Topical Questions

Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Transport – in the House of Commons at 10:30 am on 3 December 2009.

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Photo of Sadiq Khan Sadiq Khan Minister of State (Department for Transport) 10:30, 3 December 2009

I commend the hon. Gentleman for his track record on this important issue. He moved a ten-minute Bill on this issue, and he is also, like me, the father of young children who ride bicycles. On the research that he referred to in his question, he will welcome the fact that we hope to receive some response by the end of this year about the effectiveness of cycle helmets. I am happy to meet him to discuss how we can move much faster in this important area, because I am as impatient as he is to see progress to ensure that zero young people are injured-or, of course, killed-on our roads as a consequence of riding their bikes.

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Chris Beazer
Posted on 4 Dec 2009 11:59 am (Report this annotation)

Perhaps the honourable members should address the real issue of the danger on our roads - motorists, rather than trying to get their victims to wear ineffective equipment. The organisation mentioned does not have impartial advice on its website, cyclehelmets.org does give well argued independent evidence which shows that, where cycle helmets are compulsory, deaths and serious head injuries are GREATER (USA, Australia) than where helmets are not compulsory and hardly worn at all (Netherlands).

John Byng
Posted on 4 Dec 2009 8:53 pm (Report this annotation)

As an experienced cyclist I am convinced that cycle helmets help reduce injury. The comparison between the Netherlands and the USA may well indicate differences in driving skills but certainly does not indicate that helmets are ineffective.

However I am dismayed to see that proponents of cycle helmets frequently talk in terms involving children and young people rather than in terms of cyclists generally. This conveys the impression that helmets are only for children and guarantees that they will not be used by young people from eleven years upwards who are most at risk but hate to be thought of as children. And parents often reinforce this foolish message by cycling without helmets themselves.

My advice is that all cyclists should wear helmets, particularly if they are also parents. We should also endeavour to raise awareness and skills amongst motorists to match that of drivers in the Netherlands. Perhaps this is best done by encouraging cycling because I find that motorists who have been or are also cyclists show much more awareness and condideration towards cyclists.