Anti-cycling message from host city's newspaper must sting Velo-city Global

It was a bit depressing to read this anti-cycling lead editorial in the Vancouver Province on my last day in British Columbia, following Velo-city Global 2012.

Vancouver, after all was the host city for the world cycling advocacy conference. And Vancouver has been setting a high bar for cycle friendliness. So the anonymous and half-formed opinions about the helmet stance of Dutch cyclist Hans Voerknecht "and all the other true believers" that topped the editorial page on Friday were a bit of a surprise.

You would assume that the Velo-city organizers must have felt a bit unwelcome, especially coming on the last day. "Oh, thanks for coming from around the world and spending your dollars here. And by the way, you can stuff your ideas."

Perhaps it was written by a German still smarting from the Euro 2012 loss the day before.

Comments

[Peter Parker]

Someone at the Province is just bitter that they're having trouble finding parking for their SUV.

Focus on the good articles we're getting here at home:
http://www.therecord.com/news/local/article/753103--it-s-about-leaving-your-vehicle-at-home

[Ryan]

Ridiculous piece.
It's one thing to say we should copy Holland (with regards to helmets), but I wonder if the person who wrote that realizes that helmet use world wide is low.

I would love to know where this 78% comes from also. When CBC did a piece on helmet laws a few years ago, BC sat between 50-60%. Nova Scotia was the highest at around 70%.

Even if it was 78%, for a province that has it law for everyone to wear a helmet, that number seems low...AND if it's 78%, why are cyclists in BC still getting seriously injured or killed?

I don't put too much into this piece anyways. When you submit an opinion piece I was always of the belief you submit your name along with it (I did recently).

It's not Vancouver (or Velo City related), but read this dandy piece on helmet laws:

http://cycle.ottawacitizen.com/news/column-bike-helmets-should-be-mandatory

[Bill]

@Ryan. I may be wrong, but the position of this piece on the Province opinion page led me to believe this was their lead editorial, written by a Province staffer. Unsigned pieces, traditionally, represent the opinion of the publication.

[gingerbeard]

From that delightful Ottawa article:

>“Making helmets mandatory will reduce the number of cyclists on the roads.”.....
>How, exactly, is this a bad thing?

And that is the problem.

Those who argue against mandatory helmet laws (myself included), see these mandatory laws as an impediment to increasing the number of people cycling. This is not just opinion, but as is pointed out by Hans Voerknechthas resulted in the actual reduction in the number of cyclists in countries that have implemented these laws.

There are far more effective methods in increasing cyclist safety. The best seems to be following the Dutch method of segregated road systems for cyclists.

But that is a long term goal. Reduced speeds within cities and an excellent series of interconnecting bike lanes are far more effective and achievable in the short term.

It also begins to create that subjective feeling of safety that will encourage more people to cycle. More people cycling makes it easier to justify taking more road space and reduces the number of bike/car accidents because drivers now are constantly aware of the bikes, they are no longer rare and easily overlooked by drivers.

Yes helmets are effective in helping mitigate injury from low speed crashes. Not all that effective when hit by a car. Arguing that they should be mandatory implies cycling is a high risk endevour, when really it is sharing road space with cars that is the high risk endevour.

As is often pointed out, requiring pedestrians and passengers in cars to wear helmets would have a far greater effect in reducing the number of head injuries, as they make up the majority of head injury victims.

Yes wear a helmet.
Don’t make it a legal requirement for riding a bike.
All that does is make one more argument for not riding.