
Riding my bike to work this morning, I thought I noticed something different. I touched my head to be sure. That is, I actually touched the top of my head. Oops!
Somehow, I forgot to put on my bicycle helmet. I don’t know how. I had my bicycling gloves on, which I store in my helmet so I know I saw my helmet this morning. Huh.
Riding to work sans helmet taught me a few things:
- I wasn’t noticeably more comfortable not wearing a helmet. My head wasn’t much cooler or lighter. In fact, the white color of my helmet might make my header cooler in direct sunlight.
- I felt more vulnerable without the helmet — and I was. That’s no fun on Cornell Avenue.
- Checking the mirror upon arrival proved that windy hair is no better than helmet hair.
For me, cycling to work without a helmet is going to be a one-time event.
2 responses to “Bicycling Sans Helmet”
You don’t see helmets in Paris and that is a wild place for traffic…the amount of cyclists is amazing and they just skim along the streets like they have the world by the tail.
I just did a quick Internet search to see the number of cycling deaths in France compared with the U.S. Surprisingly, France, with a much greater percentage of people cycling, has fewer deaths per km cycled. After some thought (and finding this abstract, it makes sense for a couple of reasons:
If all I did was bike on residential streets, I wouldn’t see much need to wear a helmet. I’m not attempting any stunts. The only way my head is likely to hit the curb is if a car hits me. The odds of that increase on some of the busy roads I use. Therefore, I wear a helmet.