Comments on: Matthew Modine gets wacky on bicycle helmets

By: denis

denis — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 09:40:29 +0000

Places like australia make any kind of pseudo law like bicycle helmets merely a tool in the hands of a people who are already internationally notorious for its sadistic population. If you had the entirely unpleasant experience of being brought up here, you know that these laws almost always have a further story to it, as petty and cheerfully sadistic as one has come to assume. These “laws” are only appropriate within relatively sane areas and not already institutionalised and micro regulated to the extent that this sort of corporate s**t eating grinned nanny state already suffers

By: Matthew Modine and League of American Bicyclists not at odds over helmets | Austin On Two Wheels

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 14:31:54 +0000

[...] week, I wrote an opinion piece in response to an interview in New York Magazine with actor and cycling advocate Matthew Modine [...]

By: elliott

elliott — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 22:00:05 +0000

Tom Wald,
The article is linked now through its title. I had that code in there originally, but it disappeared for some reason.

Other Tom,
Those are good answers but not what he said. He did an interview where he talked about the virtues of bike riding, he is a public advocate for riding, and he knew this had been an issue. I’m cutting him no slack. We as a group need by better message disciple from our mouthpieces.

By: Tom

Tom — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 21:40:58 +0000

Before you get all righteous about the actor not owning up to why he doesn’t wear a helmet please notice that he did not bring the subject up. If his answer is a little weak it might be because he doesn’t consider biking dangerous and hasn’t spent hours worrying about crashes. A better answer to the question would simply be : Why should I? I never gave it much thought.

After all, he is promoting cycling as a positive activity. It may actually be true that he does not consider it dangerous.

By: Tom Wald

Tom Wald — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 21:14:58 +0000

Is there a link to the source of the Modine interview quote? I couldn’t find one in the blog entry here.

Thanks for the post.

By: M1EK

M1EK — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:56:19 +0000

He’s not that wacky. His statements basically hit the following, which are arguably true:

1. They don’t appear to be strong enough to have done any good in the general population (injury rates didn’t change after massive increase in use). (“I think it gave us all pause. Think how many times you’ve banged your head in your lifetime.”)

2. They address a low-risk but low-power population instead of a higher-risk population (“Should we wear helmets when we walk down the sidewalk?”). Argument works even better if you use drivers instead of pedestrians, of course.

3. Recent study (yes, really) did, in fact, show that “people that wear helmets, cars are a little more aggressive with them.”

By: Jazz One

Jazz One — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:55:20 +0000

I have been involved with bmx for 25 years. If I am riding ramps and going vertical, I’ll wear a helmet, other than that, forget it. Not even the models on the helmet box can make it look good. I have never seen a bicycle helmet that didn’t look a lil “special needs”.
When I was a kid I took a good head blow. After that I learned, don’t land head first. You learn to fall after awhile.
If you can’t learn to fall, there is a such thing as “thinning out the herd”.
Sorry if that sounds harsh, but if someone dies in an auto accident, lives may have been saved if they were wearing a helmet like in Nascar. If you drive responsibly and only take calculated risk, likely you will not be in an accident. I know there are exceptions to every thing, but this is my $0.02.