‘Fasten Your Helmets, May Is Bicycle Safety Month’: CHP
This is a press release from the California Highway Patrol:
Grab your bicycle, fasten your helmet, and get outdoors for a bike ride. With more daylight hours before sunset and warming temperatures, May is the perfect month to enjoy outdoor activities. May also happens to be National Bicycle Safety Month, and the California Highway Patrol (CHP) and Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) want to remind outdoor enthusiasts that whether you are a cyclist, pedestrian, or driver, traffic safety laws are in place to save lives.
“As more Californians choose walking and bicycling as primary modes of transportation, creating a safer environment for all roadway users is a shared responsibility,” said Commissioner Amanda Ray.
Drivers can help create a safer environment for cyclists by checking their blind spots when changing lanes, proceeding with caution through intersections, remembering to look carefully for bicyclists and pedestrians before making a turn, and always looking for cyclists before opening the car door near streets or bike paths. California law also requires drivers to maintain a minimum of three feet of distance when passing or overtaking a cyclist. If there is not enough room to safely pass, be patient and wait until it is safe.
“If you’re driving, be the best version of yourself,” OTS Director Barbara Rooney said. “We are all pedestrians at one point and many of us ride bikes. Slow down and share the road so we may all get places safely.”
According to the CHP’s Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System, in 2020, California had almost 8,800 bicycle crashes with 90 percent of them involving an injury. In that same year, 151 people died in bicycle crashes. Although helmets are not required for people ages 18 and older, wearing a properly secured helmet drastically reduces a rider’s chance of a head injury. As part of National Bicycle Safety Month, the CHP has partnered with the OTS to educate the public on bicycle safety and the laws that apply to all modes of transportation.
Throughout May, many local CHP offices will offer educational presentations and bicycle trainings to promote bicycle safety. For more information, please use this link https://www.chp.ca.gov/find-an-office to contact your local CHP office.
The mission of the CHP is to provide the highest level of Safety, Service, and Security.
Grab your bicycle, fasten your helmet, and get outdoors for a bike ride. With more daylight hours before sunset and warming temperatures, May is the perfect month to enjoy outdoor activities. May also happens to be National Bicycle Safety Month, and the California Highway Patrol (CHP) and Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) want to remind outdoor enthusiasts that whether you are a cyclist, pedestrian, or driver, traffic safety laws are in place to save lives.
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Soon it will be required to wear a helmet on your peloton, or be fined. How thick is that rules and regulations book now? What a joke, bicycle safety month, back when I was a kid we rode without helmets, oh the horror!
Being the Lone Ranger, I though you rode horses and not bicycles.
And nobody wore seat belts. And Britney Spears drove around with her young son Sean in her lap ‘cause that’s the way daddy always did it. Use your kid as a kind of country air-bag. Plenty more where he came from! Yippie-I-yay-hey, yippie-I-yo-ho!
My reply was for the Lone Ranger. Still figuring out the “edit” function.
And you walked to school uphill, in the snow, both ways.
And football players used to wear leather helmets.
Wearing a helmet has saved me on more than one occasion. I fell onto a boulder and cracked through the helmet, my neck was a little sore however I was able to walk my bike home and had no lasting issues.
I very well may not be alive today if it wasn’t for the typical bicycle helmet I was wearing.
Like I said, please vote yes on the next bill that requires helmets for all bicycles including stationary bikes, because you feel it’s best for everyone.
I really think the all-bicycle riders should wear a bike helmet for their own safety. This applies especially for children. Even the best of riders have accidents even if there not the riders fault. They do save lives every year. I ride motorcycles and think nothing about putting my full face helmet on. I would never ride without it! You will thank God when your head hits the pavement and the helmet protected you.
I always thought the design of bike helmets was silly, or, incomplete. That’s why I wear my skate helmet on my bike. Our granddaughter’s helmet is a similar skate style helmet. Sometimes she’ll argue it’s too tight and refuse to wear it. I tell her, “you either wear it properly or we don’t ride.”
My brother-in-law endoed while mountain biking. Landed square on his crown. Yes, he compressed a few discs, but, he didn’t crack his skull. So, yay for the helmet.
Re motorcycle helmets, to each their own, whether it’s a brain pan or a brain bucket. Personally, I wear a full face bucket. I’ve heard the argument that the helmet can catch on something and rip the head off. I would like to see the stats of ripped off heads vs. facial street pizzas. My brother went (was forced) down years back. I put his helmet on afterwards and it was so scratched I couldn’t see through it, but, his pretty mug was spot free.
I agree that bike helmets are not the most fantastic looking devices. I am going to have to play dumb here, I have no idea what a skate helmet is. I also wear a full-face helmet when riding my motorcycle. The soup bowl helmets should be outlawed for lack of good protection unless you are dropped on your head. I wish the weather would turn nice so I could dust off my Harley.
Skate helmets are similar to 3/4 moto helmets or ambidextrous (left or right handed) batting helmets. More coverage on the sides. Bike helmets are, in my opinion, equivalent to brain pans, soup bowls, pie pans, cookie sheets….
So, Martin, I gotta rib ya… no rain gear? Not a year round rider? I don’t mind rain, or even downpours and sideways rain, it’s the fog I hate. Rain runs off the visor, fog doesn’t. But I hear ya, I can dig it, I’m getting there. Gotta say though, one if my favorite things in the past was to come back at a “biker” when they’d rip on my small engine with how they really weren’t true riders ’cause they didn’t ride year round. Always stopped ’em cold. I guess it gave me street cred, I don’t know.
Oh, and Martin, don’t forget to shine your chrome. Again, a friendly jab. Keep the shiny side up.
I don’t ride in the rain at all Bug. Hard to keep the shiny side up with the new flat paint, but I do polish the chrome, but not on the road surface – yet!
Motorcycles should be banned, they are too dangerous. Can’t wait for the bill to banish them from the roadways comes along, for everyone’s safety ban them asap.
There are way more car and truck accidents than motorcycles. Should we ban all vehicles and just walk or ride your horse Lone Ranger?
Car are always running into and over motorcycles; cars are dangerous: ban cars. Children and adults both get seriously injured playing sports: ban sports. I saw a guy choke an a piece of steak at a restaurant: ban steak. Ban all food for that matter. Ooo ooo oo oo oo, Mr Kotter, TV is full of violence; violence is dangerous: ban TV.
What’s the common thread here? Humans.
Humans are dangerous:
Ban Humans.
I agree with banning humans as long as they are Russians!!!!
It would be helpful if the press release would also state that bicycle helmets generally only have a five year lifespan, and after that, probably won’t work as effectively. There should be a date of manufacture on a sticker on the inside of your helmet so you can check.
UV rays and other environmental factors break the foam used in most helmets down relatively quickly, and dropping or knocking your helmet can cause invisible hairline fractures that render the helmet useless in a crash. So, store your helmet in a cool dry place out of the sun, and take care when carrying it around etc. to increase its longevity, and replace it every five years. That way your helmet will actually do its job when you need it to, which is hopefully never.
Excellent comment on helmets. The same applies to motorcycle helmets. If dropped it should be replaced as soon as possible. Be careful with motorcycle helmets, they are pretty costly for a top-notch model.