One of the things we heard about bike share, before it was foisted upon us by the bike lobby, was that it would flood the streets with inexperienced cyclists who would kill themselves like so many lemmings. Well, the bike lobby can put another notch in its belt link in its chain, because after 5 months, bike share is fatality free. Way to go, everyone!
On the one hand, it doesn’t sound like much an accomplishment. On the other hand, it’s very easy to be hit by a car, even if you’re an experienced rider. So with all the miles ridden, you’d figure the law of averages would dictate someone dies. Well, the law of averages is a fallacy, and looking out for people to die is weird, so it’s a good thing everyone’s alive, we’d say. Oh, and no one riding a Citi Bike has killed anyone either. Great job everyone, Blast fax kudos all around.
John Liu still wants there to be a mandatory helmet rule for cyclists using Citi Bike, which we could possibly get behind. Mostly for their own sake. Even if you don’t splash your brains on the sidewalk, a concussion for a crash is no joke. You’ll feel like hell for at least a week. And more importantly, despite there being no aura of death surrounding the bikes, we still agree with the notion that they’d be good for our dystopian future.
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The helmet thing is a little shaky. There's good evidence that helmets are kind of a wash... if you don't wear one, cars give you more room. If you do, they get more aggressive. Soooooo.... I don't know.
I usually wear my own helmet on my own bike, but I tend to forget it when I go out to grab a Citibike.
It would also kind of defeat the purpose of the bikes. Say I took the subway to Manhattan to meet someone and we're wrapping up and someone else contacts me for a last minute meeting a mile away. I'm out. My helmet is at home because I didn't plan to be on a Citibike. But now something has come up and a Citibike is the ideal way to get to it.
Do I not use Citibike because I left my helmet in Brooklyn? Seems silly.
Solution in search of a problem. No one is dead, right? Right.