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From Austin Bicycle Helmet Law

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Introduction

Abridged message from Mike Librik: "First of all, it looks like the League of Bicycling Voters is back (with a website coming soon). This is the name under which we fought the last helmet law. The foremost thing to do... is to send short, polite, to-the-point mail to Council members stating your opposition to the helmet law. You might as well start drafting one now. Send an email to the Mayor and all the Council members in one shot

After that comes the matter of encouraging your friends and co-workers to visit our site, read what is there, and send feedback to the council. The volume of anti-helmet-law sentiment is our greatest weapon.

T-shirts and stickers are on the way... This next thing may seem goofy to you, but think this over... We could use some no-helmet-law songs, comic strips, poster artwork, poems, interpretive dance pieces, robotic mime exhibitions, etc. This may prove congenial work for some, and it would help with getting the word out...

And lastly is $$$. Some of you may have more money than time. Once our position statement is fleshed out, we can advertise it around in the interest in encouraging people to contact the City Council. Anyone interested in contributing should at least contact me directly since I am the treasurer. Pledges are of more value now than actual donations."

(Brief) History of 1996-7 Repealed Helmet Law

Full Language of 2006 Proposed Helmet Law

Council Members - For and Against the proposed law (?)

Timeline

• TBA - Permitted Parade, Political Rally and Bicycle Party with Bands (also fundraiser for costs)

• Thursday, August 24th, 6pm - Proposed Helmet Law 1st Hearing at City Hall (2nd Street)

Countering the Bruce Todd Pro-Helmet Law Press Release

Full Text of the Press Release - here's you're chance to challenge the validity of facts, figures and inflamtory statements made in it:

• "The ordinance is strongly supported by numerous Austinites"

• "Riding a bike is a privilege, not a right, and-just as is required when riding in a car-we must pay for that privilege by being safe."

• "Eric Makowski, president of Brown-Karhan Healthcare (a long-term, post-acute residential care program for people with head injuries) and president-elect of the Brain Injury Association of Texas, said: "Of the bicycle-related traumatic brain injury cases we have had here at Brown-Karhan, all of them were over the age of 17. Most of them were college students."

• "The Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute estimates that direct cost of cyclists' injuries due to not using helmets is estimated at $81 million each year. Todd said statistics show that head injuries cause extraordinarily expensive, long-term impact to taxpayers."

• "Laws requiring helmets are not 'Big Brother' trying to impose an unreasonable bureaucracy on people. Nor do they have anything to do with personal freedom," Todd said."

• "just as with seatbelt laws, helmet laws benefit all of society by holding down on injuries-and the related cost to taxpayers-with a simple, very inexpensive remedy."

Position Statement on Mandatory Helmet Law (For & Against)

(note: this should be an evolving area of individual opinion, thoughts, ideas that can be gradually pulled into a cohesive document to be presented to the city council meeting on Thursday, August 24th at 6pm)

• Why are we trying to pass a law to increase our safety WHEN we have an accident, instead of enforcing existing laws that would greatly reduce the chance of accidents in the first place?

• You shouldn't criminalize not wearing a helmet because its an unreasonable imposition on cyclists who are not really endangering themselves unreasonably--look at how safe cycling really is whether the cyclist is helmeted or not. Bicycle Safety vs. Car Safety.

• A Large number of bicyclists already wear helmets (more than motorcycles?) even though their use in voluntary.

• Mandatory helmet laws reduce bicycle use

• The law will be difficult if not impossible to enforce. What's the APD and City Manager's position on this?

• It will put an additional burden on the bike shops as they will have to hand out information on the ordinance. Who will produce and pay for that?

• For a bicycle helmet to work properly, the helmet wearer has to cooperate in making sure that the helmet fits properly. When you coerce an adult to wear a helmet, it is quite likely that the coerced person will not take pains to adjust the fit of the helmet. So forcing helmets on people may work a lot less well than persuading people to wear them voluntarily.

• We should be doing everything to encourage bicycle use whilst reducing motor vehicle infrastructure due to severe environmental, social and economic costs

• Not forgetting... Why We Love Bicycling

Some More Effective Alternatives to Helmet Laws

• Actively enforce existing laws relating to motor vehicle DWI/DUI - "Texas has the nations worst problem with drunk driving in terms of total deaths and injuries. Texas had the highest rate of alcohol involvement in traffic deaths of any populous state, with 50 percent of traffic fatalities involving alcohol, compared to 37 percent in California and 40 percent in Florida. Only Alaska and Rhode Island have higher rates of fatalities involving alcohol than Texas." (Source: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, National Center for Statistics and Analysis, Research and Development, Traffic Safety Facts 2000 Alcohol, p. 7.)

