News flash: bicycle helmet laws are racist

[Angel Eyes]

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/transportation/racial-disparities-prompt-calls-to-repeal-king-countys-bicycle-helmet-law/

“Folks aren’t riding around without helmets because it’s fun. They’re doing it because helmets aren’t cheap,” said Lindo, who wears a helmet when he rides and started the biking group NorthStar Cycling Club to support riders who are Black, Indigenous and people of color. “Buy them a helmet and you won’t have to penalize them.”

The biking organizations Cascade Bicycle Club and Washington Bikes encourage riders to wear helmets but oppose the mandatory laws. The street newspaper Real Change also opposes the requirement. Other cities, including Tacoma, have already repealed mandatory helmet laws.

I basically agree with the Cascade Bicycle Club: helmets are a good idea but the .gov should not make them mandatory.

As far as the bolded quote above: as I suspected, the "racism" canard is just an angle they're working to get taxpayer-funded helmets.

[MillCreek]

^^^Maybe not so much on the racism issue being a canard.  Lots of data and recent media showing that Seattle Police write citations for this way more on people of color and the homeless downtown and the poorer areas of the city.  Not so much in the more affluent (white) areas of the city.

[WLJ]

Are they going to find that gun control laws are racist anytime soon?

[Angel Eyes]

^^^Maybe not so much on the racism issue being a canard.  Lots of data and recent media showing that Seattle Police write citations for this way more on people of color and the homeless downtown and the poorer areas of the city.  Not so much in the more affluent (white) areas of the city.

Perhaps rates of non-compliance are lower in the more affluent areas.

[Ben]

Perhaps rates of non-compliance are lower in the more affluent areas.

Or, given that it's Seattle, rates are higher in the more effluent areas. 

[zxcvbob]

Perhaps rates of non-compliance are lower in the more affluent areas.

That's probably part of it, but the police and courts like to prey on poor people because they can't fight the tickets.  It's all about easy revenue. 

Why are poor people (but have enough money to be worth exploiting) concentrated in black and brown communities?  That might be worth investigating.  The police taking advantage of the situation is not.

[lee n. field]

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/transportation/racial-disparities-prompt-calls-to-repeal-king-countys-bicycle-helmet-law/

I basically agree with the Cascade Bicycle Club: helmets are a good idea but the .gov should not make them mandatory.

As far as the bolded quote above: as I suspected, the "racism" canard is just an angle they're working to get taxpayer-funded helmets.

helmets aren't cheap, no.  But bicycles aren't either.  Unless you steal them. 

(And, yes, helmets are a good idea.  I lost teeth, and (I think), some verbal ability, from a bike accident 40+ years ago.)

[Perd Hapley]

^^^Maybe not so much on the racism issue being a canard.  Lots of data and recent media showing that Seattle Police write citations for this way more on people of color and the homeless downtown and the poorer areas of the city.  Not so much in the more affluent (white) areas of the city.

[Woke Yoda]Mmmmm, people of color they are. Dark skin they have, yes.

[AZRedhawk44]

I wear a motorcycle helmet all the time on my motos.  Full face coverage.

But bike helmets, IMO, are utter bullshit.

They don't protect anything but the top of your head.  Lateral impact protection is minimal to nonexistent.  They don't have enough traction/retention against the top of the head to avoid slipping in a lateral impact so the side of the head impacts the obstacle.

More importantly, it was the bicycle helmet lobby that pushed for the mandatory helmet laws back in the 90's.

If you're doing BMX stunts or downhill mountain biking or the like, a full face motocross style helmet is a great idea even on a pedal powered bike.  But typical urban/suburban bike usage doesn't call for the mushrooms in vogue today and they don't do squat anyways.

[K Frame]

Government provided bicycle helmets are a Human Right!

[MillCreek]

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/?term=bicycle+helmets

Here are 1499 citations in the medical literature about bicycle helmets.  This former paramedic wears a helmet every time I throw a leg over my bicycles and motorcycles.

[Jim147]

Can I get a list of what isn't racist?

[French G.]

Can I get a list of what isn't racist?

Yes.


There you go.

[Hawkmoon]

The argument that bicycle helmets are too expensive is a canard in itself. I just pulled up the Walmart web site and searched for bicycle helmets. I found adult helmets for $14.99 and youth helmets for as low as $12.99 without scrolling down more than one row. Scrolling a bit lower got me down to $10.99.

Skip a couple of bags of Doritos for one week and there's your bike helmet.

[Perd Hapley]

Can I get a list of what isn't racist?

As we now understand, it is simply impossible for colored people to be racist. Because. Just because.

[RoadKingLarry]

Can I get a list of what isn't racist?

Anything and everything a non-white person says or does.

[230RN]

^  Yep,  The Fix is in.

[MechAg94]

helmets aren't cheap, no.  But bicycles aren't either.  Unless you steal them. 

(And, yes, helmets are a good idea.  I lost teeth, and (I think), some verbal ability, from a bike accident 40+ years ago.)

I figure there are still cheap bikes that are cheap.  I doubt the police care whether you are riding a fancy carbon fiber bike or a Huffy. 

[MechAg94]

It has been a while, but I heard a lot of PD's in Texas use Truancy laws in a similar way.  Write citations to raise money.  Poorer people can't fight the citation and their kids are more likely to not be in school.  What I heard was Texas as a whole amounted to a very large portion of Truancy violations written up nationwide.  Not sure if that is still true. 

KnifeRights.org has used the same arguments to get illegal knife laws removed.  Most of the arrests for minorities and used as an excuse to make the arrest and search them. 

[JN01]

^^^Maybe not so much on the racism issue being a canard.  Lots of data and recent media showing that Seattle Police write citations for this way more on people of color and the homeless downtown and the poorer areas of the city.  Not so much in the more affluent (white) areas of the city.

Could be that the police have more officers patrolling higher crime areas (which makes sense) which means they would observe more violations in those areas, resulting in more citations.

[dogmush]

And so those police take time from their busy, higher crime patrols to write bicycle helmet tickets?  Can't be that much crime if they have time for such critical law enforcement.

Racist or not, anything that helps bad laws get taken down I won't be too against. And as WLJ alluded to, the more we solidify the jurisprudence that anything that makes something more expensive is racist before the coming gun control push, the better.

[cordex]

Racist or not, anything that helps bad laws get taken down I won't be too against. And as WLJ alluded to, the more we solidify the jurisprudence that anything that makes something more expensive is racist before the coming gun control push, the better.

Or, more likely, the bad laws will stay on the books and the responsibility of paying for helmets (at least if you are in a protected class) will be borne by the government.

[griz]

Will the federal .gov buy me a nice motorcycle helmet?  It's required in this state, and they're pretty pricey.

[JN01]

And so those police take time from their busy, higher crime patrols to write bicycle helmet tickets?  Can't be that much crime if they have time for such critical law enforcement.

Racist or not, anything that helps bad laws get taken down I won't be too against. And as WLJ alluded to, the more we solidify the jurisprudence that anything that makes something more expensive is racist before the coming gun control push, the better.

Sure it's a stupid nanny-state law, but I'd rather see it fall due to reason rather than feeding the monster "everything is racist" crowd.

[HankB]

As we now understand, it is simply impossible for colored people to be racist. Because. Just because.

It is racist to refer to some people as colored.

Read the NAACP style guidelines.