Any creative solutions out there?

A lot of cities are starting up bike share programs. Check out a recent article about Washington, DC's program, SmartBikes, developed in part by MetroBike LLC -- a progressive transportation consulting company whose expertise is bike-sharing.

Bike share programs are a great way to bring cost-effective, environmentally friendly public transportation options to commuters and tourists! But there is a major helmet issue that has yet to be solved. The following comment about was posted by Paul DeMaioby of MetroBike LLC. Read below and share your thoughts. Any creative solutions out there for ensuring everyone rides safely with a 'clean' helmet?

A major problem in promoting a convenience bike hire system is the compulsory helmet laws in some countries, as riding a one size adjust for all bike is relatively easy to deal with there is a serious danger in and major liability issue for the hirer if they provide a helmet .

Wearing the wrong size of helmet can actually cause death or serious injury in the event of the helmet hitting the ground and failing to perform as designed. (there is greater damage through rotational forces on the brain rather than puncture of the cranium which by evolutionary processes generally outperforms all helmets in direct impact collisions.

Sharing helmets presents a serious health problem in the transmission of scalp-borne diseases and infections - the damage of a head lice or similar epidemic already bubbling under the surface in many developed countries would be exponentially enhanced by sharing helmets.

The integrity of a helmet is compromised by its first impact either worn on a head or trapped by a closing door/falling bike. So how does the hire agency check-in a helmet after the first and subsequent hires.

Quite simply the compulsory helmet wearing laws should be repealed for everyday riding - noting that the most dangerous place to ride bikes is on foot ways and cycle paths, and the Dutch traffic engineers terminology of calling the cycle routes Cycle Roads and designing them exactly as any other road for vehicle use.

Vital Signs

From today's New York Times:

Death Soars After Repeal of Helmet Law

In 2003, Pennsylvania legislators repealed a law requiring motorcycle riders to wear helmets. Researchers who studied deaths and injuries over the next two years say that decision had lethal, and expensive, consequences.

The researchers compared accident statistics from the two years before repeal with numbers from the two years after. After repeal, helmet use among riders in crashes decreased to 58 percent from 82 percent. At the same time, head injury deaths increased 66 percent and head injury hospitalizations increased 78 percent.

Meanwhile, total acute-care hospital charges for motorcycle-related head injuries increased 132 percent in the latter period, compared with a 69 percent increase in other injury costs. The study was published in The American Journal of Public Health.

Although motorcycle registrations also increased, the rate of crashes per 10,000 registrants remained the same, indicating that there was little change in driving habits, road conditions or the risk behavior of riders.

In 1975, the federal government stopped requiring states to have helmet laws as a condition of receiving federal highway money, and today only 20 states and the District of Columbia require helmets for all riders. “We hope that legislators take a look at the data,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Kristen J. Mertz, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh, “and consider reinstituting universal mandatory helmet laws.”

Always use protection

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