Helmet Safety
Velo-city 2007 – Proposal for Presentation
Three years of Spanish compulsory helmet: Some results of an inconvenient law
Author: Name, Forename Contact Details: Institution, Postal Address, E-mail Please fill in wether Merallo Grande, Juan ConBici-Spain C/ Luis Cernuda, 16, 19208 Alovera, Guadalajara merallo@telefonica.net x poster presentation
In 2004 a reform of the General Regulation of Traffic was approved containing some improvements for cyclists. Nevertheless, it also had some points in that regulation breaking that positive tendency. The compulsory helmet regulation in interurban routes created a serious sensation on which bicycle was a risk sport, ignoring its function like means of transport, means of healthful leisure and tool for cyclotouring. This Regulation, done by the Spanish government, but in fact written by the technicians of the Spanish National Traffic Safety Committee, had to develop the Road Security Law, dictated by the Parliament, which already placed the helmet like an obligatory element. But the technicians did not know very clearly how to approach the development of that law that had been made with no attention to all the users of the bicycle. Regulation then proposed somewhat subjective conditions in which the helmet would not be compulsory. This double moral to force restrictively in one hand and to be open-handed on the other hand, showed the deep contradictions of a law that should never had to have carried out. After three years from the beginning of the Regulation, I analyze its results, demonstrating that after this time the intentions that the law persecuted with the compulsory helmet are far to make progress but a deep lack of success in the primary intention of the law: improve the security of the cyclists. Cyclists have not been a priority Spain don’t care about cyclists; in fact it is one of the countries in Europe more carefree about it. Trustworthy and updated data on the number of cyclists that exist in the country
Three years of Spanish compulsory helmet: Some results of an inconvenient law
Author: Name, Forename Contact Details: Institution, Postal Address, E-mail Please fill in wether Merallo Grande, Juan ConBici-Spain C/ Luis Cernuda, 16, 19208 Alovera, Guadalajara merallo@telefonica.net x poster presentation
In 2004 a reform of the General Regulation of Traffic was approved containing some improvements for cyclists. Nevertheless, it also had some points in that regulation breaking that positive tendency. The compulsory helmet regulation in interurban routes created a serious sensation on which bicycle was a risk sport, ignoring its function like means of transport, means of healthful leisure and tool for cyclotouring. This Regulation, done by the Spanish government, but in fact written by the technicians of the Spanish National Traffic Safety Committee, had to develop the Road Security Law, dictated by the Parliament, which already placed the helmet like an obligatory element. But the technicians did not know very clearly how to approach the development of that law that had been made with no attention to all the users of the bicycle. Regulation then proposed somewhat subjective conditions in which the helmet would not be compulsory. This double moral to force restrictively in one hand and to be open-handed on the other hand, showed the deep contradictions of a law that should never had to have carried out. After three years from the beginning of the Regulation, I analyze its results, demonstrating that after this time the intentions that the law persecuted with the compulsory helmet are far to make progress but a deep lack of success in the primary intention of the law: improve the security of the cyclists. Cyclists have not been a priority Spain don’t care about cyclists; in fact it is one of the countries in Europe more carefree about it. Trustworthy and updated data on the number of cyclists that exist in the country
Cited: “Survey on Evaluation. Obligation of using helmet for cyclists in Inter city areas”, Traffic and Road Safety Institute, University of Valencia, 2005.