Bike sharing in North America has yet to come to a city with mandatory helmet laws. The two have so far seemed mutually exclusive. It’s hard to force casual, point-to-point bike renters to wear a helmet if you don’t give them one.
But you can’t share a helmet like you can share a bike. Helmets are more like a personal article of clothing than an anonymous piece of equipment. One idea is a fold-able helmet which can be carried in around in a pocket or handbag. There are cooties at stake.
In the next couple of years, though, someone will have to figure out how to make the two coexist, because mandatory-helmet-wearing Vancouver and Seattle want in on the bike-share trend. Seattle recently completed a feasibility study to bring bike sharing to town, and Vancouver began accepting proposals to design and operate a system there earlier this year. Both have simple laws on the books: If you’re on a bike, you better have a helmet on your head, too.
Other helmet-law cities, like Mexico City and Tel Aviv, dealt with this the easy way – they simply repealed the requirement before rolling out public bikes.
Read the entire article here at: The Atlantic Cities
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