Risk Aversion

[kphoger]

I know it's just one guy, but this one guy happens to be a former editor-in-chief of Bicycling magazine, and has researched and written about cycling for a quarter-century:

https://cyclingtips.com/2018/11/commentary-why-i-stopped-wearing-a-bike-helmet/

[thspfc]

The reward is not looking like a clown. And not having to bring around a helmet everywhere. Yes, it's a small reward, but it's also a very small risk to walk across the street without a helmet. I doubt a helmet would save you in a severe car crash, unless it's a full-on motorcycle helmet.

I understand that the mentality has changed, I still perceive overprotective parents when I see kids with helmets riding a bike on a sidewalk. I'm aware this is a me thing , but to me, the kids look like "clowns" to use your nomenclature.

[thspfc]

The reward is not looking like a clown. And not having to bring around a helmet everywhere. Yes, it's a small reward, but it's also a very small risk to walk across the street without a helmet. I doubt a helmet would save you in a severe car crash, unless it's a full-on motorcycle helmet.

Again, generationally, we made fun of the kids riding bikes with helmets on back in the 80's. While I understand that the mentality has changed, I still perceive overprotective parents when I see kids with helmets riding a bike on a sidewalk. I'm aware this is a me thing, but to me, the kids look like "clowns" to use your nomenclature.

I distinctly recall kids my age who wore helmets being ripped apart as being nerds by their peers.  It usually wasn't long after the first verbal assailment that the helmet in question would no longer appear.

As long as personal anecdotes matter, I have always worn a bike helmet - including when I was in elementary and middle school - and never experienced any of this, nor did I witness anyone else experience that.

[Rothman]

So, we have a lot of people that need to make fun of other people wearing helmets to make them feel better about themselves and then some helmet wearers that cared so much about the boors that made fun of them that they took their helmets off.

And we wonder why our country is so screwed up nowadays.

[JayhawkCO]

The reward is not looking like a clown. And not having to bring around a helmet everywhere. Yes, it's a small reward, but it's also a very small risk to walk across the street without a helmet. I doubt a helmet would save you in a severe car crash, unless it's a full-on motorcycle helmet.

Again, generationally, we made fun of the kids riding bikes with helmets on back in the 80's. While I understand that the mentality has changed, I still perceive overprotective parents when I see kids with helmets riding a bike on a sidewalk. I'm aware this is a me thing, but to me, the kids look like "clowns" to use your nomenclature.

I believe you're in the minority there.

I don't honestly believe I am. I think I'm probably around the median age here. I would assume most users older than me feel at least somewhat similarly, and they definitely weren't wearing bike helmets as a kid.

[thspfc]

The reward is not looking like a clown. And not having to bring around a helmet everywhere. Yes, it's a small reward, but it's also a very small risk to walk across the street without a helmet. I doubt a helmet would save you in a severe car crash, unless it's a full-on motorcycle helmet.

Again, generationally, we made fun of the kids riding bikes with helmets on back in the 80's. While I understand that the mentality has changed, I still perceive overprotective parents when I see kids with helmets riding a bike on a sidewalk. I'm aware this is a me thing, but to me, the kids look like "clowns" to use your nomenclature.

I believe you're in the minority there.

I don't honestly believe I am. I think I'm probably around the median age here. I would assume most users older than me feel at least somewhat similarly, and they definitely weren't wearing bike helmets as a kid.

Alright, let's put it to a poll.

[Rothman]

The reward is not looking like a clown. And not having to bring around a helmet everywhere. Yes, it's a small reward, but it's also a very small risk to walk across the street without a helmet. I doubt a helmet would save you in a severe car crash, unless it's a full-on motorcycle helmet.

Again, generationally, we made fun of the kids riding bikes with helmets on back in the 80's. While I understand that the mentality has changed, I still perceive overprotective parents when I see kids with helmets riding a bike on a sidewalk. I'm aware this is a me thing, but to me, the kids look like "clowns" to use your nomenclature.

I believe you're in the minority there.

I don't honestly believe I am. I think I'm probably around the median age here. I would assume most users older than me feel at least somewhat similarly, and they definitely weren't wearing bike helmets as a kid.

