Helmets: the ugly truth

 

Goal: to address some reasons why people won’t wear bicycle helmets

 

hello. My name is benny balgemino, and i hate wearing helmets. Unfortunately, its true. I dont remember liking to wear helmets as a kid, and i don’t enjoy wearing them now. They’re so clunky, sometimes expensive, and I absolutely hated helmet hair, especially if i was biking somewhere important like i dunno a job interview, or a hot date or something. I remember in high school I would even go as far as walking out of the house with my helmet so my mom saw, then hiding it in a bush a block over just so i dont need to take it to school. How silly is that? However, how many of you guys can relate to having similar experiences of not enjoying to wear a helmet? See? We have all done it before, and im definitely not trying to call out every biker, but almost more than half still choose, today, to not wear a helmet while biking. This simply raises the question: Why don’t people just wear them?

 

We might think it’s as simple as common sense, but unfortunately common sense isn’t common at all. Mikael Colville Andersen proves this when he presented his Ted Talk about copenhagen, a city that has an incredible bike culture, yet he claims that nearly nobody wears helmets. He, among with a pretty good sized of the anti-helmet bike community, have held onto 3 arguments just so that they dont need to wear helmets.

 

1. Bicyclists arent as prone to head injuries.
   1. This is actually true. In a research done in 2014, of all head injury related deaths, bikes only accounted for 6% of all deaths. Most happen to pedestrians, cars, motorcycles, and other motor-vehicle related incidents.

 

The ugly truth: and this is the ugly truth. The reason i chose the word ugly is not just because its about helmets, but because many people do not and will not favor this position. It is perceivably the least appealing, isnt the easiest option, but it is something that must be recognized.

 

Is it a law to wear seatbelts?

Is it illegal to jaywalk?

 

So why is it that bicyclists feel that they dont need laws of their own?

 

If cars are always being regulated, if pedestrians are given crosswalks to use, then why can’t cyclists follow suit?

 

With our rights, come responsibilities. And we cannot take away another persons rights, to avoid our own responsibilities.

 

 

The bicycle community’s goal right now is to become an integral part in society, especially in urban culture. In order to have this right, however, they must uphold their responsibilities as well, especially wearing a helmet.

 

1. Stop blaming the law
   1. The further people antagonize the law and antagonize bike helmets, the less likely urban culture is going to be able to appropriate themselves and integrate biking into everyday life

2. Think long term

• While it may not guarantee safety, buying and wearing a helmet can be one of the biggest and most important safety precautions one can take. Think about insurance, you invest into insurance not out of fear of danger, but in steps toward security. Besides, a 20$ bike helmet is a lot better than the 2.3 billion$ of medical bills spent each year on bike related injuries.

3. Lose the ‘cool’

 

Reflection:

Overall, I think I performed under my standards. I did not give the topic the attention it deserved, and I ultimately felt disengaged from the speech. In class, I was able to hold my composure, but I knew that it was not my full potential. This was a topic I wasn’t as interested in, nor was it a speech I dedicated enough time and research into. Next time, even for a topic I’m not extremely passionate about, I want to give more focus to planning ahead of time, instead of choosing the topic half-heartedly.