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news
Chris Boardman being interviewedComplaints over bare-headed Chris Boardman’s helmetless BBC Breakfast bike ride
Chris Boardman’s appearance on BBC Breakfast this morning has provoked a flurry of complaints about his not wearing a cycle helmet – even though the segment began with him explaining why he chose not to do so. In a detailed explanation this afternoon, Boardman says that while the reaction was "understandable," it is also "unfortunate because it obscures what I believe are the real issues."
The early morning TV show is featuring a report on cycling each day this week. It is broadcast from Salford, close to the Manchester headquarters of British Cycling, where former Olympic champion Boardman is policy advisor.
Prior to going on a bike ride with him, presenter Louise Minchin asked Boardman, “Viewers will notice I will be wearing a helmet but you won’t. Why not?”
He replied: “It’s a very long answer and more time than we’ve got here," before summarising his position briefly.
“It discourages people from riding a bike, you’re as safe riding a bike as you are walking, statistically, you’re much safer than you are going in your own bathroom and you don’t wear a helmet there," he explained.
“There’s absolutely nothing wrong with helmets, but it’s not in the top ten things that you can do to keep safe.
“We’re going to look at all of those things, but for me, I want bikes to be for normal people in normal clothes.
“About 0.5 per cent of people wear one in the Netherlands, yet it’s the safest country in the world,” he added.
“There’s a reason for that.”
Despite his explanation, the backlash on social media was predictable, many pointing out that the Netherlands already has the type of infrastructure that Boardman and others are campaigning for in the UK.
One Facebook user, John Stimpson, said: “Chris Boardman wearing no helmet and riding in black jacket and jeans. For an item on cycling safety you can't get more stupid.”
Another, Toni Smith, said: “How can you show a piece about cycling safety when the ex-champion is not wearing any safety gear? This is not acceptable! Please in the future choose an ambassador who practices what they preach!”
Many others leapt to his defence, however, with Morgan Lewis saying: “For all those people expressing outrage, I wonder if you have spent the same amount of time looking at the evidence about helmets over the years as Chris Boardman has. His view is not idly held. There is a lot of knee-jerking in these comments.”
Jonathan Richards pointed out: “About two thirds of fatalities WITHIN cars are caused by head injuries - why not a call for compulsory helmets for those travelling in cars? And as for pedestrians ....”
Meanwhile, Chris Myrie couldn’t resist asking: “Does this mean his £80 endorsed helmets from Halfords are useless?”
There was a similar division in reaction to his comments on Twitter, where Boardman himself tweeted this morning after the show: “Hi All, rather than try to address the helmet debate (again) I'm going to pen something for people to read and point you to it this PM.”
That response has now been published on the British Cycling website. Boardman acknowledged the BBC Breakfast piece had “got a lot of people fired up,” and that “my riding a bicycle in normal clothing, looking like a normal person was greeted by some with cries of horror. It’s both understandable and unfortunate because it obscures what I believe are the real issues.”
Foremost among those issues is why some cyclists in the UK believe they should have to wear a helmet while cycling in the first place, he said.
“People wear helmets and high vis as they feel it’s all they can do to keep themselves safe. It shows just how far away Britain is from embracing cycling as a normal and convenient form of transport,” he added.
Pointing to the example of Utrecht in the Netherlands and providing a link to a video of people cycling there he went on: “I’m willing to bet that even those that swear by helmets and high vis would feel comfortable discarding their body armour in such an environment. And that’s the point; in Utrecht they have addressed the real dangers to cyclists.”
While he admitted that the situation in the UK is vastly different, he said helmet compulsion was not the answer, citing drops of between 30 and 50 per cent in countries such as Australia and New Zealand that had introduced such legislation.
“If cycling looks and feels normal, more people will cycle,” he said. The more people cycle, the safer they are - the safety in numbers effect. The more people cycle, the more lives will be saved from amongst the 37,000 that die each year from obesity-related illnesses. Never mind the more than 27,000 that die annually from pollution-related illnesses.”
Boardman said he understands “exactly why people feel so passionately about helmets or high vis,” and “why people wish to use them,” but said he would not promote helmets or hi-vis nor be drawn into a debate on a topic that he considers “isn’t even in the top 10 things that will really keep people who want to cycle safe.”
He added: “I want cycling in the UK to be like it is in Utrecht or Copenhagen and more recently New York City – an everyday thing that people can do in everyday clothes whether you are eight or 80 years old. I want cycling to be a normal thing that normal people do in normal clothes. Is that wrong?”
In the BBC Breakfast report itself, Boardman outlined his top tips for cycling safely including planning your route, how to negotiate junctions and roundabouts safely, road position, stopping at red lights and giving large vehicles plenty of space and not going up the left-hand side of them.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
Latest Comments
- chrisonabike 11 min 29 sec ago
Visibility is *good* but looking where you're going is key, no?...