Alright, let's put it to a poll.

Jayhawk's just a mean guy. 

[thspfc]

The reward is not looking like a clown. And not having to bring around a helmet everywhere. Yes, it's a small reward, but it's also a very small risk to walk across the street without a helmet. I doubt a helmet would save you in a severe car crash, unless it's a full-on motorcycle helmet.

Again, generationally, we made fun of the kids riding bikes with helmets on back in the 80's. While I understand that the mentality has changed, I still perceive overprotective parents when I see kids with helmets riding a bike on a sidewalk. I'm aware this is a me thing, but to me, the kids look like "clowns" to use your nomenclature.

I believe you're in the minority there.

I don't honestly believe I am. I think I'm probably around the median age here. I would assume most users older than me feel at least somewhat similarly, and they definitely weren't wearing bike helmets as a kid.

Alright, let's put it to a poll.

Jayhawk's just a mean guy.

We'll let the votes decide. https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=31638.0

[JayhawkCO]

The reward is not looking like a clown. And not having to bring around a helmet everywhere. Yes, it's a small reward, but it's also a very small risk to walk across the street without a helmet. I doubt a helmet would save you in a severe car crash, unless it's a full-on motorcycle helmet.

Again, generationally, we made fun of the kids riding bikes with helmets on back in the 80's. While I understand that the mentality has changed, I still perceive overprotective parents when I see kids with helmets riding a bike on a sidewalk. I'm aware this is a me thing, but to me, the kids look like "clowns" to use your nomenclature.

I believe you're in the minority there.

I don't honestly believe I am. I think I'm probably around the median age here. I would assume most users older than me feel at least somewhat similarly, and they definitely weren't wearing bike helmets as a kid.

Alright, let's put it to a poll.

Jayhawk's just a mean guy.

I said median, not mean.

[Max Rockatansky]

The reward is not looking like a clown. And not having to bring around a helmet everywhere. Yes, it's a small reward, but it's also a very small risk to walk across the street without a helmet. I doubt a helmet would save you in a severe car crash, unless it's a full-on motorcycle helmet.

Again, generationally, we made fun of the kids riding bikes with helmets on back in the 80's. While I understand that the mentality has changed, I still perceive overprotective parents when I see kids with helmets riding a bike on a sidewalk. I'm aware this is a me thing, but to me, the kids look like "clowns" to use your nomenclature.

I believe you're in the minority there.

I don't honestly believe I am. I think I'm probably around the median age here. I would assume most users older than me feel at least somewhat similarly, and they definitely weren't wearing bike helmets as a kid.

I wasn't wearing one as already stated above.  I don't recall anyone ever using "clown"  to describe a child with a helmet on in the 1980s/1990s.  I do recall kids calling the helmet wearing kids "nerd"  and "safety nerd"  numerous times.  Being classified as any kind of "nerd"  by your peers whether it was true or not in the 1980s or early 1990s was not likely to help your social standing as a child. 

[Jim]

I don't recall kids being made fun of for wearing bicycle helmets when I was prime bike riding age (late 70's to mid 80's) but I also don't recall ever seeing anyone wearing one in the first place.  It was not a thing anyone considered.

[webny99]

I don't honestly believe I am. I think I'm probably around the median age here. I would assume most users older than me feel at least somewhat similarly, and they definitely weren't wearing bike helmets as a kid.

Alright, let's put it to a poll.

Jayhawk's just a mean guy.

I said median, not mean.

Well played! 

[kphoger]

I didn't wear a helmet when I was a child.  I started cycling very early on, as my dad is a somewhat avid cyclist.  Heck, I used to ride down staircases with no hands and no helmet.  But that's the kind of kid I was:  always climbing trees, skateboarding (poorly), doing crazy twist-flips off the high dive, using my bike to its full extent.  It made my mom nervous, but my dad balanced that out by letting me "be a boy" most of the time.  He once drew a cartoon for my mom, in which I was in the act of riding my bike off the roof of the house and my mom was shouting "Don't you dare land in my flower bed!"  That summed up the family dynamic pretty well.

