Each year thousands of motorcycle enthusiasts from all over
the United States converge on the small town of Sturgis, South Dakota. The population of just over 6,500 people
swells to nearly one half million when the bikers arrive each August. Motorcycles parked side by side create a
chain of chrome and leather as far as the eye can see. What
people may not see however, are helmets.
Ask anyone in attendance about the wearing of helmets and you may get
the age-old poetic refrain: “Let those who ride… decide.”
The Harley rider and brethren loath the helmet. The helmet represents safety, conformity, “the
man.” Before the first Sturgis rally was
held way back in 1938 in another part of the world another group of bikers rode
their machines sans the helmet—the Dutch.
They continue to ride without head protection to this day.
The issue of cycle safety and helmet requirements comes up
from time to time and the outcry for protection was heard anew this summer in
London when a 28-year old bicyclist was killed by an Olympic bus. He was not wearing a helmet. The accident occurred the day after Bradley
Wiggins won the gold medal for the Time Trial. Wiggins was asked about cycling safety in the
days after the crash and he called for compulsory helmet laws. The solution may not be that easy. Take a look at Australia…
Australia has states with mandatory helmet laws and as a
result the accident rates have gone up.
It appears the laws have contributed to drivers being less than careful
around bikes feeling that rider is protected by a helmet. The bike riders in turn ride in more
dangerous areas and at higher speeds. The
helmet is meant to alleviate risk; it has elevated risk.
The Dutch have no compulsory helmet law
and have some of the safest cycling statistics in the world. Why is this?
Take Amsterdam for example, the city has an entire network of roads
dedicated to bicyclists--there are no
cars to knock anyone down. Also, in such
a cycling friendly country there has evolved a relationship between car and
bike because the two are not mutually exclusive. The driver of the car in the evening was
probably a bike rider that same morning.
There is an understanding. Last,
the Dutch ride at commuting speeds. Most
of the riders in Holland pace themselves leisurely to and from work, school,
entertainment and more. The Dutch do
race and do achieve high speed but those types of riders they refer to as “wheelrunners”
and they often wear a helmet when wheelrunning.
The Dutch have seemed to have perfected cycling as a mode of
transportation and other countries should look to Holland for advice before
they settle on “share the road” signs and helmet laws as the answer to bicycle
safety.
Visit our website at www.stickybottleteam.net. We have posted a video of some Dutch bike riders in Utrecht.
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