Yes, it's called reality. It's only a paradox for obsessive right brains, pushing their glasses up their noses, pointing their fingers in the skys, grunting smacking noises, semantics!
Multiple things can be true at once. MHL hurt cyclists, and having a helmet on makes your head hurt less when you fall.
Cyclist safety is _not_ an individual responsibility. It's a collective one. Mandatory helmets promote a state of affairs where cycling is considered a leisure opt-in activity, a fig leaf for shameless victim blaming when drivers do run into a cyclist (should have worn a helmet har har). The collective psychology of drivers,
- reckless, inconsiderate, entitled - combined with a street design that actively encourages speeding and reptile-brain fueled jostling for position is what is hurting cyclists. This is why mandatory helmet laws are harmful, they are actively nurture a deadly collective mindset.
Plus, we are not making drivers where helmets. In a crash, having their head packaged inside a helmet will benefit drivers too. So maybe let's start there.
I agree with your collective argument - but safety is _also_ an individual responsibility. People should still wear helmets for their own safety, if they determine that it makes sense for them.
Yeah you're right, it's an individual responsibility as well, I was writing a little too cavalier. The true danger, death and mutilation, the one that is scaring people of riding altogether, is coming from drivers mostly though.
Multiple things can be true at once. MHL hurt cyclists, and having a helmet on makes your head hurt less when you fall.
Cyclist safety is _not_ an individual responsibility. It's a collective one. Mandatory helmets promote a state of affairs where cycling is considered a leisure opt-in activity, a fig leaf for shameless victim blaming when drivers do run into a cyclist (should have worn a helmet har har). The collective psychology of drivers, - reckless, inconsiderate, entitled - combined with a street design that actively encourages speeding and reptile-brain fueled jostling for position is what is hurting cyclists. This is why mandatory helmet laws are harmful, they are actively nurture a deadly collective mindset.
Plus, we are not making drivers where helmets. In a crash, having their head packaged inside a helmet will benefit drivers too. So maybe let's start there.