Helmet Law Proposed in Denmark

And so the nightmare that summarises the Culture of Fear reaches the shores of Denmark. Two political parties announced yesterday that they will push for a bicycle helmet law for under 16s.

A proposal was defeated in the Danish Parliament back in 2009, when rationality was still something politicians possessed, apparently. Danish readers can check out Cykelhjelm.org for a crash course in knowledge.

The Radical Left and the Socialist Peoples' Party are behind the proposal. The traffic "safety" spokesman for The Radical Left - Jan Johansen - said to Danish Broadcasting:

"We are of the opinion that we must make our children as safe as possible when they are in the traffic".

What the Radical Left and the Socialist Peoples' Party AREN'T doing is making our streets safe.

They are NOT proposing to follow in the footsteps of over 80 European cities and creating 30 km/h zones in densely populated areas or proposing traffic calming measures in our cities.

They are NOT proposing motoring helmets, despite evidence that they would be a good idea.

They are not listening to warnings regarding bike helmet promotion or laws. Nor are they worried about the warnings from Sweden regarding children and reduced cycling.

They are NOT telling us how they will keep children safe on playgrounds or in cars - where the risk of head injury is higher.

They are NOT proposing restrictions or penalities on parents who transport their children inside of cars, what with the higher levels of microparticles than on the bike lanes that run parallel.

Etc. Etc.

The Radical Left are about as informed about helmets as the Socialist Peoples' Party are. We posted about the gaffes made by Pia Olsen Dyhr a couple of years ago. Little has changed in their lack of respect for science or just basic facts.

Here's what happened in Sweden when helmets started being promoted and then legislated. It's the same thing that happened in so many regions that have been subject to the same anti-cycling wave. We wrote about this graph here a few years ago and there is more on this graph in Swedish here.

The sad fact is that Copenhagen is the only city in the western world where cycling levels are falling. We're now at 35%, according to the City of Copenhagen. Before bike helmet promotion started in January 2008 we were at 37%. We predicted this back in January 2009.

Our only bicycle advocacy group, the Danish Cyclists' Federation (DCF) are now busy telling the press that they are against the law. This has been their position for some time, but that hasn't stopped them from projecting their personal fear of cycling onto the population at large through intense helmet promotion, together with their rich and equally uninformed uncle, Rodet for Sikker Panik (Danish Road "Safety" Council).

It's tragi-comic to see how they now have to employ all the arguments that the rest of Europe uses to fight against helmet promotion and legislation. But it's an organisation without any scientific staff - unlike the cyclist federations in so many other countries.

They have made their bed and now they must lie in it. They Culture of Fear regarding cycling in Denmark is their work, along with the Road "Safety" Council, so this development is, indirectly, their fault. Without their pornographic obsession with helmets, we wouldn't be here today.

I wonder where this will lead. Can the European Cyclists Federation help? As they have done in so many other countries that have defeated helmet laws?

Cross your fingers.

Overcomplicating Winter Cycling - Why It's Bad

One of the main focuses of this blog has always been on how Copenhagen and other cities have succeeded in increasing cycling levels by approaching the subject using mainstream marketing techniques. Tried and tested marketing that has existed since homo sapiens first started selling or trading stuff to each other. Modern bicycle advocacy, by and large, is flawed. It is firmly inspired by environmentalism which, in turn, is the greatest marketing flop in the history of humankind. Four decades of sub-cultural finger-wagging, guilt trips and preaching have given few results among the general population. When sub-cultural groups start trying to indoctrinate and convert the public, it rarely ever succeeds. For the better part of a century, people all over the planet rode bicycles because they were quick, easy, convenient and enjoyable. In hilly cities. In hot cities. In snowy cities. After the bicycle largely disappeared from the urban landscape because urban planning s...

A Walking Helmet is a Good Helmet

At long last logic prevails. A new campaign has hit the streets of Denmark, thanks to the visionaries at The Danish Road Safety Council [Sikker Trafik] and Trygfonden [an insurance company]. Intense promotion of walking helmets for pedestrians has begun. This logic has been sorely missed. These two organisations have happily promoted bike helmets but pedestrians suffer just as many head injuries, if not more. This Danish campaign poster reads: "A walking helmet is a good helmet" "Traffic safety isn't just for cyclists. The pedestrians of Denmark actually have a higher risk of head injury. The Danish Road Safety Council recommends walking helmets for pedestrians and other good folk in high risk groups." The slogan is catchy in Danish since it kind of rhymes. All in all it's a brilliant project. Let's save some lives. The new walking helmets will be available in the Danish Cyclists Union's [Dansk cyklist forbund] shop. Although, as the...

Driving Kills - Health Warnings

I think it's safe to say that we have a pressing need for marketing cycling positively if we're to encourage people to ride bicycles and begin the transformation of our cities into more liveable places. Instead of scare campaigns about cycling [a life-extending, healthy, sustainable transport form], wouldn't it be more appropriate to begin campaigns about the dangers of automobiles? Many people in car-centric countries no longer regard cars as dangerous. Maybe they realise it, but the car is such an ingrained part of the culture that the perception of danger rarely rises to the surface of peoples consciousness. Sure, there are scare campaigns for cars out there, but what if we just cut to the chase? Much like smoking. Only a couple of decades ago, cigarettes were an integral part of life, whether you smoked or not. That has changed radically. We think that we could borrow freely from the health warnings now found on cigarette packs around the world. In order to be tho...

The Life-Sized City Blog

Search This Blog