Don’t get hung up on every detail Rick doesn’t draw on a bike. Next time he draws the brake lever you’ll complain that he left out the cables.
A cartoon is not a technical drawing.
Not about helmets, about noise. Anyone else notice how noisy cars are? I guarantee you, the people inside don’t notice but nothing messes with a beautiful morning like the roar of machinery a block or two away…
Dave Moulton t-boned an SUV when the car left turned in front of him. His head smacked the A pillar. Broke his helmet. He still struggles with double vision, but will tell you in his blog, that the helmet saved his life….
This from a guy with likely more cycling experience than anyone else reading Yehuda.
I wear mine. You do as you like. I just don’t want to see us like Australia..mandatory bike helmets, nationwide
FWIW.
The Manditory Helmet laws in Australia == $54 fine, where I am (rural/coast) I see nearly 80% of riders not bothering to wear them and NOT being fined… even if they did get fined it is only about the same as the cost of a K-Mart priced “Skid Lid”….
@ Kevin Love: PTO = Parent/Teacher Organization, as done through schools.
I crashed pretty badly (and stupidly) last Monday and was really glad to be wearing my helmet. Head wounds bleed too much for my taste and I’d like to keep my concussion history at the low, low price of 0.
Though I am well aware that after a certain point (speed, size of whatever I’m hitting/whatever’s hitting me, etc) my helmet isn’t going to do much more than (hopefully) keep the skin on my head intact.
Sunday night the helmet did protect my head (not much for my shoulder and legs). A side benefit was the protection of my expensive glasses. They never had a scratch.
@Andy M-S: I went biking at Custer State Park in SD on vacation and noted how annoying the motorcycles were! The point of going there is to see the wildlife, yet those animals aren’t going to stick around when the muffler isn’t effective!!
Cars and Motorcycles suck so much when it comes to ruining a peaceful moment!
Hmmm, not all motorcycle riders are annoying, as most bicycle riders don’t break the rules.
As to helmets. I sometimes wear mine, sometimes don’t. Philosophical point here….I view a bicycle as I do any other transportation…I USE it. I don’t PLAY with it. I do not see any benefit in “going to get my bike clothes on” when I go to the store or to work or anywhere else. I ride in what I am wearing. Often a Hawaiian shirt, shorts, sandals or flip flops, and maybe a wide brim straw hat or baseball cap.
Take a look at the copenhagen cycle chic site http://www.copenhagencyclechic.com/ which is dedicated to transportation cycling in copenhagen Denmark..OK, he mostly photographs female riders, but they ride in skirts, high heels and no helmets! Amsterdam is the same. why do you think this is? Mostly because these are people going about their daily business. Going to work, taking kids to school, transporting tools for their jobs. You see gardners, bankers lawyers and moms. Bikes are transportation. I have nothing against “sport” biking. Have fun! but to me a bike is a TOOL primarily. Yeah, I enjoy it. but I don’t play dress up to do it. If I wear a clown suit, I am WORKING as a clown.
Rene hit the nail on the head. That biff bucket is useless when struck by a auto of any type but if you crash on your own and hit your head on something, it can be a life saver. I have hit the road twice that cause my head to bounce, you can be sure I was happy to have a helmet on. I also wear helmet on an MTB, trees and rocks hurt your brain also and I fall way more on a MTB.
Its’ like anything else, do you want to reduce risk, it’s not going to help with everything, but for those couple things it does, is it worth it. It is all a matter of personal choice.
For me it’s helmet and some kind of hi-viz clothing each time I’m out. May not help, but I’m just trying to effect the odds.
@Tom: SUV crushings account for a very small percentage of actual cycling injuries. Bringing that into this discussion is like saying that seatbelts are useless in cars because they won’t help if you get hit by a freight train. Bicycle helmets are designed to mitigate the effects of the kinds of head injuries that occur most often in real world cycling conditions. Just because the injuries helmets prevent aren’t usually life threatening doesn’t mean I’m in a hurry to suffer one of them.
once again, hit twice by cars once even somersalting over the car landing in the road alive to tell about it, why? helmet saved my life both times so yes they can and do work when hit by cars. You don’t want to wear one fine but don’t twist the facts.
Let’s get down to the core of the issue: I shouldn’t have to wear a helmet because helmets make me look uncool. That, and I look forward to sipping my meals from a straw and putting my loved ones through unimaginable pain.
