The challenge of compulsory helmet wearing

General consultation on the Green Paper
«Road safety in Quebec: A collective challenge»

February 2000
Cyclist safety: going beyond appearances
Brief submitted by VÉLO QUÉBEC to the Commission des transports

Table of contents

INTRODUCTION 3

1. 33 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE AND EXPERTISE 4

2. THE CONTEXT 6
2.1 The 1993 consultation: the educational approach 6
2.2 The 1996 consultation: no consensus 6
2.3 The 1999 consultation: continuing the dialogue 6

3. GREEN BOOK AND HARD HAT 8
3.1 The appeal of the hard hat 9
3.2 The «risks» of cycling 10
3.3 Protective helmet limits 11
3.3.1 Technology 11
3.3.2 Penetration rate 12
3.3.3 Hard hat costs 12
3.3.4 Helmets and seatbelts 13
3.3.5 Bicycle and motorcycle helmets 14
3.4 Road assessment 15
3.5 The impact and limits of legislation 18
3.5.1 The cost/benefit ratio 18
3.5.2 The decline in practice 19
3.5.3 Rising costs 22
3.5.4 Some application problems 22
3.6 Australia, a questionable model 23
3.7 The Green Paper's possible solutions 27
3.8 Moralism and the image of cyclists 29

4. MAKING CYCLISTS SAFER AND REDUCING CASUALTIES 32
4.1 A global approach 32
4.2 Helmets: education rather than coercion 32
4.3 Priorities for the next century 33
4.3.1 Extend the lighting safety campaign in Montreal to the whole of Quebec. 33
4.3.2 An observatory of black spots 34
4.3.3 Targeting at-risk groups 34
4.3.4 Research into safety equipment 34
4.3.5 Improve our tools for measuring bicycle accidents and deepen our knowledge of cycling 35
4.3.6 Children: an adult problem 35

CONCLUSION 38

Introduction

By participating in the work of the Commission des transports et de l'environnement and in the public consultation on the Green Paper, Road safety in Quebec: a collective challenge, Vélo Québec wishes to intervene mainly on a subject in which the organization has been actively involved for several years, namely the compulsory wearing of protective helmets by cyclists.

For the third time in seven years, Vélo Québec has the opportunity to present and defend its positions on this subject. It should come as no surprise, then, that this document draws heavily on the briefs already presented at previous public consultations, and in particular on the brief submitted in 1996.

In the meantime, new studies and data have confirmed and backed up the positions that Vélo Québec has been supporting since it began participating in public debates on the subject. These studies are presented in this document.

Vélo Québec was founded in 1967 in the wake of the Quiet Revolution. Road safety was placed at the heart of its mission because its founders knew that free cycling could not develop unless streets and roads became welcoming to cyclists. If the perception that cycling is dangerous did not diminish.

From the outset, Vélo Québec's activities have focused on raising the awareness of public authorities, including the Ministère de la Voirie, predecessor of the Ministère des Transports, and the Bureau des véhicules automobiles, responsible for enforcing the Highway Code. It was important then, as it is today, that safety campaigns address the issues of cyclist safety, sharing the street and the road, and educating cyclists to respect the basic rules of traffic and road safety.

During the «great reform» of 1979, Vélo Québec submitted a landmark brief. Numerous sections of the law were amended or added to take account of this special vehicle, and the growing role it was to play in urban travel and in the leisure and tourism activities of Quebecers.

Vélo Québec's intervention is part of an international movement to rediscover the use of bicycles and a new understanding of their benefits. Through a wide range of interventions, starting with demonstrations, followed by briefs, events, training activities, symposia, expert papers and safety campaigns, cycling enthusiasts have led governments to concern themselves with cyclists' safety, and to give bicycles a place in people's transport planning.