After the longest, and coldest Winter EVER, I feel as if Spring has arrived. And with its arrival, I got back on my bike to work this week.
For me, cycling to work has many benefits. Firstly,cycling to work is one of my very few opportunities to exercise regularly during a very busy week. Not only do I get regular exercise in, but it helps me get fit for the Summer ahead.
Cycling to work gets me out and off the public transport system. Thank goodness! The tube is not the most pleasant journey when one has to wait for 3 tube trains to pass before one can even board, then stand squeezed between someone's back and chest, with another person's bag digging in one's side. It's far more relaxing and more scenic on the bike. As I cycle over London Bridge, Tower Bridge looks amazing every morning, especially with the sun rising. And after a stressful day at work, why be more miserable facing the crammed journey home?! Cycling is a wonderful way to relieve the stress from a busy and stressful day!
I tried not to pay too much attention to the cyclist knocked off his bike on London Bridge one morning while I was admiring the Thames. Seriously, this brings me to the matter of Cycle Safety.
1. Cycle Safety Tip 1 - WEAR A HELMET!!
It's London! There are cars, big red buses and rude taxi drivers to deal with, not to mention the pedestrians that don't bother looking before they cross the road, and the other cyclists who can be just as scary, unpredictable and dangerous.
I had a friend who's husband was knocked off his bike by a bus. He wasn't wearing a helmet at the time and suffered serious head and brain trauma which changed his personality. It took a good 12 months before his personality returned back to normal. He was lucky to survive.
2. Cycle Safety Tip 2 - DO NOT EVER STOP AT A RED LIGHT ON THE INSIDE OF A BUS OR TRUCK!!
Many of the recent cycle fatalities on London roads are due to cyclists who stop next to a truck at a light. THEY CANNOT SEE YOU and when they turn the corner, unfortunately you will come off the worst as you get crushed between the truck and the barrier on the other side, or simply be knocked over, then run over! You need to exercise some patience when cycling. It's important to get ahead of stationary traffic at lights, but only do this if you know you can get in front before the lights change.
3. Cycle Safety Tip 3 - DO NOT RUN RED LIGHTS OR PEDESTRIAN CROSSINGS
I cycled up Liverpool St a few months ago, and watched the police pull over evey cyclist who ran either a red light or a pedestrian crossing. RED not only means STOP, but cars in the other direction are not expecting you. By running any RED, you risk being hit.
4. Cycle Safety Tip 4 - BE AS VISIBLE AS POSSIBLE
Wear a reflective vest and use both front and back lights after dark. As a driver of a car, cyclists who wear bright reflective clothing and use lights are much more visible than those who are wearing plain clothes. I don't care what I look like on the bike, as long as I can be seen.
Cycling is a great way to get fit, manage stress and save some money. So get your your brakes checked, chain oiled, tyres pumped and that glamorous protective equipment ready......Have Fun and Be Safe!
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Good tips, except for the helmet bit. Nobody's ever designed a helmet to protect against the sort of risk you mention. Helmet laws have stopped a lot of people cycling and have done nothing for head injury rates, see Robinson DL. No clear evidence from countries that have enforced the wearing of helmets. BMJ. 2006 March 25; 332(7543): 722–725. doi: 10.1136/bmj.332.7543.722-a. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pubmed&pubmedid=16565131 (Robinson's work uses the best scientific methods, all available control groups and so on.)
ReplyDeleteIn real accidents bike helmets don't seem to crush as designed, they break instead. The senior engineer of Bell Sports, the market leader in cycle helmets, has written: “Another source of field experience is our experience with damaged helmets returned to customer service... I collected damaged infant/toddler helmets for several months in 1995. Not only did I not see bottomed out helmets, I didn’t see any helmet showing signs of crushing on the inside.” In 1987, the Australian Federal Office of Road Safety found that in real accidents "very little crushing of the liner foam was usually evident... What in fact happens in a real crash impact is that the human head deforms elastically on impact. The standard impact attenuation test making use of a solid headform does not consider the effect of human head deformation with the result that all acceleration attenuation occurs in compression of the liner. Since the solid headform is more capable of crushing helmet padding, manufacturers have had to provide relatively stiff foam in the helmet so that it would pass the impact attenuation test..."
It appears that helmets break easily, but don't absorb the impact, see the engineers quoted at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_helmet#Criticism_of_current_standards.3B_new_designs. A broken helmet has simply failed, and the widespread anecdotes on the theme of "a helmet saved my life" seem to owe more to wishful thinking than to science. As for the occasional anecdotes about "a car ran over my head" (http://www.kptv.com/news/21541052/detail.html), see the pro-helmet site http://www.helmets.org/smush.htm; if a car goes over your head, I'm sorry to say you won't be sitting up and praising your helmet. The only known connection between helmets and death is that helmets have strangled a few young children who were wearing helmets while playing off their bicycles, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_helmet for an incomplete list.
Helmet propaganda relies on overemphasizing the very small dangers of cycling and seldom seems to emphasize its large benefits. At my moderately advanced age it's far too dangerous not to cycle - regular cycling, Danish style, not too far, not too fast, nearly halves the death rate, see http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/160/11/1621 All-Cause Mortality Associated With Physical Activity During Leisure Time, Work, Sports, and Cycling to Work. Andersen et al, Arch Intern Med. 2000;160:1621-1628. Taking up moderate exercise is about as beneficial as giving up smoking. Bicycling is good for health, but bike helmets don't seem to be.
Hi Richard,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the info and research surrounding bike helmets. A bike helmet fefinitely doesn't guarantee anything if you come off your bike, and especially if there is a vehicle to run over you once you've fallen off.
I read in the London Metro a few months ago, that some cars are more cautious around cyclists who do not have a helmet on, rather than those who do. Of course, I am yet to see solid evidence around this fact and the social-psychological reasons why this might be the case.
I grew up in Australia and wearing a helmet was compulsory. On the very few occasions I don't wear a helmet, I feel very 'naked' and 'vulnerable'. Yet another friend of mine, who grew up in Holland, where cycling is the norm, wearing a helmet feels strange.
At the end of the day, each to their own, and ultimately we wear what we want to feel most comfortable and 'safe'. Nothing can guarantee you your life should you come off your bike. But for me, personally, I'd rather be as visible and give myself as much chance of minimal damage if I'm unlucky enough to ever come off my bike...