Sir Bradley Wiggins: Cycle helmets should be compulsory, and iPods banned while riding bike

Dear Bradley,

Please STFU and concentrate on riding your bike, you're quite good at that.
Otherwise, you don't have a clue. Seem to remember that you were wearing a helmet when that woman drove into you as she exited the garage? The cause of the collision wasn't you wearing/not wearing a helmet, it was her shit driving. Let's fix that first, then worry about helmets.

Thanks awfully.

To wear a helmet or not?

Darwin was right.

Wiggins is not worth listening to on this issue - after his Olympic (and TfF?) wins he is pictured riding sans helmet with his son sans helmet. Sounds like he changes his position to suit what he's been told to say. Cavendish seems to speak his own opinion, and stick to it.

And why just cyclists and ipods. Almost every road user has 2 key safety systems which should be kept fully working when they are moving around on the road.

Eyes provide the major input route for information about your next move and also tell other road users that you have seen them, and, using inherent social and cultural norms, feed a non-verbal message on priority/permission on how you interact with other road users. Just as tinted windows are banned on cars, so mirror and dark glass eyewear should be banned for pedestrians and cyclists.

Ears likewise, drivers who drive with windows totally shut and music playing loud are as bad as cyclists with earphones and pedestrians using mobile phones. THe universal road safety message "You have safety kit with over 4 million years of development and proof that it works, so don't switch it off" And before someone makes a clever remark about the blind and the deaf - if all road users are looking and hearing it becomes clear that one road user is not locking in and you act accordingly - no eye contact - make a noise. No reaction to a noise like a warning bell or horn then get a visual connection.

Helmets - well that same development process has eliminated most bodies that cannot survive falling over or running into a rock or a tree at running speeds - so at 20mph the protective system of the skull is at only 30% of its impact capacity - compared to a styrene helmet which is at 260% of its impact capacity.

As the Dutch rightly say "Nothing, is better than a cycle helmet"

Danger is all around us, outdoors, indoors, in cars, we should all wear a helmet from the day we are born, permanently!

It has also been proved that car drivers and passengers are at an equal/greater risk of head injuries and serious brain trauma than cyclists during an accident.
Where is the call for compulsory helmets for cars? and those radios/cd players need to be banned from cars, to much of a distraction.
Wiggins is starting to loosing credibility when talking on issues he has not researched.

compulsory helmets for pedestrians and car occupants! Huge rates of head injuries to pedestrians and car occupants could be slashed by making everyionewear a helmet all the time!

Once more, Wiggins has shown he's clueless on this issue.

(for the record: I wear a helmet when engaging in cycle-sport. I don't when I'm pottering around town)

"Little things like that"... Deary, deary me

"Little things" like helmet laws with a proven track record of costing money to produce no safety improvement and significantly reduce numbers of cyclists.

Note to the meejah: if you want a clueful soundbite about cycling safety from a gold medal winning track star who has enjoyed success in the Tour de France you want Chris Boardman, because he actually knows what he's talking about.

IF cycle training stopped riders being stupid it would be a great idea. I would like to see compulsory cycle safety training for drivers as part of their training as well.

What do those who say it's dangerous the wear headphones think about deaf cyclists? Should deaf cyclists be banned? What about in car music? Surely that should be banned for the same reason. I frankly can't see the difference in these arguments.

These are all arguments about making the victim culpable for the acts done to them by the carelessness/recklessness of other road users. In my mind such arguments will one day be seen for what they are: predjudicial and on a par with sexism, homophobia and racism; all things that were one acceptable but no longer are. Anti cycling rhetoric will one day go the same way.

Time to get the deaf off our roads.

Wearing ear phones saved my life.

Too bad that doctor was full of it. He has no clue if the helmet did that, he just made it up.

Listening to music with noise isolating headphones is idiocy but in order to prevent thinking about stopping I have safely run along thousands of country miles listening to 5 Live with open headphones. Pedestrians listening to music cross in front of my path every single day, relying on engine rumble and peripheral vision. Equally dangerous as are drivers with boom, boom, boom stereos unaware of emergency vehicles.

It it helps reduce the chance I will be a vegetable and i need to be fed apple sauce for the rest of my life then i will wear one.

After my GF was hit in June the Doctor in A&E said the difference to her walking out of there and him shaving the side of her head ready for the neurosurgeon was the helmet she was wearing... which had a big crack in it.

As for wearing headphones, that just freaks me out it London as cars wizz by unannouced.

Soundbites are great for starting debates!

Interestingly he said helmets should be compulsory for cycling on the road. He didn't say on they should be worn on cycle paths - presumably that would mean joggers and walkers would need to wear them too.

However, in such circumstances what would one do if the cycle path took to the road for 50m would one have to don a helmet for that stretch?

IMHO the whole debate about helmets is an unenforceable nonsense. The stats don't back up the notion that they save lives as deaths are attributed to head injuries even when the other injuries are unsurvivable. Deaths from head injuries most often occur among pedestrians and car drivers so frankly they should be first in the queue for helmets. I could go on, but arguing against the small minded pro-helmet brigade is boring.

I think Brad should have been careful to avoid this debate on a children's program as, irrespective of what he really thinks, in such circumstances there is only one message he could give that is acceptable to the media and that is telling children to wear a helmet and they will be safe. This is such a shame as children need to learn to make their own risk assessments and then make appropriate choices.

helmets, ipods, who cares. Sort the cause of accidents out and stop victim blaming!

Do something about the crap drivers!!!!!!!!!

Totally agree about the use of ipods etc... you can't hear what is around you, what is coming up behind you. You need to be aware of your environment and those people listening to ipods/phones etc have no idea about there surroundings!!

As for helmets, you never know when you're going to bump your head!!! Wear one

Completely agree that listening to music is a) odd as it takes you away from enjoying the activity itself (same for runners) and b) potentially dangerous in some situations... but I do use one iPhone earphone with Google maps directions to get to new places sometimes: can't imagine most cops being inteersted in the difference if this ever were to happen.

On helmets? Don't feed the troll - even if he is a legend and a kngiht of realm!

Bradley did not receive his medal for having any extra level of clue about road safety.

Cycling to work, through central London this morning, I had been thinking compulsory basic training at primary them more advanced training at secondary school would be a start to making cyclist safer. Every day it astounds me that more cyclists are not killed on the road, not through the fault of cars and lorries but through the unnecessary dangers many cyclists put themselves in. If cyclist do not respect their own saftey it is difficult to expect other raod users to respect them.