre and often wear studded shoes. Many of the winter runners… not so much.
Some people reading this still seem to believe I am against helmets. I am not. I am against them being compulsory for all cyclists in all situations.
I attach proof that I am not anti-helmet. That is me in the middle of the picture dressed all in black on the yellow penny farthing. Note the helmet.
I live in New Zealand, where helmets on bikes are compulsory.
Until my pathetic country starts making it safer for us on the roads by admitting that safe bike routes are worth the money spent on them, and car drivers lose their 'I own the roads' attitudes, I'll continue to wear mine. I've been knocked off and hit my head too many times not to.
@ruari in my country we have the stupid rule of having have to wear helmets while on your own bicycle or e-scooter, and not having to wear helmets on shared/renting bicycles and e-scooters. Is it checked by the authorities? Probably not, but the rules are different "just because".
I saw a study from the US Department of Transport many (20+) years ago that looked at cycling injury statistics from road cycling across the entire country and found the following correlations:
If you combined the risks of death and paralysis, not wearing a helmet was safer, if you count only the risk of death then wearing a helmet was safer.
I've only had one cycle accident where I hit my head. Most of my injury was in my shoulder and surrounding soft tissue because I put my arm out to break my fall. If I had been wearing a helmet, the radius of my head would have been increased by an inch or so and a lot of the force that was dissipated in my arm muscles and bones would have been on my neck. There's a very high chance that I'd have suffered spinal damage.
[1] This one was interesting. Causation is probably the other way around (people who are doing things where they are likely to get into accidents wear helmets) but there were a couple of other hypotheses that were raised. One was that drivers tend to give less clearance when overtaking people in protective gear of any kind, which increases the likelihood of collision. The other hypothesis that had a little bit of evidence was that, because the helmet changes airflow around your head, it introduces subtle errors into your spatial awareness for things behind you. After walking around with one blocked ear and seeing how much I rely on hearing for positioning objects, I start to somewhat believe the last one may be a contributor.
The finer original statistical point was, IIRC, that of all *fatal* bicycle accidents, some 70% were caused by head trauma. This naturally fingers head protection specifically as a good measure to promote, through encouragement or enforcement. Never mind that tne other 30% fatalities were mostly caused by getting hit by a car, probably in the chest. Blame bullbars and forbid them could be a start of something?
@ruari doesn't matter if you're only biking 15km/h if a car hits you at 50 😭
(Which is obviously why we need safe and separated bike infrastructure)
@leeloo I'd be happy if motorists just saw me at all 😆
(Even wearing my fluoro jacket)
"doesn't matter if you're only biking 15km/h if a car hits you at 50 "
True also if you are walking.
"Which is obviously why we need safe and separated bike infrastructure)"
And it is pretty good here all things considered and improving all the time. How is it where you live?
@ruari I grew up in NZ so wearing a helmet while biking is deeeeeply ingrained.
Bike infra in Sydney isn't great, there are some separated bike lanes, but you'll end up having to merge in and out of traffic at almost every intersection, etc. lots of people I know would like to bike places but don't because of this.
Christchurch is amazing compared to when I lived there (big flat grid system is urban design easy mode, IMO)
@willhbr Also I am all for further improved safe and separated bike infrastructure and then coming back to this discussion and seeing if we need helmets for every day commuting. Since you and I seem to agree that this would have a bigger impact.
@Ember Sure but let's get mandatory helmets on those winter runners first and then we can continue this discussion.
@ruari i have 2 lifetime bonks on a unicycle, and they are both doing muni
@ruari both were pretty mild, but it’s evidence that wearing a helmet for muni is a good idea. on my commute i wear a helmet because the road infrastructure in america is extremely bad
@timmy I do wear helmets when doing muni, not least because I am terrible at muni. I might also wear one if I was in the US for exactly the reasons you state.
But again, I am still anti mandatory helmet laws for cyclists and think they do more harm than good.
@ruari yeah, they don’t make good policy. Like if i’m in chicago and considering renting a city bike I don’t feel i need a helmet to ride on the lakeshore trail or in the curb separated bike lanes
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![A cyclist wearing a helmet, jacket, shorts, and a backpack rides a blue Foodora‑branded rental bike along a sidewalk bordered by green hedges and trees. The image includes a notification-style graphic from Oslo Bysykkel (Oslo city bikes) about a potential new helmet law in Norway, with a button labelled "Start now" (in relation to a survey)
The translated [to English] text reads as follows:
Helmet requirement
Sep 10, 2026
The Norwegian Public Roads Administration is considering introducing a legally mandated helmet requirement for cycling in Norway.
Oslo City Bike will be affected by any change in the law, so we would like to ask you some questions regarding your use of the service.
The original text in Norwegian
Hjelmpåbud
Sep 10, 2026
Statens Vegvesen vurderer å innføre lovpålagt hjelmpåbud for bruk av sykkel i Norge.
Oslo Bysykkel påvirkes av eventuell lovendring, derfor ønsker vi å stille deg noen spørsmål vedrørende din bruk av tjenesten.](https://cdn.masto.host/velocipederidercom/media_attachments/files/117/246/546/794/448/756/original/5ffdd928532799b2.png)
@ruari since injuries to car drivers are often greater, are they going to mandate all car drivers wearing helmets? What about mandating that people using ordinary machines HAVE to wear armour and steel-toed boots at all times? What about safety barriers on stairs - actually, no we should just ban stairs, as people fall down them all the time - no building above ground level, no steps anywhere...