We've checked the bike as we wheel it out to the road, but we're not just going to launch straight out into traffic are we? Of course not.
One of the most dangerous moments in any cycle journey is the moment when you join the traffic stream. Obviously. The difference between your speed and that of other traffic is highest, your trajectory intersects with the traffic flow, you are busy applying power to the pedals, changing gear, you're wobbling slightly as you start off. A dodgy moment. So it pays to pick with care the place and time where it happens.
Take a stroll around your nearest town and see if you can find any cycle facilities. There are two sorts of facility: good ones and bad ones. The very worst are jokingly referred to as "farcilities", since they are often farcical in execution. Which pretty much describes their effect on novice cyclists, in some cases. But I digress. What you are looking for is the points where cycle traffic is merged back into the main traffic stream. If this is done well it will be at a point where there are clear sightlines, where the road is wide enough for the traffic streams to merge, and where motor traffic will not be encouraged to encroach into the space taken up by cyclists. If you find any like this, let me know.
Cyclists trundle happily along a nice "safe" cycle facility and at the end are ejected into the traffic. It happens all the time, sometimes without even noticing - look at the way cycle lanes get narrower or vanish altogether when there is a restriction in the road. Near me there is a road where there are periodic build-outs to reduce the width to one-way, as a traffic calming measure. They have cycle lanes through them. Drivers pull out round the build out, swing back in and scare the pants of the cyclists. There are plenty of other examples.
So, you see one way in which the unwary might be seduced by a "safety" feature. And that's another reason helmet laws fail. They give cyclists the idea that somebody else is looking out for their safety (in this case Bell Sports or whoever) with the result that they might forget to look out for their own.
Here's another thing I've come across: sometimes my eldest goes out cycling with the scouts. I usually turn up to see them off, and take some basic tools with me. The scout movement makes a big thing about helmets: every child turns up with a plastic hat. So far I have had to fix completely defective brakes, disconnected brakes, buckled wheels, seized bottom brackets, loose fittings, loose headsets, loose saddles, loose wheel cones - but of course the parents know their children are "safe" because they are wearing helmets. Last time out the lad was most indignant: he'd been riding along a decent 18" form the kerb and the leader had told him he was too far out and holding up the traffic. But the scout movement has discharged its safety obligations by encouraging helmets. Job Done, as they used to say before bob-a-job week was metricated and then done away with due to paedophiles.
So: helmet laws fail because people think that helmet equals safe.
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