I say unusual in the sense of Japan seems to be the only one to have solved the issue of how do you transport 2 kids on a bike not with "big box" like the dutch and subsequently the entire western world but via 2 seats, they're apparently very popular over there as a means of transportation.
Actually kind of a common Dutch standpoint. The helmet is seen as basically being a justification for blaming accidents on cyclists, rather than drivers and poor infrastructure. If you're on a smooth and well-designed bike path separated from the street, it's pretty unlikely you're going to get punted by a car: the thing bike helmets are generally used for. When's the last time you just did an oopsie and flew over your handlebars when your tire hit... Nothing. Probably never, right?
Unfortunately, this sort of standpoint falls apart the second you start doing things like riding offroad or in even a modicum of crappy conditions, when you can just slip and eat shit on a droplet of morning dew when you try to go around some goofballs walking in a group and taking up an entire sidewalk or something.
The anti-helmet crowd's response to this is usually, "Simply do not do this, because it is not the way that it is done."
E: 7bicycles has also clarified that he is not anti-helmet and does wear one so... We're out here wearing seatbelts and telling people to blame drunk drivers and not the victim who hadn't buckled the seatbelt in their parked car yet.
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You mean that that's not the world you're in. There are plenty of countries where literally all of these things are the norm, and your experiences are a rare exception.
I don't think that helmets are bad or unnecessary, but I do agree that they are entirely ineffective against the things Americans will trot out the "should have worn a helmet smh" victim blaming for, i.e. getting punted by a speeding F150.
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Yeah, I think this is a very carbrained argument. Cycle infrastructure is very well segregated from car infrastructure in the Netherlands and Dutch drivers aren't psychos trying to mow down cyclists at every opportunity. People in places with shitty cycle infrastructure have been heavily propagandized into thinking it's all "personal responsibility" and the default attitude of drivers (in America at least) is that cyclists have a death wish and they are more than happy to grant it.
This is the kind of trauma that living in an individualist society does to a person. People in the Netherlands and Japan actually look out for each other.
100%. Helmets are not useful for getting hit by a car. They're useful for when you inexplicably eat shit on a pebble or a single leaf somehow, both of which I've done.
Yeah, I guess it's an American thing but there's a million ways to hurt yourself and or crack your melon on a bicycle that do not involve collisions with a motor vehicle
Exactly. I think the argument that some people have against helmets comes from an argument against victim blaming cyclists murdered by drivers, but then ultimately gets twisted into wild shit where people just come to Bizarro conclusions.
Even in a world without cars I could still hurt my noggin if I fell off my bike, so I don't get this line of reasoning at all
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I mean, yeah. I agree with you. Everyone should wear a helmet. I've been clipped by car doors and dipshits plenty of times in Toronto and the place I live now, and I am absolutely an advocate for making slip plane helmets (like MIPS, WG11, or WaveCel) mandatory for everyone on a bike, everywhere.
I'm trying to explain to Americans why some different people who are not me twist themselves into weird arguments against helmets, so that it isn't just seen as a completely inexplicable mystery outlier crank thing, rather than an irritatingly common belief in some places. I've heard people say dumb shit here like "cars don't go fast enough in PEI to need helmets." And they are mandatory here. (Also highway speeds are like 80 kmh so no idea what these freaks are on about)
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