It seems like a no brainer: if you enjoy your ability to engage in coherent, cognitive processes and you ride a bicycle you should wear a helmet. But the old adage appears to be true, ‘common sense ain’t so common.’ At least not these days. It is fairly common knowledge that in the event of a crash a bicycle helmet can save your life and prevent you from becoming a human vegetable. But have a look around many cities and you’ll notice that it seems fewer riders are taking the simple steps -like putting them on their heads- to wear these life saving devices. More often than not you’ll see the helmet strapped to the handle bars, and I am not sure that they will do there job there. It would seem that helmet use is facing a rapid decline, but why?

Before you get up in arms about the fact that you still wear your helmet and many people you see are wearing helmets, let me just say that I am not insinuating that everyone is opting out of using cranium protection systems, but a lot are. And it just may be because it’s cool not to wear them.

There are a lot of people that are riding away without their helmet and it may be because people love to follow trends, cool trends set by others. And what could be cooler than movie stars? Movie stars like Gerrard Butler, Famke Janssen, Anna Paquin and even Arnold Schwarzenegger have been spotted riding without their helmets. How can common sense ever hope to beat the terminator. Somehow someway something has to change but my question to you is how can we make the helmet cool again, how can we make wearing a helmet something people want to do? Anything uttered by authorities or parents is  automatically uncool so we have to appeal to something else, a higher level of reasoning that can convince people that wearing a helmet is better than cool, it’s lifesaving. There is no simple answer or solution, making it the law seems to have been ineffective and it could be argued that many intelligent people are not wearing helmets, so it isn’t an intellectual deficiency. Not that irrational behavior has ever held intellect in high regard.There is a distinct gap between knowledge and action and the solution lies somewhere in bridging that gap…

On that note I leave you with a question: What do you think would make people change their behaviour and strap a lid on their heads?

Tags: Axiom, Axiom Gear, Bicycle Helmet Safety, Cycling and Helmets, Cycling Safety, Helmets, Wearing a Helmet