Photo: A mother with children cycling in the Netherlands, helmet free Credit: Ageng

The German Transport Minister Peter Ramsauer has said that if helmet rates do not start getting above 50% he will think about passing a mandatory helmet law in Germany. Though the partner coalition FDP party does not agree, it does think that minors should be forced to wear helmets.

“If the helmet-wearing rate of 9% does not significantly increase to well over 50% in the coming years, then you almost certainly have to introduce a helmet law,” Ramsauer said in an interview in Berlin. The minister said that 450 cyclists were killed last year in Germany half of them from head injuries. He said that many of these deaths would have been avoided if a helmet had been worn.

Unfortunately this is a statistic that is almost impossible to know. Do helmets stop fatal head injuries amongst those involved in an actual accident? How do helmets protect at life threatening speeds? These are figures that we do not have and really need to find out. But here’s what do we know? We know that countries that have introduced mandatory helmet laws simply have not reduced head injuries or accidents; in fact there is good cause to argue that there has been an increase in head injuries (the classic case of Australia in 92 being an example).

In a sense this seems strange that mandatory helmet laws could actually increase head injuries! But what would happen to the 90% bare headed riders if they were forced to wear a helmet, would they still ride? How inviting would the roads look to potential cyclists if everyone had to wear helmets and there were fewer cyclists on the roads around them? A lot more intimidating to any cycling recruits. And fewer cyclists would certainly mean less infrastructure, and therefore less safe roads and we know that the less cyclists there are the less safe they are (Safety in Numbers principle). More equals safer.

What is the safest place to ride a bike in Europe? Here’s the clue, they love orange, have the highest numbers of cyclists and barely a helmet to be seen. Cycling is seen as a normal, safe everyday activity.

A quick and dirty helmet law may be cheap but we are convinced it would be very expensive once implemented and would send all the road safety figures completely the wrong way. I swear that if we spent all this time talking about cycling infrastructure or car/lorry safety features or driver education or safe urban planning etc etc as we do about helmets we could have come close to eliminating cycling fatalities once and for all across the board.

We are convinced that a mandatory helmet law would lead to more dangerous roads with fewer cyclists. This is the pay-off. We would lose all those calories being burnt, all those hearts getting stronger and all those pumping legs working to contain the polluting emissions from our cars!

One last statistic. In Europe;

• There are 6.4 pedestrian deaths per 100 Million KMs

• There are 5.4 cyclists deaths per 100 Million KMs

Let’s get serious and stamp out these last cycling fatalities; but let’s remember that cyclists face a similar risk as pedestrians and we shouldn’t force either to wear protective clothing while going about their everyday activity.

About the Author

 Ceri Woolsgrove is the ECF Policy Officer for Road Safety & Technical Issues. He is from the UK and has worked extensively in London, Brighton, Liverpool (UK), Hang Zhou (China) and now in Brussels. His previous employment was for an organisation representing the transport industry in Brussels. Ceri has a Master’s degree in Globalization and International Policy Analysis from the University of Bath, and Social and Political Thought from the University of Sussex