Daniel makes stuff, and, in his spare time, writes about things like movies, kid culture, and geek stuff.
Banning Bicycles as a Way to Get to School

Banning bicycles as a way for kids to get to school, for fear that they’ll increase the risk of a child getting hit by a car?

That’s what it looks like is happening in New Jersey. Leigh Ann Von Hagen, a planner at Rutgers University’s NJ Safe Routes to School Resource Center:

Banning bicycling to school is way too common throughout our state. We are in the planning stages of conducting a statewide survey to find out how often bicycling is banned. We are also developing a model policy for walking and bicycling to school. It is true that teenage driving is significantly more dangerous than students bicycling when you look at crash statistics. Yet, no schools consider banning teenage drivers.

Also, sadly, bicycles have also been banned by some school districts in other states in the US. Isn’t it obvious that the alternative – more cars, as parents dropping their kids off at school instead – is only going to involve more car accidents?

Not only does banning bicycling eliminate a safe route to school – but consider what bicycles offer children in terms of self-autonomy and developing their own independence. I think we’re losing out on more than a safe route to school here.

Jul 29, 2009 :: Tagged under: , , :: #

Bicyclists are Safer in Numbers

It might be time to rethink whether that bike helmet is really what’s making you safe: corroborating a “safety in numbers” effect that researcher Peter Jacobsen identified in 2003, it now turns out that NYC’s rise in the number of people out walking and riding bicycles is also making the city a lot safer for those people too.

“Safety in numbers” also explains why the U.S. has such a high rate of cyclist injuries and fatalities compared to countries like the Netherlands and Denmark, where biking is much more common. And it’s pretty much Exhibit A when it comes to proving the folly of “safety campaigns”.

It’s a fascinating topic, this; particularly because it reminds us that what we think makes us safe often isn’t necessarily what’s making us actually safe. (cf: Steven Johnson’s Everything Bad is Good for You, for a similar discussion about popular media.)

It’s been a few years, but this also reminded me of the 2006 research from Dr. Ian Walker, who noted how drivers psychologically treated cyclists without helmets more cautiously than those with helmets. Walker, who examined the distances cars put between them when passing bicyclists with or without helmets, actually got hit twice while conducting his research – both times when wearing a helmet.

Clearly, there’s a lot more to safety than what we’ve thought.

For bicyclists, there’s factors like driver psychology, the overall density and proliferation of cyclists, and the culture of a city that play far greater roles than helmets in keeping them safe. Helmets = Not Necessarily Safer Bicycling.

Still, we do like to bring the fire fighters into our elementary schools every spring, so they can teach our kids about how they’ll surely die if they don’t wear their bike helmets. I’d hate to ruin that.

(Via Kottke.org.)

Jun 05, 2009 :: Tagged under: , , :: #