It’s just as well that Rick not draw each spoke. Last time he did, it looked as if some of the nipples were longer than the rest, as if some of the spokes had been replaced with mis-matched parts. I was really offended.
I think Steer was complimenting Rick for including a character who rides a fixed-gear bike on city streets, which is common in places like NYC and San Francisco. Check it out:
You really just tried to make a comparison between cycling in Amsterdam/Copenhagen and America?
You do realize they have a minor fraction of the automobile traffic we have, right?
Besides, last time I hit my head (helmeted) was slipping on the ice. I cracked a rib, sprained my wrist, but my head was fine because of my helmet. All I could think about was how my daughter could have been fatherless after that if I had not been wearing a helmet. Yes, I was going fast.
Make the argument that I could have avoided the fall…I’d rather have a helmet on AND be a more aware cyclist. It’s a cheap piece of insurance…all of us pay every single day for insurance we’ll never use. But, when the fated does occur, there it is.
I feel the same way about bike helmets as I do motorcycle helmets and seatbelts. Society has to pick up the tab for nearly all brain injured persons. Even the best insurance has limits that are easily out paced with brain injuries. This is the point at which persons like you and I pick up the tab through higher premiums, higher co-pays, higher office visits, deductibles, taxes… All this costs us too much, just so we don’t look bad or be inconvenienced by having to locate and buckle our helmets. For cyclists to be taken seriously, we will have to become more responsible by the standards of the motorized public.
The comments about Rick not drawing in enough detail really make me smile. Geez, folks, I read Rick for the STORY!
If I wanna OD on slavish detail, I’ll go look at Daniel Rebour’s drawings.
How much y’all wanna bet Thistle was “discussed” at said PTO meeting? I smell a storyline coming!
Who wants to bet that the SUV driver was on the cell phone while drinking a $5 cup of coffee?
As for the helmet debate, a helmet saved me from a nasty concussion once when I hit a really bad pothole wrong. I also know for a fact that it saved the life of a kid who went over the handlebars and landed head first on a large rock. He came out of the hospital wrapped up in enough bandages to wrap up a mummy, but at least he was able to walk out because of that helmet. I know another guy who’s helmet saved him when a car brushed against him and caused him to fall. I could go on for days about how a helmet saved someone from injury or worse.
Will a helmet save you if you get hit by an SUV? No, but if you drive a smaller car like I do, that won’t save you either if the SUV T-bones the driver’s side. Do what you can with what you’ve got.
And for the people who hate helmets so much: do you not wear a seatbelt when you’re in a car too?
So where are Barak and Desmond standing? There appears to be some sort of metal handrail in Panel 2. And the SUV is driving between the reader and the guys. Are they standing in Desmond’s driveway and is that Desmond’s Mom pulling out in the SUV o’ death? No wonder she wants Des to wear a helmet!
Looking at the lack of tape on the bars, it does look like a track bike. While I think that it is obviously one, if it was important to the story, I think Rick would make a small textual reference to it like he does with the Bakfiets.
@Howard
You misunderstand. We are in awe of the Kickstand Spokeless Wheels with the KS Magnetic Antigrav Hubs! Both are worthy of a Bak-style disclaimer. Rick is the Jules Verne of bicycling!
I wear a helmet when I ride and a seatbelt when I drive. Been doing it for so long that it feels wierd without them. I find if I wear them, I dont have to think about them and consentrate on the road and surroundings.
The helmet zealots just need to take a step back, not everyone shares their fanatical views on, or really gives a damn about, a cheap bit of vacuform plastic and styrofoam.
Reading all that tripe is like trying to discuss psychiatry with Tom Cruise… the amusement at tweaking the brittle people just isn’t worth the pain.
Whoaaa…
a grey car, is that Maureen (Thistle’s friends)? What is she doing there? Oh yeah just stroll around, driving with a cell phone and drink in both hands!
With a bunch of peole like them, no wonder why Desmond mother put her son with that medieval apparel…
@Andy M-S
I couldn’t agree more. On my morning commute today I was stopped at a light when I heard a diesel pick up coming. By the time it pulled up next to me I thought it would shake the fillings out of my head. And to ice the cake I could almost feel the thump of his music in my bones even though his windows were rolled up. Maybe I should join the cacophony on the road and hook up a stereo on my bicycle and play some of my favorite bagpipe music.
@aditthegrat
I was wondering if that was Maureen’s SUV as well. And have we seen this guy before? Is this a new character? Maybe it’s Thistle’s husband?