When I was in high school, I wore a helmet more often.  I don't think I wore it all the time, but I honestly can't remember if there was any guiding principle to determine when I would.  If my ride took me out on the highway, I definitely would wear a helmet.  If I was riding all over town with my friends, through unpaved back alleys, over curbs, doing jumps–I think I would wear one but can't quite remember for sure.  But if I was just going a couple of blocks down to the pool, I wouldn't.

Then, when I moved to the Chicago area, I made sure to wear a helmet almost all the time.  (Technically, this was moving back to the Chicago area, as I learned to ride as a youngster in New Lenox, but we moved to a small town in Kansas when I was about to enter fourth grade.)  The Chicago area is the only place I've had a bicycle-vehicle crash, and I had one three times in those seven years.  Ironically, at least one of them–maybe more–was an occasion on which I wasn't wearing a helmet;  my head hit the pavement, but my stocking cap provided enough protection because it was at low speed.

When my wife and I got married, we moved to southern Illinois.  I don't remember if I wore a helmet there, but maybe.  I occasionally cycled to and from work, and part of that route involved a secondary state highway with no shoulders.  I always felt kind of nervous on that road.

Here in Wichita, I only ride for pleasure, and I don't wear a helmet.  Part of the reason is that the pads inside have degraded and come off.  But part of the reason is that I just don't care to wear it.

As our sons have learned to ride, we've started them off without helmets.  Our middle child is a big worrier, and it was like pulling teeth to get him o learn to ride–in part because he kept insisting that he needed a helmet to stay safe.  We told him that we'd get him a helmet after he'd learned to ride, not before.  Our eldest son is free to ride all over the neighborhood, and he does so without a helmet.  However, we don't allow him to cross any major (four-lane) roads into adjacent neighborhoods.  It's my plan to buy him a helmet and then allow him a larger radius once he starts wearing that.  I'm a lot more nervous about him crossing a four-lane arterial than I am about him riding neighborhood streets.

[hbelkins]

I don't even think they made helmets for bicyclists when I was growing up. And if they did, the practice certainly wasn't promoted.

[Max Rockatansky]

I'm spending the week down in Jalisco in a town of about 28,000.  Of the all the cyclists I've observed maybe 10% are wearing helmets, 30% for the moped/dirk bike riders and about 50% for the ATV riders. 

[Duke87]

It has at this point been well over a decade since the last time I rode a bicycle for any reason, but as a kid I was taught you're supposed to wear a helmet and I was pretty consistent about doing so. I was not made fun of for this, other kids also wore helmets, all at their parents' insistence.

The practice has definitely fallen by the wayside though, I rarely see anyone - child or adult - wearing a bike helmet anymore.

[hbelkins]

It has at this point been well over a decade since the last time I rode a bicycle for any reason, but as a kid I was taught you're supposed to wear a helmet and I was pretty consistent about doing so. I was not made fun of for this, other kids also wore helmets, all at their parents' insistence.

The practice has definitely fallen by the wayside though, I rarely see anyone - child or adult - wearing a bike helmet anymore.

In that viral video of Biden falling off his bike today, he has a helmet on while the person who was riding directly behind him was not wearing a helmet. Best I can tell, of those individuals shown, half were helmeted and half weren't.

Again, it's probably the age difference, but bike helmets weren't a thing in my youth.

[Scott5114]

I would imagine that for someone in their 80s, whose death would at least marginally affect the lives of 300 million people, not wearing a helmet is not really a very attractive option. If some random staffer cracks their head open on the pavement, it's tragic and might slow work down a little bit, but you don't have to hang up new pictures in every federal office building or anything.

Of course, if he really wanted to take the risk, there's not really much that could be done to stop him. His predecessor is documented to have stared directly at the sun with no eye protection, and the Secret Service didn't try to intervene.

[thspfc]

It has at this point been well over a decade since the last time I rode a bicycle for any reason, but as a kid I was taught you're supposed to wear a helmet and I was pretty consistent about doing so. I was not made fun of for this, other kids also wore helmets, all at their parents' insistence.

