new thread
See the linked article on the "danger" of wearing a helmet while cycling, where he determines that motorists allow less passing room for helmeted riders since they assume they are more experienced and therefore need less room. What is interesting is the second part, where he puts on a long hair wig and is given even more space. He then implies that women must be seen as less experienced or predictable and need more room. I think it's pretty sexist and a bit of a stretch to
assume that when he was wearing the wig that everyone thought he was a woman and therefore people must think that women are less predictable and give them more room. I think that what he is really seeing is that long-haired hippy-freak men (who are obviously all into drugs and heavy metal rock :-)) are seen as less responsible/predictable and are therefore given more space. He needs to run this test again using actual women. Even better would be to test with both short and long-haired women, to see if it is the sex or the hair length that matters. What do you think?
As an aside, they neglect to point out that only about 15% of bike accidents are the result of an overtaking vehicle. One is much more likely to have someone not see you and pull out in front of you or turn left into your path, etc. Therefore, whatever beneficial effect that may result from not wearing a helmet in preventing accidents with overtaking vehicles is not significant in the grand scheme of things, and would be way outweighed by the reduction in injuries from wearing a helmet when you do crash. Don't use this study as an excuse to not wear your helmet when riding your bike. It's just an interesting look at people's perceptions of others.
Al
Wearing helmets 'more dangerous'