I think the whole thrust of this strip is being missed. Desmond’s mom imposes the safety gear on him and drives off in the SUV. After she leaves, the safety gear comes off.
@crotach
why should the driver is a guy? Why can’t Maureen drive that way, even she should not. Did anyone notice how the boy shivering while Desmond offering his helmet?
If any one is interested about my comment, and wants to read further, it might be a good idea to read a submission made by the director of the UK’s principle test laboratory for helmets for the UK’s national cycling organization, CTC, here:
In the paper, he describes what the bicycle helmet protection standards were set at to provide, and opinions from leaders in various fields in court testimony as to what can and cannot be expected of bicycle helmets, amongst other views of interest.
Anyone who thinks an accident is an “all or nothing” deal is a fool. Sure, if you get hit by a car and fly like superman head first into a tree, chances are your helmet won’t help much. I got t-boned by a car once and end up rolling up the hood bouncing off the windshield and I landed on the pavement on the other side. My helmet took a few hits. Ya, they were light, but I sure as hell am glad I was wearing it and I didn’t have to deal with even a scrape, let alone a missing scalp, concussion or worse. Accidents come in all shapes and sizes and you can’t pick and choose which one will be yours and when. Wearing a helmet or any safety gear is a personal choice and I don’t believe you should be fined for not wearing one, but to spew lies about how ineffective or dangerous they are is nonsense.
Well, sometimes a spoke left undrawn is just a spoke left undrawn. But Major Tatlor-style track drops without bar tape are quite clearly indicative of a brakeless fixie, which (in my opinion) is an intentional element of the life-or-death theme today.
“Not about helmets, about noise. Anyone else notice how noisy cars are? I guarantee you, the people inside don’t notice but nothing messes with a beautiful morning like the roar of machinery a block or two away…”
And to think, there are now proposals to put “noisemakers” on otherwise quiet electric and hybrid cars…
Seems to me that is the wrong approach.
Perhaps what we really need is to eliminate the noisy cars, then even the “whisper quiet” electrics et. al. will stand out.
That “railing” is the school bike rack, the older male rider’s bike does look like it might be a fixie, and my last wreck without another vehicle involved I protected my very expensive helmet with shoulders too wide to allow my head to hit the ground. Both clavicles intact but my bursitis acted up for the rest of the winter, all three weeks if it.
A bike helmet saved my 8 year olds life when he was hit by a pickup truck. Since day one of learning how to ride a bike, my kids used a helmet. Every time they ride a bike they put their helmet on, even when their friends don’t use one.
I do not HATE helmets, I just don’t really use them all that much. Motorcycle OR bicycle. Seatbelts? well, yes, even though I am skeptical of their efficacy. and yes, I am daring to compare the US with Amsterdam or Denmark. Traffic is traffic. Look at the traffic shown in the cycle Chic site. Doesn’t seem all that sparse to me. Where i live the traffic is not all that heavy. If I fall, yes, I could get hurt and I won’t make any excuse for it, I simply don’t care about hemmits. fo rsome reason I don’t really believe that they will magically keep me from having an accident. Are they a good idea??? yes certainly! I have no objection to you wearing one! Like any other religion, i dislike proselytizing, but you can’t prevent some people from preaching at you.
Like I said, I don’t believe in putting on special clothing to go somewhere. I don’t put on special shoes, gloves, shirt, pants and hat to drive my car or ride my motorcycle! why should I do that on my bicycle? Do i want to wander around the local grocery store in orthopedic pants, a Tour De France team jersey that makes me look like a Fat Marco Pantani? Or clatter along the aisles in clumpy bicycle shoes with cleats on them? no! Maybe I am stupid, but I started riding in 1959 when my father first launched me down the hill next to the Presbyterian Church in Metlakatla AK. I have been riding nearly every day since. I didn’t even SEE a bike helmet until about 1980! I don’t much care about style or looks… I am a fat bald guy who prefers to wear hawaiian shirts, (the more eye searing the better!) shorts and flip flops. So looks don’t matter much. A helmet is not part of my apparel because it is DORKY, it is that I don’t prefer to wear one! and carrying a straw hat besides is simply not easy. I would rather wear it!
i am commenter #55. amazing response today; i don’t recall a “page 2″ before.
but here’s my contribution: desmond’s friend [jon q: i am bothered that you referred to him as "barak"] just happens to be riding an old track bike. i suspect the point rick is trying to make here is the irony of desmond’s pal being brave enough to ride a bike that would frighten many of yehuda’s readers and yet he is frightened by something so commonplace and everyday–the monster suv.
