Ice Cream Ride Video
Thanks to Kitzzy & Diana for organizing another great family ride! The weather was bad all afternoon with heavy rain and thunderstorms. It threatened right up to the start time, but it dissipated just in time. Amazingly, we had 18 participants, including two children. We enjoyed a leisurely pace to Twisted Bliss on Orange Ave., then a tour through downtown.
Its really gratifying to see this community grow! Thanks to all of you who are making Orlando’s bicycle culture better and better.
Good stuff. Wish I’d made it!
With all of the rain in the afternoon and early evening I figured it would not happen! See how wrong I was. Wish I’d have been with you all.
So glad you made Twisted Bliss Ice Cream a part of your ride! Come back anytime!
I’ll bet you agonized over putting the film clip on the web. Nice example for children . . . I mean the gentleman so visible and so confident riding without a helmet.
Many of us don’t wring our hands about whether or not people wear helmets. Helmet use has unfortunately been converted from a good idea to dogma, and dogma leads people to think some rather unfounded things, such as:
“Bicycling is very dangerous, so we need helmets.” False: Bicycling is a safe activity unless you’re doing certain risky activities, like violating the rules of the road, or riding close together at high speeds.
“The most important thing you can do to improve your safety on a bike is to wear a helmet.” False. There are a bunch of other actions that are far more effective in decreasing crashes and injuries: controlling your vehicle, obeying the law, making yourself conspicuous, controlling your space.
More often than not, the helmets I see kids wearing aren’t fitted properly, and their parents are completely clueless about how their kids should ride in order to avoid conflicts and crashes. So the kids are out there riding in a crash-prone manner with make-believe head protection.
Most of the time, I see the kid’s helmets dangling from their handlebars, if they have one at all.
yeah, but didn’t I read somewhere on a link to this site that 63% of bike accidents didn’t even involve a car? I’m a big helmet proponent… but you are right in that alot of kids’ helmets are not fitted correctly — maybe there could be some type of helmet fitting workshop or event connected to a basic skills class? In my homestate Alaska there are tons of helmet donations to kids, complete with fitting — many times connected to a health fair. Thanx for letting me have my 10 cents worth!
The fall never hurts anybody . . . it’s the sudden stop!
Bicycling is safe relative to . . .? It’s not riding the bike safely in the video that concerned me. Falling from a bicycle is extremely dangerous. Some individuals fall better than others but regardless falling is unsafe 100% of the time. Broken bones and abrasions mend. Bear in mind that your head is somewhat like a bowling ball on a toothpick. When you fall from your bike your head is the tip of the whip. The most important thing you can do to improve your safety IN A FALL FROM YOUR BIKE is to wear a helmet. Helmet means properly fit and adjusted. The last paragraph about fit is another topic.
Falling and hitting your head is dangerous, with or without a bike involved. If we wanted to be consistent, we would insist on people wearing helmets 24 hours a day.
Helmets should be required when entering all bathrooms.
“Slip and falls account for over 20,000 fatalities per year in North America. It is the second leading cause of accidental death and disability after automobile accidents.”
http://www.articlesbase.com/disabilities-articles/bath-safety-preventing-slip-and-fall-accidents-in-the-bathroom-564878.html
I can’t imagine you’re serious. That’s an Infinitesimal fraction of bathroom entrances in a year. To the point though, who said anything about requiring?
“That’s an Infinitesimal fraction of bathroom entrances in a year.”
20,000 people a year is not chicken feed, but I will accept that the number killed is small compared to the number of people using bathrooms.
Likewise, the number of people that die from a head injury while riding a bicycle is infinitesimally small in proportion to the number of people that get on a bike.
Risk assessment is in the eye of the beholder. For example, most people think that the risk of terrorism is more than being struck by lightening, but the numbers do not bear that out. Most people also think it is safer to drive a car than a ride bicycle, but the numbers do not bear that out, either.
No human endeavor is 100% safe, even using the bathroom.
Most people killed in bathrooms are over 65. So to require the wearing of safety equipment while riding a bike under the age of 16 makes just as much sense as requiring all people over the age of 65 wear helmets in the bathroom. The only difference being that there is no AAYP to complain about laws the way there is an AARP. Young people can’t vote.
Who’s insisting? Do as you please.