The observation "five dollar head, five dollar helmet" was how one of my supervisors referred to motorcycle riders who wore beanie style helmets that would provide little or no protection in a crash.
Today, that observation could be extended to those who choose to ride a bicycle or an electric kick scooter with inadequate protection.
What would that say about the value of a head that was not protected at all?
Helmets are Required
Bicycle riders and operators of electric kick scooters are required to wear an approved bicycle helmet when they ride on a highway. If the rider is under 16 years of age, it is their parent's responsibility to ensure a helmet is used.
Failing to protect one of your most valuable possessions could attract a $29 ticket.
Effective Injury Prevention
Using an approved helmet that is properly fastened has been shown to prevent or reduce injury in a crash.
Helmet Exemptions
Unless you are exempt from wearing a bicycle helmet, think of it the same way you do your seat belt. That safety device has evolved from something few wanted to wear to a better than 95% wearing rate in B.C. today.
Too Many Rules?
Too many rules in our society today? One should be able to choose to do what they want to, right?
To some extent you may be right, but if you expect society to look after you when you are injured in a cycling incident is it not reasonable to expect society to count on you to take steps to minimize the need for help from everyone else?
Attitude
Attitudes can change if there is a good reason for the change. My head is worth more than $5 to me, so I choose to wear a helmet when I cycle.
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Decent bicycle helmets can be had for about the $30 mark. I think I paid $35 for my current one two years ago from Canadian Tire. If one rides around long enough without a helmet, they'll eventually be ticketed. They might as well spend that money on the helmet and protect their grey-matter.
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Cyclist are a demanding species. Notorious for being rude to cars and pedestrians, notorious for skipping all traffic rules.
Ebikes can go much faster than a regular bike. Our municipalities are building infrastructure and issuing laws to protect cyclist but there is no law issued to ticket cyclists. One of them even killed a person a while ago when he hit this person.
Cars now need to slow down and drive 300 m away from a cyclist or person. Why is this rule not applicable to cyclists?
Why are they so protected? Why so many millions of dollars are spent every year on cycling lanes when it is impossible to make metro Vancouver a cycling area because distances are not like in Europe? We can not possibly bike back and forth form south delta to north delta for work?
Why is Steveston highway been shrunk to narrow car lanes to have no cyclists on the road? What happens in winter? Not even bikers use the roads in winter.
Why this obsession with trying to have cycling lanes everywhere and why are cyclists untouchable? Are the law makers cyclists?
Me and everyone else are really upset about all the cycling movement promoted by the government ad it looks like the cyclists know that they are kings. Something is going on here.
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When my son was 4 or 5 years old we bought him a bicycle and as good parents we obliged him to wear a helmet whenever he rode his bike.
One evening while reading him a story the word hypocrite appeared on the pages. He asked me what does that mean Dad and i explained to him that refers to people that tell other people to act a certain way or do a certain thing but they themselves do not do this.
He pointed his finger at me and said “Dad, you are a hypocrite because you make me wear a helmet when riding a bike but you don’t wear one. The next day i bought a helmet and started to wear it whenever i rode my bike.
Well, the habit stuck and i was riding my bicycle and was struck by a car.
I remember my head hitting the car but not late the pavement as i landed hard. My helmet was cracked and scratched. I had a very bad concussion and was taken to hospital by ambulance as i was banged up and bleeding with suspected injuries.
Without wearing a bike helmet, i don’t think i would have survived that crash and i’m very thankful i had made the right choice that day.
It is amazing to see other parents telling their children to respect the law, and yet they don’t wear helmets. They ask their children to be safe and yet they will ride a bike or scooter etc. without protection of a helmet.
Too bad we didn’t all read the story about the hypocrite and become inspired to be safe lol.
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You'll spend the money either way, just buy the helmet