Page 2 with the return of the helmet wars! And Desmond is totally togged out – wrists, elbows, shoulders. I assume there are knee pads as well. That must have been some PTO meeting! Mom must have hit an all-night Dicks on the way home to get that much gear.
Normally I don’t comment on the comic, but since it’s The Great Helmet Debate:
Have you ever noticed that when somebody wearing a helmet falls off their bike, they come out telling you it saved their life? How do they know?
I think cars perceive you to be less vulnerable if you’re wearing a helmet, and drive significantly more dangerously around you as a result. As somebody said upthread, it’s car/cyclist interfaces that kill very much more often than simple falls. So if cars are more cautious around me, the marginal safety afforded by a helmet isn’t worth it.
In Australia, after passing the helmet requirements, the rate of cycling went down, leading to drivers seeing less bicycles, and more bicyclists being killed.
So the most effective way to reduce the number of bicyclists killed is to get the most possible bicycle riders on the road.
Reading the Palm Beach story reminds me of a ski fall a few years ago. I was sailing down a wide open road (snow skiing) practicing on 1 ski. Something went wrong and I was flat on my back. My head hit the snow – hard – . I was OK, but my helmet was back at the lodge, where it was ding me a lot of good. Now I never ski without a helmet, eithe.
@aditthegrat
Sorry, I did not make my comments very clear. I was wondering if Maureen was indeed driving that SUV. I was also curious about the guy talking to Desmond. I didn’t remember him from any previous strips. Those were two separate points that I lumped together I suppose. Sorry for the confusion.
@ Kevin Love, who said “In the Netherlands, helmet use is practically non-existant. And the death rate is 1.03 per 100 million km cycled. In the USA it is 5.74″:
The circumstances are completely different in the Netherlands. From comparing only percentage of helmet users and death rates, you can not derive a conclusion. There are too many factors involved. Car drivers behave different, and the roads are designed in a different way. You can’t change all that just by not wearing a helmet.
I, living in the Netherlands and being Dutch, let my children wear helmets until they are 11 years. We are the only ones at school, I think, and I am not really a great fan of helmets. But most bicycle/traffic accidents happen to children under 12, and they are better protected with helmet. When you see your six-year old swerve over the street, in the direction of an oncoming car, you don’t think twice about it.
I myself always wear a helmet when I go touring/racing on my recumbent. It saved my head once in a head-to-head (litterally!) collision with another racing biker. The other one did not wear a helmet and was glad that I did
I won’t wear a helmet for my daily trips on my upright bike to school, shops and station, though.
Guarantee it’s a mom in the SUV, and she probably does the same to her kid as Desmond goes through.
Put a plastic hat on then you’ll be fine when 3 tons of SUV crushes you to death
It’s about time we had another helmet flamefest.
In a world revolutionized by plastics it is no wonder that the average person believes plastic will protect everything.
my urban dictionary:
Helmet (Hell-Met)- it’s like duct tape for your head.
Helmet doesn’t protect your head when you’re hit by a car but it sure protect your head when you accidentally fall by yourself.
@Tom
Well, if the car just knocks you, the helmet can (not saying: will) make a difference.
@Rene
Not only is he wearing a helmet but loads of protectors as well. Why he wants to lend the helmet is a mystery, though.
Oh yes, and the older guy is riding a track bike on the street without a brake. Yeah.
Please.
Don’t get hung up on every detail Rick doesn’t draw on a bike. Next time he draws the brake lever you’ll complain that he left out the cables.
A cartoon is not a technical drawing.
Not about helmets, about noise. Anyone else notice how noisy cars are? I guarantee you, the people inside don’t notice but nothing messes with a beautiful morning like the roar of machinery a block or two away…
Dave Moulton t-boned an SUV when the car left turned in front of him. His head smacked the A pillar. Broke his helmet. He still struggles with double vision, but will tell you in his blog, that the helmet saved his life….
This from a guy with likely more cycling experience than anyone else reading Yehuda.
I wear mine. You do as you like. I just don’t want to see us like Australia..mandatory bike helmets, nationwide
FWIW.
The Manditory Helmet laws in Australia == $54 fine, where I am (rural/coast) I see nearly 80% of riders not bothering to wear them and NOT being fined… even if they did get fined it is only about the same as the cost of a K-Mart priced “Skid Lid”….
What’s a “PTO meeting”?
Around here, PTO stands for “Power Take Off.” Its the bit on the back of a tractor that powers towed machinery.
