Independent Online Edition > Transport

Cyclists who wear helmets are more likely to be knocked down by passing vehicles, research suggests.

A study found that drivers tended to pass closer when overtaking cyclists wearing helmets than those who were bareheaded, by 8.5cm on average.

Dr Ian Walker, a lecturer at Bath University, used a bike fitted with a computer and an ultrasonic distance sensor to analyse 2,500 overtakings in Salisbury and Bristol. He was struck twice during the experiment, by a bus and a lorry, while wearing a helmet.



  1. Eideard says:

    Nothing like this ever surprises me. I spent a couple of decades in the cycle trade and I’ve bicycled a good bit of the US and Europe. The difference is night and day when it comes to perceiving other human beings on the road — who aren’t in a balloonmobile.

    Of course, motorcyclists have known this for decades, too. They just have a chance at going faster than some of the morons with four wheels and staying ahead of them.

  2. Improbus says:

    Driving around in a car is enough of an extreme sport for me. I don’t want to risk my life trying to bicycle with other traffic.

  3. Jim Scarborough says:

    I saw this and then biked to work today – with a helmet. Why? Dunno, but I’ve had better luck than this guy – I haven’t counted overtakings, but in 5,000 miles I haven’t been hit, only grazed once. I’d imagine traffic around here gets me 15 to 30 overtakings per mile on average. Fortunately I’ve never needed my helmet, but I figure it’s better to have than not when it is needed.

  4. OmarTheAlien says:

    Absolutely without the slightest taint of Limey-phobia I do respectfully suggest the reason they hit more cyclists with helmets is because they drive on the wrong damned side of the road over there. I think their sense of parallax may be out of whack.
    The closest I ever came to driving in the UK was riding knackered in the back of a taxi on the way back to the ship, but I tried it in Japan, with a US Navy pickup with right hand drive. It was alright until I came to a traffic circle, where my whole brain came unwired.
    But this was back in the Sixties, and my brain wasn’t wired too tight at the best of times.

  5. ManOfSteel says:

    Helmets? Hah! I’ve wiped out on bikes so many times, it’s ridiculous — as in, yes, ridicule me for being such a clutz.

    OTOH, I don’t wear a helmet ’cause I don’t break my fall with my face or head. I know when I’m crashing, and jump off the bike. I’m careful crossing streets, and ride against the flow of traffic — I want to see them coming at me, so I can react.

    I think wearing a helmet while bike riding makes the head hot, and the brain doesn’t work as well.

    Sort of like executives that wear ties – they don’t think so well because the circulation to their brain is cut off.

    Maybe I’m a masochist, and like the pain.

    Somebody’s watching you right now.

  6. Don’t you think it was possible that he, himself, may have been the cause of the study results? Think for a second – if you’re not wearing a helmet and cars are passing you – you’d want to be as far away from a car as possible. Especially if you got hit twice already when you tried it while wearing a helmet.

  7. akakie says:

    The anti-helmet: a revolver in a visible holster. Guy who worked for me in Arizona (Phonix) told me the near misses and the swerves toward him stopped cold when he started strapping on the gunbelt before he got on the motorcycle to ride to and from work.

    What’s that have to do with pedal-power? I don’t know. And I don’t like the idea. But he sure got my attention.

  8. Mr. H. Fusion says:

    I’ve wiped out on bikes so many times,…

    I don’t wear a helmet ’cause I don’t break my fall with my face or head….

    wearing a helmet while bike riding makes the head hot, and the brain doesn’t work as well.

    Comment by ManOfSteel — [brain of mush]

    Do I note a contradiction there? Maybe you should wear a helmet.

  9. 0113addiv says:

    Also, don’t lose sight that bicyclists that wear helmets have less confidence in their riding ability because they fear a fall. Have you ever watched squirrels leaping fearlessly and acrobatically from branch to branch? I never, ever seen one fall, except one time– he had a chestnut over his head.

  10. Bruce IV says:

    Wesker (6) raises a good point. Another possible consideration is that the drivers don’t drive closer because he has a helmet, they drive further off because he doesn’t have a helmet – its like you give a 9 year old pedestrian more space than a 30 year old pedestrian – the 9-year-old is in more danger (shorter, so harder to see, more unpredictable movements, ect.)

  11. ChrisMac says:

    I ride everyday without a helmet and i’m pretty sure smoking will kill me first.. (i carry a helmet in by backpack, in case i see a cop, to avoid the $29 fine)

    both are my choice to make IMHO


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