Bike helmet laws: the nanny state expands south
The other night, we were walking up Pike Street when we saw a police car whiz by with its lights on and pull to a screeching halt...behind a helmet-less bicyclist. We couldn't figure out why, until we got to thinking: does Seattle seriously have a helmet law?The answer, it appears, is yes. And it's inspiring other cities to do the same:
All bicycle riders would have to wear a safety helmet under a law in the works before the Vancouver City Council.Right... because Washingtonians can't be expected to make safe decisions, the government has a duty to do it for us. After all, nothing keeps society safer than laws governing how we protect our own bodies.
The regulation would require helmets for all riders and passengers on bicycles, skateboards, roller blades, roller skates and unicycles on all roads, sidewalks and trails.
Seattle, Tacoma and Spokane, already have laws requiring helmets for all bicyclists.
Who is at risk if I don't wear a helmet when riding my bike? I am. And I alone. If the Vancouver City Council has any respect for the mental capacity of their city's residents, they'll strike this law down.
But given the state of local politics in Washington, don't hold your breath.
I can't believe a bicyclists actually got stopped by a cop for not wearing a helmet in Seattle. That is rare. I know just a couple of people who have gotten stopped by a cop for not wearing a helmet, but they were told to ride on the sidewalk and were not issued a ticket.
Technically, the helmet law is only in King County. Washington state does have a bicycle helmet law.
I meant, Washington state does NOT have a bicycle helmet law.
So, if you're brain-damaged and in a coma for the rest of your life because you weren't wearing a helmet, you have enough money to cover your care, right? You won't be asking for disability, or needing subsidized hospital care, or Social Security? And, assuming you're insured, the astronomical cost of your care won't affect anyone else's insurance rates, right?
Point taken, though all of those issues you brought up are at best long-shot hypotheticals.
That's like saying, "a small percentage of cigarette smokers die as a result of smoking each year; lets ban cigarettes all together"...or, on a more extreme scale, "some people get killed in car accidents; obviously cars should be illegal." Just because some people are going to be idiots and fuck up doesn't mean that all of us should be penalized.
Is there a lull in crime in Seattle? That sounds pretty ridiculous man, surely there are better things for the 5.o to do up there than to protect people from their own mistakes.
I, as you may know SCB, never wear a helmet when I ride, which is about every day. I acknowledge and accept the fact that at any moment I could meet my doom, as you could in any situation.
Consider this: Perhaps King County is protecting the innocents from the sight of a spilt/split skull upon the grey. And bigyaz does have a point about disability and rising insurance and all of that.
Better to live sucka free if you ask me
I got a helmet story, I bought a fancy cycle, I'm into meeting babes in an eclectic way, i've even started drinking tea in coffee shops, I want people to see that I am not just a handsome dude, that is why I love South Boston, there is no social stigma in promoting the advantages of comprehensive insurance.
I take trips to Europe to improve my language skills, I'm now able to say nothing in four different lanuages. I have a formal group of empties (return serve immigrants), we meet at the Ballyskeagh High Bridge in county Antrim to reminisce about Merkan stuff like sausages you don't have to watch being kiled right in front of your eyes.
Anyway, I was cycling via Shaws Bridge up by Edenderry on the old Lagan canal boat towpath, and I head a crack on a tree, then another, then, whack, my MET helmet disintegrates, I know what to do when auto glass pops, I know what to do when I hear a cap in the street, but I'm sliding along trying to compute this, I wise-up and squirt myself towards Drumbeg, I stop looked at my ruined helmet, run my hands through my hair for loose bome and brain, it was amazing, some bog-dweller was straightening out foxes and had missed my load by a fraction of an inch.
I could rent my body out for surical photography, I've had more motorbike crashes tha I can remember, I even had an armed stitched back on, I don't slabber about that helmet though, because it is so bizarre, and in Southie, almost getting dusted by accident, doesn't really count.
It is like that you can't be careful on a skateboard, thing, you go through life expecting to fall through a roof or get wasted, and lightning misses the rod, this is what I know, it is really dumb to mess up what is already messed up by banging it off the ground,
Life is about landing on your ass, however you gotta plan on your ass taking the day off.
@bigyaz
So why stop at bikes? We would all be safer wearing helmets all the time. Even when you're out driving your car wearing a helmet could save your life.
If the thing cooks up the brains are going to explode out of the bio-helmet anyway. The other one ain't going to make much difference.
I've slipped about in the dark trying to pull bodies out of APCs, well once, don't want to do it again. Car, truck, tank, if it burns, it's over.