I somehow don’t think that’s what Rick had in mind.
@ Kevin Love: PTO = Parent/Teacher Organization, as done through schools.
I crashed pretty badly (and stupidly) last Monday and was really glad to be wearing my helmet. Head wounds bleed too much for my taste and I’d like to keep my concussion history at the low, low price of 0.
Though I am well aware that after a certain point (speed, size of whatever I’m hitting/whatever’s hitting me, etc) my helmet isn’t going to do much more than (hopefully) keep the skin on my head intact.
Parent Teacher Organisation?
@flawed
Yeah, the readers’ comments about what Rick doesn’t draw in his comics kinda bugs me. They want him to draw every spoke?!
Sunday night the helmet did protect my head (not much for my shoulder and legs). A side benefit was the protection of my expensive glasses. They never had a scratch.
@Andy M-S: I went biking at Custer State Park in SD on vacation and noted how annoying the motorcycles were! The point of going there is to see the wildlife, yet those animals aren’t going to stick around when the muffler isn’t effective!!
Cars and Motorcycles suck so much when it comes to ruining a peaceful moment!
Hmmm, not all motorcycle riders are annoying, as most bicycle riders don’t break the rules.
As to helmets. I sometimes wear mine, sometimes don’t. Philosophical point here….I view a bicycle as I do any other transportation…I USE it. I don’t PLAY with it. I do not see any benefit in “going to get my bike clothes on” when I go to the store or to work or anywhere else. I ride in what I am wearing. Often a Hawaiian shirt, shorts, sandals or flip flops, and maybe a wide brim straw hat or baseball cap.
Take a look at the copenhagen cycle chic site http://www.copenhagencyclechic.com/ which is dedicated to transportation cycling in copenhagen Denmark..OK, he mostly photographs female riders, but they ride in skirts, high heels and no helmets! Amsterdam is the same. why do you think this is? Mostly because these are people going about their daily business. Going to work, taking kids to school, transporting tools for their jobs. You see gardners, bankers lawyers and moms. Bikes are transportation. I have nothing against “sport” biking. Have fun! but to me a bike is a TOOL primarily. Yeah, I enjoy it. but I don’t play dress up to do it. If I wear a clown suit, I am WORKING as a clown.
just my opinion
mark
Rene hit the nail on the head. That biff bucket is useless when struck by a auto of any type but if you crash on your own and hit your head on something, it can be a life saver. I have hit the road twice that cause my head to bounce, you can be sure I was happy to have a helmet on. I also wear helmet on an MTB, trees and rocks hurt your brain also and I fall way more on a MTB.
… it is extremely rare for someone to die on a bicycle if they haven’t been hit by a motor vehicle.
Helmets mitigate injuries from simple falls. They are not made for what causes serious injuries.
Its’ like anything else, do you want to reduce risk, it’s not going to help with everything, but for those couple things it does, is it worth it. It is all a matter of personal choice.
For me it’s helmet and some kind of hi-viz clothing each time I’m out. May not help, but I’m just trying to effect the odds.
@Tom: SUV crushings account for a very small percentage of actual cycling injuries. Bringing that into this discussion is like saying that seatbelts are useless in cars because they won’t help if you get hit by a freight train. Bicycle helmets are designed to mitigate the effects of the kinds of head injuries that occur most often in real world cycling conditions. Just because the injuries helmets prevent aren’t usually life threatening doesn’t mean I’m in a hurry to suffer one of them.
once again, hit twice by cars once even somersalting over the car landing in the road alive to tell about it, why? helmet saved my life both times so yes they can and do work when hit by cars. You don’t want to wear one fine but don’t twist the facts.
Let’s get down to the core of the issue: I shouldn’t have to wear a helmet because helmets make me look uncool. That, and I look forward to sipping my meals from a straw and putting my loved ones through unimaginable pain.
@ Andy-
It’s just as well that Rick not draw each spoke. Last time he did, it looked as if some of the nipples were longer than the rest, as if some of the spokes had been replaced with mis-matched parts. I was really offended.
Is Desmond’s friend riding a fixie without brakes? For shame!
@ Steer, flawed, Andy, Howard
I think Steer was complimenting Rick for including a character who rides a fixed-gear bike on city streets, which is common in places like NYC and San Francisco. Check it out:
http://www.oldskooltrack.com/files/home.frame.html
it’s that fixed bike again!
