are cycle helmets mandatory

[parknride]

I am not suggesting anyone should cycle without wearing safety helmets although I do occasionally cycle on quiet paths without mine.
Does anyone know if it is mandatory in Europe to wear one please?

 

[Yorick]

No. It's still your choice.

 

[parknride]

Thanks for that.

 

[bigtree]

I'm sure I read somewhere that the police are fining you for not wearing one in Spain.

 

[scotjimland]

Spain has a requirement..

Spain 2004 Required on interurban routes except when going uphill or in very hot weather, or for professional cyclists

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_helmet_laws_by_country

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[parknride]

I'm sure I read somewhere that the police are fining you for not wearing one in Spain.

Think this is what prompted my question wasnt sure if I had made it up or read it somewhere. Thanks.

 

[buttons]

I am not suggesting anyone should cycle without wearing safety helmets although I do occasionally cycle on quiet paths without mine.
Does anyone know if it is mandatory in Europe to wear one please?

Not in this part of Europe

 

[Techno]

Yes As Jim said Spain and the balearics require that you wear a helmet out of town and I've always regarded this as a backwards choice as it is in town amongst other traffic where the risk is greater.
Descending at speeds in excess of 55mph will make your mind up but you'll still need an ambulance

 

[Old Soldier]

Be it on your own head....! I always wear one now I'm older and apparently wiser!

 

[funflair]

I don't even know what "interurban" means but I thought Spanish rules were that you must wear them in towns but not mandatory in the countryside, we wore ours all the time but loads of people don't bother and nobody seems to bother them.

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[motorhomer]

I don't even know what "interurban" means but I thought Spanish rules were that you must wear them in towns but not mandatory in the countryside, we wore ours all the time but loads of people don't bother and nobody seems to bother them.

I think its the other way round, must wear them out of town. But as others have said there are, I think, exceptions like when its hot!!!
I agree that they are a good thing but I have to admit that we don't usually bother, I guess justification being that we rarely go on a road with our folders, and only at 3 to 4 mph! If there isn't a cycle track or footpath we can use we don't ride!

 

[Techno]

Yes it is opposite to logic Martin thats how I remember.
Interurban is between towns or out of town.

ALSO unlike the UK you can be severely reprimanded or fined for not using the cycle lane where provided, especially on Majorca where they spend a lot of money to separate you on busy routes into town.

 

[parknride]

Yes As Jim said Spain and the balearics require that you wear a helmet out of town and I've always regarded this as a backwards choice as it is in town amongst other traffic where the risk is greater.
Descending at speeds in excess of 55mph will make your mind up but you'll still need an ambulance

Super photo, I wouldn't ask the question if I was riding in them there hills, just do it! But I'm not up to them hills.....

I think its the other way round, must wear them out of town. But as others have said there are, I think, exceptions like when its hot!!!
I agree that they are a good thing but I have to admit that we don't usually bother, I guess justification being that we rarely go on a road with our folders, and only at 3 to 4 mph! If there isn't a cycle track or footpath we can use we don't ride!

same here

 

[Puddleduck]

Always wear a helmet....... if it's hot I take it off put water inside, tip the water over my head and then put the helmet back on. Cools you down a treat!

 

[Techno]

Always wear a helmet....... if it's hot I take it off put water inside, tip the water over my head and then put the helmet back on. Cools you down a treat!

If its hot I give my bike a break

Majorca is a mecca for cyclists. Looking down over part of the 14k descent to Sa Calobra and there's only one road in and out

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[DBK]

If you want to enter the dark world of the cycle helmet debate in the UK take a peek at the link at the bottom - but it comes with a health warning, you will find some very strongly held beliefs by folk who don't have an off switch on the subject.

The problem, if it can be called that, is that there has never been any study which showed that cycle helmets actually save lives. Indeed, the evidence, such as it is might suggest the opposite. For example, Australia brought in a law making it compulsory to wear a helmet and the result was that cycling went down by 30% but the numbers killed or seriously injured only went down by something like 15%. This might suggest that the proportion of cyclists killed or seriously injured actually went up! Which isn't what was perhaps expected by the law makers.

There are many possible explanations for this, perhaps the most convincing is described as risk compensation which is where someone feels safer so they take more risks. To take a non-cycling example of this if Michael Schumacher had not been wearing a skiing helmet would he have been going so fast?