- BobJackson 3 hours 14 min ago
Maybe there should be another bill, requiring a separate offence, of, leaving the scene of an accident before the emergency services arrive.
- stonojnr 3 hours 20 min ago
they still HAVE Wiggle stock ? after the amount of fire sale they went through in the last 6 months.
- stonojnr 3 hours 25 min ago
This is what Pirelli say about tread patterns and ice....
- Hirsute 3 hours 55 min ago
A chance that he thought his bike might be stolen from him.
- Rob Skinner 4 hours 9 min ago
Llongyfarchiadau (congrats), Dave! Loved the video which gave a wonderful idea of what the ride was like, which I found really interesting as I'm...
- wtjs 4 hours 58 min ago
Recounting RLJ tales doesn't really count without a video - then, note can be taken of the forces who are decidedly averse to indisputable video...
- chrisonabike 6 hours 7 min ago
Given the numbers why wasn't IDS campaigning for a new offense of "Causing death by dangerous droving"?...
- Secret_squirrel 8 hours 6 min ago
Do any of the of current doping products have anger management issues as a side effect? Asking for my Columbian cousin.
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287 comments
High viz does stand out on country lanes. I today saw a woman cycling all in black except for a few white stripes, she was on a main A road and I could see traffic making late braking and swerving around her. Where I cycle there are number of riders who wear fluorescent yellow tops and stand out a mile against the background. Add a smattering of reflective strips and you would be a complete knob not to see them in virtually any scenario
Where I cycle there are number of riders who wear fluorescent yellow tops and stand out a mile against the background. Add a smattering of reflective strips and you would be a complete knob not to see them in virtually any scenario
The world of drivers is clearly full of knobs.
I wear bright stuff, lights even in the day, and a helmet, not because I think it makes much of a difference, but because I don't want someone who hits me to have any excuse.
A TRL study wrt hi-viz for motorcyclists would seem to indicate that it's the clothing/background contrast that is the issue - which could even be white or black clothing. To paraphrase part of the conclusion - not likely to be a one-size fits-all solution and that motorcyclists need to be aware of its limitations.
An Oz study into hi-vis/reflectives found that a disproportionally higher proportion of incidents were during low light levels, and that reflectives were more effective in those conditions.
So rather - it depends, and don't blindly rely on them.
So if they had accelerated early and drove straight through her that would have been proof she had been seen?
I have great respect for CB but I always remember him saying that his helmet saved his life when this happened:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/special_report/1998/07/98/tour_de_france/1319...
And whatever "normal" might be, I don't want to be it thank you.
Storm in a teacup though imo.
There's quite a difference between hurtling down winding roads 30+mph in a packed peloton and doing... well, something more like this (www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-AbPav5E5M&noredirect=).
While I'm generally quite ignorant on the issue, I'm pretty sure I support compulsory helmet legislation in the upper echelons of cyclesport. Confusing sport with transport though, is folly.
Riding a bike needn't be dangerous, so helmet use needn't be compulsory in all situations. It CAN be (and for that reason I'm glad I own one) - just as being a pedestrian can be dangerous dangerous if that pedestrian has jumped out of an airborne helicopter without a working parachute - but it needn't be. And I'm awfully glad I don't have to carry a parachute for my normal daily activities.
i already posted this in another news item but I'll post it again here because I think it's relevant for different reasons. And because I think it should be shared far and wide.
a) it's the voice of reason.
b) refreshingly many of the cyclists are not wearing helmets (it's filmed in Cambridge as far as I can see.
Blaine Walsh of Driving-instructor.tv and Michael Frearson of The Association of Bikeability Schemes share their thoughts why cyclists sometimes ride in the middle of the road, on how "right of way" doesn't exist, and how driving instructors have a vital role to play in teaching the next generation of drivers that everybody has a right to use roads, not just motorists.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJHXzt7TC2k
In most of the cycling debates shown on TV or discussed on the radio, Chris Boardman is the only one really that talks sense. I find most people have very little knowledge and experience to base their opinion from.
GET THE MESSAGE HELMETS DO NOT MAKE US SAFE
However, cycling with consideration for the rules of the road and other road users, and other road users doing likewise, make our roads safer. Education has got to be the answer to narrow the void between cyclists and vehicle users attitudes towards each other, surely or is that like too much common sense for people who are in a position to influence such changes....
Don't forget "It's NICE to be NICE!
Maybe not, but helmets CAN and DO save lives and prevent head injuries every day.
Wearing hi-vis gillet, a helmet and having lights on at 4.30 last Saturday afternoon did absolutely nothing to stop me getting taken out by a car side on and spending 6 hours with emergency services.