@ Mark “Papaballon”
You really just tried to make a comparison between cycling in Amsterdam/Copenhagen and America?
You do realize they have a minor fraction of the automobile traffic we have, right?
Besides, last time I hit my head (helmeted) was slipping on the ice. I cracked a rib, sprained my wrist, but my head was fine because of my helmet. All I could think about was how my daughter could have been fatherless after that if I had not been wearing a helmet. Yes, I was going fast.
Make the argument that I could have avoided the fall…I’d rather have a helmet on AND be a more aware cyclist. It’s a cheap piece of insurance…all of us pay every single day for insurance we’ll never use. But, when the fated does occur, there it is.
I feel the same way about bike helmets as I do motorcycle helmets and seatbelts. Society has to pick up the tab for nearly all brain injured persons. Even the best insurance has limits that are easily out paced with brain injuries. This is the point at which persons like you and I pick up the tab through higher premiums, higher co-pays, higher office visits, deductibles, taxes… All this costs us too much, just so we don’t look bad or be inconvenienced by having to locate and buckle our helmets. For cyclists to be taken seriously, we will have to become more responsible by the standards of the motorized public.
The comments about Rick not drawing in enough detail really make me smile. Geez, folks, I read Rick for the STORY!
If I wanna OD on slavish detail, I’ll go look at Daniel Rebour’s drawings.
How much y’all wanna bet Thistle was “discussed” at said PTO meeting? I smell a storyline coming!
Who wants to bet that the SUV driver was on the cell phone while drinking a $5 cup of coffee?
As for the helmet debate, a helmet saved me from a nasty concussion once when I hit a really bad pothole wrong. I also know for a fact that it saved the life of a kid who went over the handlebars and landed head first on a large rock. He came out of the hospital wrapped up in enough bandages to wrap up a mummy, but at least he was able to walk out because of that helmet. I know another guy who’s helmet saved him when a car brushed against him and caused him to fall. I could go on for days about how a helmet saved someone from injury or worse.
Will a helmet save you if you get hit by an SUV? No, but if you drive a smaller car like I do, that won’t save you either if the SUV T-bones the driver’s side. Do what you can with what you’ve got.
And for the people who hate helmets so much: do you not wear a seatbelt when you’re in a car too?
So where are Barak and Desmond standing? There appears to be some sort of metal handrail in Panel 2. And the SUV is driving between the reader and the guys. Are they standing in Desmond’s driveway and is that Desmond’s Mom pulling out in the SUV o’ death? No wonder she wants Des to wear a helmet!
Looking at the lack of tape on the bars, it does look like a track bike. While I think that it is obviously one, if it was important to the story, I think Rick would make a small textual reference to it like he does with the Bakfiets.
@Howard
You misunderstand. We are in awe of the Kickstand Spokeless Wheels with the KS Magnetic Antigrav Hubs! Both are worthy of a Bak-style disclaimer. Rick is the Jules Verne of bicycling!
I wear a helmet when I ride and a seatbelt when I drive. Been doing it for so long that it feels wierd without them. I find if I wear them, I dont have to think about them and consentrate on the road and surroundings.
Three cheers for individual choice and education rather than collective will and force!
I’m not exactly sure what Brad means when he says “They are not made for serious injuries.”
My riding partner did an endo that fractured her skull in five places and has left her unable to work for more than two years.
I posted this back in July when helmets came up in the strip, but it’s worth reading if you didn’t see it before:
http://www.palmbeachbiketours.com/2008/07/09/do-bike-helmets-really-save-your-life/
The helmet zealots just need to take a step back, not everyone shares their fanatical views on, or really gives a damn about, a cheap bit of vacuform plastic and styrofoam.
Reading all that tripe is like trying to discuss psychiatry with Tom Cruise… the amusement at tweaking the brittle people just isn’t worth the pain.
Whoaaa…
a grey car, is that Maureen (Thistle’s friends)? What is she doing there? Oh yeah just stroll around, driving with a cell phone and drink in both hands!
With a bunch of peole like them, no wonder why Desmond mother put her son with that medieval apparel…
@Andy M-S
I couldn’t agree more. On my morning commute today I was stopped at a light when I heard a diesel pick up coming. By the time it pulled up next to me I thought it would shake the fillings out of my head. And to ice the cake I could almost feel the thump of his music in my bones even though his windows were rolled up. Maybe I should join the cacophony on the road and hook up a stereo on my bicycle and play some of my favorite bagpipe music.
