Ask the Pediatrician: Bike Helmets

Q: Over the next month or so, we will be seeing bike riders on the roads like spring golfers sprouting on the brown golf links. Last summer I saw many bikers wearing helmets. Is it cool for kids to wear them yet?

A: Perhaps, but recent research and my own informal observations are troubling. In spite of riders like Lance Armstrong and lots of educational efforts, it is estimated that less than half of American children under 15 wear helmets routinely when riding a bicycle. I guess riding with one’s parents is not routine. Among adolescents, helmet use is even lower. Researchers have calculated that an average of 250 children and teenagers die from brain injury in bicycle falls and collisions every year. Helmet use could prevent most of these deaths, but more needs to be done to prevent the falls and collisions as well.

Q: That obviously means we don’t throw out the bike helmets yet.

A: No, but, we need to get prevention working on those falls and collisions. The answer is in better education and engineering. By education I mean providing more places without cars for children and adults to practice riding bikes on hills, curves, through intersections, avoiding obstacles in the road such as potholes. New riders also need training in how to plan routes, to avoid common causes of injury such as the opening of a driver’s car door, and operating instruction by parents in how to use the more complex gear mechanisms and brakes of current bikes, and when they aren’t working properly.

Q: What about the engineering?

A: Next to a helmet, a rear view mirror on the handle bars or attached to your sunglasses or the helmet itself, is a big advantage, and way less expensive than a helmet. Many people can’t look back and steer straight! But the major engineering needs to be done by towns that want to be more bike friendly and promote their downtown merchants at the same time. Building bike lanes is not enough. We need to be an interconnected network of bikeways and the establishment of safe bike routes to schools, including careful planning for junctions across major auto routes. Separate bike paths are much more difficult to achieve, but have their places too. Northampton, Hadley, Amherst, and Easthampton have some fantastic bike paths for kids and adults who are beyond the stage of just maintaining an upright position- try to get out there evenings and weekend mornings for less traffic though when you have very new riders.

Helpful Link: The Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center
http://www.bicyclinginfo.org/