There was also some research done by a UK university, using driving simulators, where they measured how much room a passing motorist gave cyclists when they overtook them. The results consistently showed a cyclist without a helmet was given more space and this was particularly marked when the motorist was overtaking a child. A possible explanation is a child wearing a helmet looks taller and therefore older and also the helmet may suggest the cyclist is more competent that they may actually be. I've actually used the technique of deliberately wobbling my bike to make a car approaching me too fast on a narrow road slow down! If the motorist thinks I am about to fall off and go under their vehicle they do generally lift off the accelerator I have found.

At a more practical level the sort of accident which is going to get you killed on a bike, such as being hit by a car going at speed or run over by a tipper truck is one where a flimsy bit of plastic isn't going to save you. I can't remember off the top of my (helmeted) head what sort of tests are given to cycle helmets but they all only represent impacts at quite low speeds.

The cynical view is a cycle helmet will save you cuts and abrasions when you fall off at low speed but it won't fend off a bus.

It is hugely counter-intuitive to think that a cycle helmet might actually makes things worse but the evidence to support this view is perhaps a lot stronger than the evidence to the contrary. To take another non-cycling example. You might think wearing boxing gloves would reduce the damage done to your opponents brain but there is a good case the opposite is true. Boxing gloves make the hand much heavier so you are effectively hitting your opponent on the head with a heavier object than you would if you used bare knuckles.

Here is that link, there are some extreme views in here and don't ask me to defend them. I do wear a helmet but I do so to stop me getting a bump if I fall off. I have little faith it will save my life.

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[Allan & Loren]

I always wear a helmet. Did initially feel a burke but not any more.

We had the same debate about ski helmets a few years back. They still aren't mandatory but we choose to wear them and feel safer for them.

 

[DBK]

I always wear a helmet. Did initially feel a burke but not any more.

We had the same debate about ski helmets a few years back. They still aren't mandatory but we choose to wear them and feel safer for them.

There is a doctor somewhere in Scotland who has been monitoring skiing injuries up there. Over the period when helmet wearing amongst skiers rose from virtually zero to now I think well over 50% the proportion of head injuries recorded as a fraction of the number of skiers has not changed one bit. Skiing helmets may help prevent some injuries but skiers who feel safer may just go a little fast to compensate....

 

[hilldweller]

but skiers who feel safer may just go a little fast to compensate....

Hello Mr Schumacker.

 

[hilldweller]

At a more practical level the sort of accident

As a motor-biker who has ridden motorbikes without helmet, the pushbike ones seem very flimsy and fit for a single accident, in a dead straight line. Little or no side protection.

I've tested bike helmets twice with identical results, damage to jaw line. Both incidents under 30 mph. In both cases I'd have suffered serious jaw damage.

Wife fell off her bike in Spain, no helmet ( they were in the MH ), she spent weekend in hospital with a broken collar bone.

So I happily ride a push bike with the helmet safe in the MH. That's my personal risk analysis.

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[jumar]

For Spain

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[gus-lopez]

May 2014:


"With the new driving laws prepared in 2013 the intention had been to make existing laws even stricter by making helmet-wearing compulsory for everyone, everywhere. The proposals met with dismay from some quarters and many town halls made a case against the compulsory wearing of helmets in the city. Some of this opposition could be linked to the impact it might have on the public bicycle hire system that operates in some places.

Following this strong opposition, the section of the law requiring helmets in city centres as well as outside, was removed. Instead, from the 9th May 2014, it became obligatory only for cyclists of 16 years old or less to wear a helmet at all times. The rest of the existing law stays the same. Adults older than 16 must wear a helmet outside of city centres but are exempt during periods of excessive heat, on steep hills or if they are professional cyclists."

From here;

http://www.abacoadvisers.com/spain_explained/blog/spanish-law/cycle-helmet-laws-spain#

Other parts of the laws also worth remembering are that ,

if you are involved in an accident with a cyclist you are assumed to be at fault & it is up to you to prove you are not.

2 cyclists equal a car & you have to overtake as if it was giving them 2m clearance. ( what that means is that on some roads ,like the 6m+ wide one outside my house you cannot legally overtake them !!!lol)

If there are multiple cyclists i.e.20 then you are overtaking 10 cars & should treat then as such as any accident & you won't have a leg to stand on.
Cyclists are also now exempt from the 'minimum speed limit'.
50% of any posted limit which they now do not have to comply with.