More on Bike Helmets

Dear Editor,
    On Aug. 24 the Austin City Council held a public hearing on a proposal for a mandatory all-ages bicycle helmet law. Austin had such a law 10 years ago. It was very unpopular. Injuries increased, but bicycle sales dropped. We've had 10 years of a youth helmet law, and the number of children who ride bicycles keeps falling.
    This proposal is being pushed by a former Austin mayor who fell of his bicycle onto his head near Lockhart. He says that his helmet saved his life, but no one really knows. With better bicycle-safety skills, perhaps he could have avoided the crash altogether.
    Mandatory bicycle helmet laws often sound good to people who never bicycle for transportation. This is because such laws don't affect them. Mandatory helmets for others always sound better than mandatory helmets for oneself. Would you be willing to wear a bicycle helmet everywhere you go? Nonbicyclists don't always understand why helmet-wearing utility bicyclists are against mandatory helmet laws. It's simple. These laws put fewer bicycles and more cars and motorcycles on the streets. They make our lives more stressful. Making someone wear headgear is basically insulting. A witty woman named De Clarke compares motorists who protect bicyclists with mandatory helmet laws to men who protect women with mandatory burkas.
    Instead of a mandatory bicycle helmet law, the city could offer voluntary bicycle-safety classes, reduce speed limits, publish local crash information regularly, fix the traffic lights so that they detect bicycles, and prohibit car parking in bike lanes. People who live without burning gasoline every day should be encouraged and empowered, not humiliated.