@aditthegrat
I was wondering if that was Maureen’s SUV as well. And have we seen this guy before? Is this a new character? Maybe it’s Thistle’s husband?
This reminds me of the SUV that honked at a couple boys on my street Sunday. Drives often forget we are ALL very important people.
I think the whole thrust of this strip is being missed. Desmond’s mom imposes the safety gear on him and drives off in the SUV. After she leaves, the safety gear comes off.
@crotach
why should the driver is a guy? Why can’t Maureen drive that way, even she should not. Did anyone notice how the boy shivering while Desmond offering his helmet?
aditthegrat,
The boy was not shivering, the man was.
If any one is interested about my comment, and wants to read further, it might be a good idea to read a submission made by the director of the UK’s principle test laboratory for helmets for the UK’s national cycling organization, CTC, here:
http://www.cyclehelmets.org/papers/c2023.pdf
In the paper, he describes what the bicycle helmet protection standards were set at to provide, and opinions from leaders in various fields in court testimony as to what can and cannot be expected of bicycle helmets, amongst other views of interest.
Anyone who thinks an accident is an “all or nothing” deal is a fool. Sure, if you get hit by a car and fly like superman head first into a tree, chances are your helmet won’t help much. I got t-boned by a car once and end up rolling up the hood bouncing off the windshield and I landed on the pavement on the other side. My helmet took a few hits. Ya, they were light, but I sure as hell am glad I was wearing it and I didn’t have to deal with even a scrape, let alone a missing scalp, concussion or worse. Accidents come in all shapes and sizes and you can’t pick and choose which one will be yours and when. Wearing a helmet or any safety gear is a personal choice and I don’t believe you should be fined for not wearing one, but to spew lies about how ineffective or dangerous they are is nonsense.
Well, sometimes a spoke left undrawn is just a spoke left undrawn. But Major Tatlor-style track drops without bar tape are quite clearly indicative of a brakeless fixie, which (in my opinion) is an intentional element of the life-or-death theme today.
May be if people could relate to this guy… does this help form your opinion about wearing or not wearing a helmet?
http://helmetornohelmet.com/?p=696
“Not about helmets, about noise. Anyone else notice how noisy cars are? I guarantee you, the people inside don’t notice but nothing messes with a beautiful morning like the roar of machinery a block or two away…”
And to think, there are now proposals to put “noisemakers” on otherwise quiet electric and hybrid cars…
Seems to me that is the wrong approach.
Perhaps what we really need is to eliminate the noisy cars, then even the “whisper quiet” electrics et. al. will stand out.
The helmet on top of the kids helmet in the second panel doesn’t seem to follow any safety guidelines.
http://helmetornohelmet.com/?p=748
Look at this lady, this is a perfect example.
That “railing” is the school bike rack, the older male rider’s bike does look like it might be a fixie, and my last wreck without another vehicle involved I protected my very expensive helmet with shoulders too wide to allow my head to hit the ground. Both clavicles intact but my bursitis acted up for the rest of the winter, all three weeks if it.
A bike helmet saved my 8 year olds life when he was hit by a pickup truck. Since day one of learning how to ride a bike, my kids used a helmet. Every time they ride a bike they put their helmet on, even when their friends don’t use one.
The kid is missing the most useful piece of safety equipment – GLOVES!
I do not HATE helmets, I just don’t really use them all that much. Motorcycle OR bicycle. Seatbelts? well, yes, even though I am skeptical of their efficacy. and yes, I am daring to compare the US with Amsterdam or Denmark. Traffic is traffic. Look at the traffic shown in the cycle Chic site. Doesn’t seem all that sparse to me. Where i live the traffic is not all that heavy. If I fall, yes, I could get hurt and I won’t make any excuse for it, I simply don’t care about hemmits. fo rsome reason I don’t really believe that they will magically keep me from having an accident. Are they a good idea??? yes certainly! I have no objection to you wearing one! Like any other religion, i dislike proselytizing, but you can’t prevent some people from preaching at you.
