Sunday, March 10, 2013

Unintended consequences: Do helmet laws hurt the public health?

As we record here regularly, regulation often has unintended consequences. In an example of such that does not really apply to enterprise, but which illustrates the problem well, we note that requiring or even promoting the use of bicycle helmets may in fact adversely affect the public health. But you did not need The Atlantic to know that -- we covered this important story almost four years ago!

3 comments:

  1. I'll leave the discussion about bicycles to others.

    However, I never ride a motorcycle without a helmet, boots, leather jacket, and leather pants.

    - DEC (Jungle Trader)

    ReplyDelete
  2. It's been a long time since you've posted about riding. Have you fallen off the bike, metaphorically speaking?

    Spring is just around the corner here in CO, and Anon Attorney will likely take his first ride of 2013 this weekend, weather permitting.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Bicycle helmets are a surrogate for safe bicycling habits. If a car is waiting at an intersection to turn right, and the bike is passing the car on the right (against the law) and begins proceeding straight through the intersection, it's not 100% the driver's fault when the bicyclist dies.

    I'm in favor of restricting bicycle helmet laws to only apply when the bike is ridden on a road shared with cars. I'm in favor of letting bikes use the sidewalks (with or without helmets), and be walked across intersections.

    ReplyDelete

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