The practice has definitely fallen by the wayside though, I rarely see anyone - child or adult - wearing a bike helmet anymore.

Around here the majority wear helmets.

[formulanone]

Growing up throughout the 1980s, I didn't notice too many people nor kids wearing bike helmets, except for professional riders. My family, friends, and classmates didn't wear them. At some point in the early-1990s, I noticed kids wearing them. And it seemed that mass-media portrayed bicyclists and skateboarders wearing them, too. (I never saw an actual skateboarder wearing one until I saw X Games on TV.)

I didn't originally use a helmet to get back and forth to class on campus, until I was involved in a 50/50 accident, with no time to react for a vehicle which stopped suddenly in my bike lane. Although I was fine, I started to think of the words of Jackie Stewart: "Don't buy a $10 helmet unless you have a ten-dollar head" so I bought a helmet and used that for several years. Honestly, I haven't seriously biked any distance more than a few hundred feet in almost 20 years.

My kids bike with helmets and always wear them, though my old bike helmet hangs in the storm shelter nowadays. The kids around these parts do not seem to wear helmets; you might see it on a young child (like 2-5) but not much after that. There's a part of me that thinks the parents are just giving their children a little more freedom like we had as kids, but there's also a nagging feeling that the parents also tend to be a little more careless. To be fair, there's a lot less vehicular traffic in this neighborhood than the one I grew up in.

[hbelkins]

I would imagine that for someone in their 80s, whose death would at least marginally affect the lives of 300 million people, not wearing a helmet is not really a very attractive option. If some random staffer cracks their head open on the pavement, it's tragic and might slow work down a little bit, but you don't have to hang up new pictures in every federal office building or anything.

Of course, if he really wanted to take the risk, there's not really much that could be done to stop him. His predecessor is documented to have stared directly at the sun with no eye protection, and the Secret Service didn't try to intervene.

I get the feeling that the Secret Service intervenes only when there's a threat from some external source. I recall statements from a number of presidents that they wanted to do certain things, but the Secret Service told them "no." (Which seems odd, since the president is at the top of the federal government executive branch organizational chart. One would think that the SS takes orders from him, not the other way around.)

If I was in Biden's position, riding on asphalt, I'd be more concerned about wearing knee pads or long pants to prevent road rash from a potential tumble.

[kphoger]

I just found out Saturday that my wife has NEVER, not once, ever worn a bicycle helmet.

We went with my eldest son to buy him a bike helmet.  When we got home and fitted it to his head, I laughed, pointed to the little sticker on the inside of the helmet that said 'REAR', and wondered how anyone could be ridiculous enough to try and put a bike helmet on backwards.  That's when my wife informed me that she has never worn one and would have no idea which way it's supposed to go.  She then picked it up, looked at it for a few seconds, and proceeded to tell me her first inclination would be to put it on the wrong way.

[kphoger]

[abefroman329]

I recall statements from a number of presidents that they wanted to do certain things, but the Secret Service told them "no." (Which seems odd, since the president is at the top of the federal government executive branch organizational chart. One would think that the SS takes orders from him, not the other way around.)

That's because they don't tell the President "no."  The only stories I'm aware of that are similar to what you're describing are the times President Obama wanted to attend a White Sox/Nationals or Bulls/Wizards game, and they said something more along the lines of "here are the threats that we can screen out and here are the ones that we can't."

Frankly, I've never heard of any ex-President saying that they wanted to do X, but the Secret Service said "no."

[J N Winkler]

As I understand it, the Secret Service is under the Secretary of Homeland Security (formerly the Secretary of the Treasury), who serves at the pleasure of the President but who is rarely dismissed without good cause owing to the hassle factor of hauling a new permanent appointment through Senate confirmation.

When Presidents say they "can't" do a quotidian thing and the implication is that the "can't" has to do with security, I usually understand that to mean they could if they insisted, but find it prudent not to do so.  One example that comes to mind is Obama driving a car ten feet during some kind of ceremony at an auto plant (perhaps the one millionth of a particular car model rolling off the assembly line?) and commenting that was the most he had driven since he became President.