• Actively enforce existing laws relating to required bicycle front lights - "Over 50% of adult cycling deaths were avoidable; they involved bicycling at night without lights." (Source: Cooperative Cycling: An Introduction To Bicycling Safely with Traffic, Lauren Cooper 2002)

• Addition of rear red light requirement to TX Transportation Code Sec. 551.104

• Improved Driver Education - Fix disparity between TX Transportation Code and TX Drivers Manual - "Cyclists Have Use of Full Lane" signs vs. "Share the Road" signs - Inclusion of bicycle law in traffic school classes - Ban on cell phone use when operating any vehicle on the roadway.

• Improved Cyclist Education - (city/state/federally funded) Urban cycling classes - Traffic school for tickets - Safe bike routes - Funding or grants for local bicycle programs

• Fixed penalties by degree for negligent driving that results in death or injury to other road users (motor vehicles, cyclists or pedestrians)

• Fully adopt the 1996 (revised 1998 Bicycle Master Plan

Local Bicycle Groups, Shop Owners, Advocates, Doctors, Politicians, APD and their Position on the Helmet Law

Online Petition (?)

From sco-b "I work in the surgical/trauma ICU @ brackenridge and just had a brief discussion with a rather distinguished austin ICU physician regarding helmets. we talked about todd's injury and if a helmet may have 'saved his life'. his remark was "that's impossible to know".

...we also discussed motorcycle helmets and he said that there has never been proven evidence that they work either (i didn't search to confirm), but that there is evidence showing MC helmets have simply shifted the cause of death from a head injury to a neck breakage.

interesting discussion coming from someone with 30+ years critical care experience. i hope he'll sign the petition."

(note: would be nice to get a credited ICU doctor's statement to counter bruce todd's insurance company doctor's statement)

Local Statistical Information Requested

• 5 Year National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) study of effects of previous helmet law

• Percentage of trips in Austin by bicycle, 1995-2005

• Cyclist admissions to Brackenridge since Jan. 1993, by month
• Number of those that were for head injuries
• Number of those that were helmeted/unhelmeted

• Austin cycling fatalities by month, since Jan. 1993
• Which of those cyclists were wearing helmets and which weren't.
• Determined caused of fatality
• Percentage of those where alcohol was involved (driver / cyclist)

• Austin motorcycle fatalities by year since 2000
• Percentage of those helmeted / unhelmeted
• Percentage of those where alcohol was involved

• Austin motorist fatalities by year since 2000
• Percentage of those where alcohol was involved

National & international Statistical Information Requested

• deaths and severe head injuries in similar catgories as above but for some other country, such as the Netherlands or elsewhere in Europe, where most cyclists don't wear helmets. It could probably be demonstrated that places that put greater controls on motor vehicle use have lower injury rate despite lower helmet use. Such figures are nice for the purpose of proactively proposing approaches toward injury reduction.

• Head Injuries Rising Despite Helmets - New York Times Article, 2001

• NHTSA Analysis of Road Accident Statistics in 2003

• NHTSA Data on all Road Deaths in 2002

• NHTSA Data on Bicyclist Deaths and Injuries in 2002

• In Australia, for example, follow-up studies showed that reductions in head injuries after mandatory helmets laws were established could be entirely explained either by the reductions in the number of bicyclists and/or other safety measures *ahem* such as stricter enforcement of drunk driving laws and speed limit reductions that were implemented at the same time. Link 1 - Link 2 - Link 3 - Link 4

• Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center's pedestrian and bicycle crash analysis tool (PBCAT) - For gathering motor vehicle crash data that could contrast bicycle and pedestrian accident statistics. They have an example of PBCAT using data compiled for NC that covers the entire state from 1997 - 2004. Its not Austin nor even Texas, but NC has a state wide child helmet law and only a few communities in the state have a more restrictive all riders ordinance. It's an on-line tool and allows comparisons of all the various crash related scenarios (helmet use, time of day, road conditions, type of injuries, etc). It can be queried by region or county in case there was interest in contrasting communities that have an all rider law against one where helmets are mandated for children only.

• National Center for Injury Prevention and Control- The CDC Injury Center's interactive mapping system is mainly a mapping tool that can show various categories of deaths to include motor vehicle related and head trauma related. The level of detail appears to be down to the county level and includes all states. Averages are accidents/year with data samples that do cover periods that NHTSA studies cover for bicycle related injuries.

• Car-Accidents.com - The site reports mostly national data with breakdowns for type of motor vehicle with contrasts for restraints or alcohol use.

Further Reading / Links

• Head Injuries Rising Despite Helmets New York Times Article
• NHTSA Austin Study
• Cyclehelmets.org
• Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute
• Austin-American Statesman Helmet Law Comment Thread
• Shall We Bike? Austin Chronicle, May 2006
• Kill A Cyclist - Get 10 Years in Prison
• National Center for Injury Prevention and Control
• Car-Accidents.com
• Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center's pedestrian and bicycle crash analysis tool (PBCAT)
• australia & Helmet Law - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4
• Pro-Helmet Links - 1 - 2 - 3
• Links to the studies which have shown no benefit to large populations during periods of increased helmet use