Every damn city should have a mayor with a bicycle vision - and a sense of rationality - like Brad Pettitt. Mayor of Fremantle, Australia. Another film by Mike Rubbo. Can I vote for this guy?
[I'm going to politely refrain from taking the piss out of lazy bikes (e-bikes) in this post.]
10 comments:
Great video!
and yet the Mr Mayor there is a fox!
I`d marry him, if he let me...
I realise helmets are rather pointless, but why does EVERYONE (including staunch supporters) wear them wrong? The straps aren't supposed to be all loose like that.
No surprise that it's the Fremantle mayor - I swear it's the only part of Perth which doesn't have its head up its own posterior.
The powers that be here seem to assume that if you make helmets voluntary then instantly no one will wear one. The reality is that the loony lycra crowd will keep wearing them because we're not complete idiots - we ride unsafe roads at high speeds, and we're perfectly capable of making the decision to keep our noggins in one piece.
Some of Mike Rubbo's photos point out that recreational cyclists already flaunt the helmet rule on the quiet paths around the city, and the world hasn't ended yet.
@Anonymous
It's interesting you comment on the straps being too loose (which they are). The 'new & improved' (gag) AS/NZS2063 helmet standard to be released next year states that the straps must allow the helmet to come off after the initial impact!
Old helmets are still perfectly legal to use but illegal to sell! What a farce this mandatory helmet law is - and the 'standards' system.
So the old helmets musn't be able to be removed and the new ones must come off after the first impact! Can anybody else see why making us all wear them by law is not appropriate??
Dr Paul Martin
Brisbane, Australia
And the bike shop owner is John Schelfhout - pure Dutch. I wonder how they pronounce that down under ...
Anonymous no. 1: See here. One of the slides on the home page shows a very obviously poorly-worn helmet. This scheme includes the participation of Alta Bike Share, which is a partner in Melbourne. This image has been running on the website for months. If you're on Facebook, there's plenty more juicy helmet stuff to like.
Check out the mayor's latest entry on his blog.
And he made the ‘Gojira’ Sea Shepherd’s first Australian-registered vessel. Cool guy.
Enjoyed the video and seeing an elected official actively using a bike to get from here to there. I agree that legislating helmet use is counter productive, though I probably choose to wear one about a quarter of the time. I just posted a Councilman Tom Owen's Bike Safety 101 video to my website http://www.sheridesabike.com/2010/12/more-from-louisville-bike-safety-101.html
He's wearing a helmet and a reflective vest and I understand his reasoning. Louisville, KY drivers are really aggressive. Tom has been struck about 3 times as I recall (used to be his legislative aide). He has adopted to the conditions as they are, but I'd never accuse him of living in fear. Both Louisville's outgoing Mayor Jerry Abramson and very committed bicyclists in the city have done a wonderful job of moving Louisville forward as a biking community. Baby steps, as we say here in the U.S.
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