Like I said, I don’t believe in putting on special clothing to go somewhere. I don’t put on special shoes, gloves, shirt, pants and hat to drive my car or ride my motorcycle! why should I do that on my bicycle? Do i want to wander around the local grocery store in orthopedic pants, a Tour De France team jersey that makes me look like a Fat Marco Pantani? Or clatter along the aisles in clumpy bicycle shoes with cleats on them? no! Maybe I am stupid, but I started riding in 1959 when my father first launched me down the hill next to the Presbyterian Church in Metlakatla AK. I have been riding nearly every day since. I didn’t even SEE a bike helmet until about 1980! I don’t much care about style or looks… I am a fat bald guy who prefers to wear hawaiian shirts, (the more eye searing the better!) shorts and flip flops. So looks don’t matter much. A helmet is not part of my apparel because it is DORKY, it is that I don’t prefer to wear one! and carrying a straw hat besides is simply not easy. I would rather wear it!
mark
i am commenter #55. amazing response today; i don’t recall a “page 2″ before.
but here’s my contribution: desmond’s friend [jon q: i am bothered that you referred to him as "barak"] just happens to be riding an old track bike. i suspect the point rick is trying to make here is the irony of desmond’s pal being brave enough to ride a bike that would frighten many of yehuda’s readers and yet he is frightened by something so commonplace and everyday–the monster suv.
see? that’s funny.
Personal Jetpacks, that is the only answer. But then again, they will start building SUV-jets….
Page 2 with the return of the helmet wars! And Desmond is totally togged out – wrists, elbows, shoulders. I assume there are knee pads as well. That must have been some PTO meeting! Mom must have hit an all-night Dicks on the way home to get that much gear.
Personal jetpacks – Traffic chaos in *3* dimensions. Woohoo!!
Normally I don’t comment on the comic, but since it’s The Great Helmet Debate:
Have you ever noticed that when somebody wearing a helmet falls off their bike, they come out telling you it saved their life? How do they know?
I think cars perceive you to be less vulnerable if you’re wearing a helmet, and drive significantly more dangerously around you as a result. As somebody said upthread, it’s car/cyclist interfaces that kill very much more often than simple falls. So if cars are more cautious around me, the marginal safety afforded by a helmet isn’t worth it.
In Australia, after passing the helmet requirements, the rate of cycling went down, leading to drivers seeing less bicycles, and more bicyclists being killed.
So the most effective way to reduce the number of bicyclists killed is to get the most possible bicycle riders on the road.
Reading the Palm Beach story reminds me of a ski fall a few years ago. I was sailing down a wide open road (snow skiing) practicing on 1 ski. Something went wrong and I was flat on my back. My head hit the snow – hard – . I was OK, but my helmet was back at the lodge, where it was ding me a lot of good. Now I never ski without a helmet, eithe.
I know that it’s really unfashionable to bring annoying things like facts into the Great Helmet Debate, but here goes.
The objective factual reality is that the lower the rate of helmet use, the safer it is to bicycle. Helmets are dangerous!
Why are helmets such a lethal threat? Because they get in the way of increasing bike use and building bike culture.
I strongly commend the research of Dr. John Pucher. I know, research = facts. Annoying.
In the Netherlands, helmet use is practically non-existant. And the death rate is 1.03 per 100 million km cycled. In the USA it is 5.74
Source:
http://policy.rutgers.edu/faculty/pucher/Cycling%20for%20Everyone%20VANCOUVER%2024%20June%202008.pdf
@flawed
That is definitely a sprint handlebar. The bike is a track bike, it’s not a break lever accidentally left out. I love it.
@baudman
“The kid is missing the most useful piece of safety equipment – GLOVES!”
I second that. It has saved the skin on my palm several times.
@aditthegrat
Sorry, I did not make my comments very clear. I was wondering if Maureen was indeed driving that SUV. I was also curious about the guy talking to Desmond. I didn’t remember him from any previous strips. Those were two separate points that I lumped together I suppose. Sorry for the confusion.
@ Kevin Love, who said “In the Netherlands, helmet use is practically non-existant. And the death rate is 1.03 per 100 million km cycled. In the USA it is 5.74″:
The circumstances are completely different in the Netherlands. From comparing only percentage of helmet users and death rates, you can not derive a conclusion. There are too many factors involved. Car drivers behave different, and the roads are designed in a different way. You can’t change all that just by not wearing a helmet.
I, living in the Netherlands and being Dutch, let my children wear helmets until they are 11 years. We are the only ones at school, I think, and I am not really a great fan of helmets. But most bicycle/traffic accidents happen to children under 12, and they are better protected with helmet. When you see your six-year old swerve over the street, in the direction of an oncoming car, you don’t think twice about it.
I myself always wear a helmet when I go touring/racing on my recumbent. It saved my head once in a head-to-head (litterally!) collision with another racing biker. The other one did not wear a helmet and was glad that I did
I won’t wear a helmet for my daily trips on my upright bike to school, shops and station, though.