this post was submitted on 03 Jun 2024
55 points (98.2% liked)
Australia
3488 readers
138 users here now
A place to discuss Australia and important Australian issues.
Before you post:
If you're posting anything related to:
- The Environment, post it to Aussie Environment
- Politics, post it to Australian Politics
- World News/Events, post it to World News
- A question to Australians (from outside) post it to Ask an Australian
If you're posting Australian News (not opinion or discussion pieces) post it to Australian News
Rules
This community is run under the rules of aussie.zone. In addition to those rules:
- When posting news articles use the source headline and place your commentary in a separate comment
Banner Photo
Congratulations to @[email protected] who had the most upvoted submission to our banner photo competition
Recommended and Related Communities
Be sure to check out and subscribe to our related communities on aussie.zone:
- Australian News
- World News (from an Australian Perspective)
- Australian Politics
- Aussie Environment
- Ask an Australian
- AusFinance
- Pictures
- AusLegal
- Aussie Frugal Living
- Cars (Australia)
- Coffee
- Chat
- Aussie Zone Meta
- bapcsalesaustralia
- Food Australia
- Aussie Memes
Plus other communities for sport and major cities.
https://aussie.zone/communities
Moderation
Since Kbin doesn't show Lemmy Moderators, I'll list them here. Also note that Kbin does not distinguish moderator comments.
Additionally, we have our instance admins: @[email protected] and @[email protected]
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
But cycling is dangerous - do we really want to put our ideology ahead of peoples' safety? I'm not saying cars are safe, but they are required to have seat belts (which you are required to use) and I assume airbags are also mandatory. We shouldn't downplay the risks associated with an activity to get the "ignorant masses" to do it - that is misleading. We need more people out of cars and on bikes or public transport but we shouldn't get there by lying, good infrastructure will be a major factor.
Statistically, it's been fairly well understood for a while now that the benefits of a larger number of people cycling outweigh the safety risk of some of those people not wearing a helmet.
Infrastructure and keeping people separate from cars is more important, but mandatory helmet laws are a net detriment to public health.
There's entire swathes of people who just can't really have their hair messed up or it would affect them professionally. In Europe people tend to not wear helmets and it's not like it's a daily massacre in the streets.
I don’t like the whole Darwin-Awards/Eugenics dichotomy but I can’t comprehend anyone stupid enough to think that having a fancy haircut is more important than their brains being on the inside of their heads.
There are different types of cycling. I would always wear a helmet to work because I live 6km away and it's a decent ride. There are hills and I often get to a reasonable speed.
Compare that to someone living in South Brisbane commuting to the CBD, or someone going for a leisurely bike stroll on the riverwalk - they may not go fast at all. We don't wear helmets whilst walking or jogging, but why is it mandatory for a slow ride?
The big reason helmets can be offputting is because they can mess up your hair. If the city wants to encourage people who live relatively close to their jobs to ride in, more flexibility on helmets could be a good thing.
FWIW I do think helmet safety should always be encouraged. Riding down a hill? Going more than a leisurely stroll? Wear a helmet. Makes sense. But it's really not that necessary for people who are riding slow.