Nor did carrying a hi-vis rucksac and wearing a helmet stop me getting turned left on and left in the middle of the road 4 weeks previously
On each occasion, the driver professed not to have seen me. The driver in the first instance has been charged with driving without due care and attention, the driver in the second instance just drove off after checking I wasn't dead.
It's not about us or what we wear, it's about drivers who do not actively look out for cyclists and other vulnerable road users when they get in the car and turn the key. Get learner drivers out on bikes in traffic when learning - help them to understand what it is to be a cyclist.
Armouring ourselves does not address the real problems.
I always thought that every road user had a responsibility for their own actions.
Personally I couldn't care less whether other riders choose to wear helmets or not, sometimes I do & sometimes I don't but it's my choice & mine alone. It's not something that should be foisted on my by anybody in my normal cycling time, obviously there are some times where helmets are required such as organised events if the rules require me to wear a helmet I will, that's just part of life. The BBC as a public body should be producing politically neutral reports and promoting cycling as a health benefit rather than producing click bait rubbish on their programs and website, just look at how they support Clarkson & the the piece of televisual junk that is Top Gear which now panders purely to 18 year old boy racers and their intellectual equivalents. This whole issue makes me seethe and the fact that I have to pay a TV License to support this without being given a voice makes it worse.
Sorry for the rant but I just want to go out on my bike without some prick in a car telling me I need to wear "safety gear" to protect myself from him because he can't be arsed to take responsibilty for his own actions.
I wear a helmet because I want to protect my head. Regardless of so called statstics, there is always a chance that I might come off the bike, whether by accident or through someone else's actions. I've seen the results of someone's (helmetless) head hitting a solid surface. Ride round without one if you wish, it's your head. I wear bright clothing as well just so that others can see me coming. We don't need more laws, just common sense out on the roads.
QFT.
Other than that, what CB does is his own business. He hasn't got a debate started, just a little web forum fulmination.
The world will continue to turn.
If the argument was of ensuring safety then cars would be coated in a layer of foam and be covered in hi-viz strips.
Boardman puts common sense first, but, the politicians put money first and because they can't get round his arguments for cycling safety they join the helmet brigade and shout, 'but he isn't wearing a helmet'. Proof again politicians have no sense.
I mowed my front lawn once in flip flops....
Boardman
Anyone genuinely interested in the evidence on the effects of helmet wearing can look at www.cyclehelmets.org and helmet posts on www.rdrf.org.uk , starting off with http://rdrf.org.uk/2013/12/17/the-effects-of-new-zealands-cycle-helmet-law/ and
http://rdrf.org.uk/2013/12/27/the-effects-of-new-zealands-cycle-helmet-l....
If you want to wear a helmet, wear a helmet. If you don't - don't. If you crack your head open not wearing one, then that's your problem. I personally will keep wearing one, having been saved by one once already.
Sweet Jesus.
Must not rise
Must not rise
Must not rise
Oh for f***s sake,
Go away crash in exactly the same way without wearing a helmet, if you don't come back i will accept the helmet saved you, if however you come back, which i am almost certain you will.... Helmets will save you from a few cuts and bruises, but don't expect much more.
As an aside you do know that helmets are less safe than they were 10-15 years ago?
And even on road.cc, the helmet frothing relegates the point of the report (cycling tips) to a paragraph at the bottom and doesn't mention a key part (rebuild bad roads, including challenging the cycling minister)
Why don't people drive hi-viz cars ?
They do. The reason why new cars are sold with LED daytime running lights is to make them more visible to other road users.
Lights are not hi-viz
Hehe, that made me chuckle, but then I realised that's exactly what daylight running lights are for...
Quite.
I can't even turn the damn things off on my Volvo!
Also, did anyone else notice how Boardman wasn't using stabilisers? Disgraceful.
I would say that 60% of safety is WHERE you ride, 30% is HOW you ride, and 10% is WHAT you ride IN.
Still, some days I want that extra 10%.
A lot of fuss about nothing, so Chris didnt wear helmet & hi-viz. What about it? Normal cycling for a change & not trying to enforce others to wear same. Choice is your own, if you feel happier in helmet & hi-viz on our roads then do so, but think why you feel better that way? Its not cycling that making it so, its the crap infra offered to us.
I tried the hi-viz & found I still got the same lame brain excuse of SMIDSY, so thrown them out. I wear a helmet but know if will do sweet FA for my head or the rest of me when under a tonne or so of metal. I wear it to carry my helmet cam & nothing more. I do have reflectives on my jacket, bike & wheel spokes to go with good lights to help improve in getting me noticed at night when drivers can be bothered to look.
As far as I am concerned, Chris Boardman is doing a grand job for normal everyday cycling & focusing in where we really need to focus on. I so would love to thank him personally as no doubt my tweets to him is being drowned out by the ill-informed moans...
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