Feeling secure?

-
Dr Ian Walker, a traffic psychologist from the University of Bath, has determined that drivers pass closer to cyclists who are wearing helmets than those who do not.

Apparently, drivers have the impression that cyclists wearing a helmet are more experienced whereas those who do not are more unpredictable. Drivers also give more distance to female cyclists.

You can read the press release here.

Image nabbed from here.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Hi Richard,
Just dropping by to say hello to you. Very interesting blog that you have here..I'll visit again soon...
have a nice day.
September 13, 2006 4:57 AM
tin-tin said…
and i thought it was because those wearing helmets wouldn't get hurt that much. just kidding ;p
September 13, 2006 5:33 AM
Barbara said…
You are the second person to point this out to me, after my discourse on wearing bicycle helmets a few weeks back. I still contend that the statistics would definitely come out on the side of safety with a helmet if a true scientific study was done. I'm standing by my helmet!
September 13, 2006 12:08 PM
Just me said…
Is that cause women are unpredictable too? *grin*
September 13, 2006 2:33 PM
Lunafish said…
I would not want to be the bicycle test dummy without a helmet.
September 13, 2006 3:31 PM
Richard said…
ammoontie: thank you for dropping by and commenting.

tin-tin: the helmet protects the head from low speed impacts with the ground, however, according to the research, they make you more vulnerable to being hit by cars because of a changed perception in the driver's mind about your competence.

barbara: when I heard it on As It Happens I thought of your earlier post. Ian Walker did not study the effectiveness of helmets in preventing injury, he studied whether cars came closer to helmeted drivers or not. They do. In fact he was hit twice by a car while wearing a helmet and not at all when riding bare headed.

freckled-one: I am not sure why it is. Perhaps it is because drivers assess female cyclists as being more unpredictable.

lunafish: that is why the researcher was the guinea pig himself.
September 13, 2006 6:32 PM
Mother of Invention said…
I'm with Barbara. Why tempt the fates? It's not that inconvenient just to clip one on and you get used to it. Plus they make you look and feel like a REAL athlete!
September 13, 2006 11:09 PM
Richard said…
MOI: from the research, it could be argued that you are tempting fate each time you don the helmet.

In general, I think any reasonable precaution is sensible.
September 14, 2006 7:55 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Chinese Wisdom Concerning Money

-
[19September-2007 @ 17:11 EST: Revised preamble. This page still gets the most search hits: There is no Anthony de Croud. The e-mail is SPAM. I post things that pique my fancy at the moment. I like the 8 precepts, but the rest of the e-mail is junk. However, I thought it fair to post everything in its entirety. I did not write the e-mail. I did not forward the e-mail. I strongly encourage you not to forward it either. (I also encourage you to reply to whomever sent you the e-mail and tell them you don't appreciate getting junk mail.)] Received this in our e-mail (English translation follows): PRECEPTO CHINO SOBRE EL DINERO EL DINERO PUEDE COMPRAR UNA CASA, PERO NO UN HOGAR, EL DINERO PUEDE COMPRAR UN RELOJ, PERO NO EL TIEMPO. EL DINERO PUEDE COMPRAR UNA CAMA, PERO NO EL SUEÑO. EL DINERO PUEDE COMPRAR UN LIBRO, PERO NO EL CONOCIMIENTO. EL DINERO PUEDE PAGAR UN MÉDICO, PERO NO LA SALUD. EL DINERO PUEDE COMPRAR UNA POSICIÓN, PERO NO EL RESPETO. EL DINERO PUEDE COMPRAR LA SANGRE, PERO
Read more

Risky Singapore?

-
CBC Radio had a documentary on Singapore and its lack of risk taking yesterday (only just heard it this morning). Since I know there are 1 or 2 Singaporean readers of this blog, I am curious to know how accurate the documentary is. I find that people often have mistaken impressions about other cultures and people. You can hear it here .
Read more

Why you should regularly visit your dentist.

-
I hadn't been to my dentist since May-2004 (normally I went on weekends, but since Sofia and the kids moved to Montreal, I am not in Ottawa on the weekends). Last night, as I was munching on some cashews, I felt a pain in one of my molars and then some grit in my mouth. I went and washed it out, assuming that maybe there had been a stone or something amount the cashews. Turns out I noticed a hole in the surface of the molar (top right, second from the back, my wisdom teeth were removed years ago). Fishing around for grit in my mouth, it looked like crumbled filling. So I assumed that my filling had cracked and crumbled and come out. Went to the dentist this morning, he took an x-ray and came back with bad news. I have a large cavity under the filling, which gave way. The filling did not fall out, but rather impacted into the space of the cavity. He did not rework the filling, since the cavity is very near the root - cleaning it out would likely result in exposing the root. As some
Read more