Public bike schemes - problems from helmet laws Public bike schemes are a great success in many countries, especially Barcelona and Washington (from research by Elliot Fishman) as well as Paris and Dublin (not shown) with up to 7 trips being made per bike per day. Lagging behind at the bottom are Australia's two schemes with about 0.3 and 0.7 trips per bike per day. Our helmet laws are a major problem for cities that want to encourage cycling because of its health and environmental benefits. Safer than normal cycling & almost miraculous health benefits! Investigations show that city bike schemes are safer than normal cycling. In the UK, cycling has been described as a miracle pill that could save the National Health Service. A study of the health benefits of Barcelona's city bike scheme found that the health benefits of cycling would avoid 12.46 premature deaths every year, offset by 0.13 premature deaths from increased exposure to air pollution and 0.03 deaths from traffic injuries. |
