Swiss Cyclists: A Photo Essay
June 9, 2009 by Darren Alff
Two months in Switzerland taught me a lot about bicycling in the cold and snow, but it also taught me a lot about how to look fashionable on a bike. The photos in this article were all taken in various Swiss cities during the months of January and February, 2009. Note how most of the cyclists featured in this “photo essay” are not wearing helmets – something many American cyclists believe is a cardinal sin for any true road warrior. But you should also note the number of dedicated bike lanes as well, as this is something most US cities are lacking.
Great series of photos! Lovely stuff. A big thanks from Copenhagen Cycle Chic.
The question of lack of helmets has little to do with infrastructure. It is a cultural and economic issue. There are 100 million daily cyclists in the EU accordingly to the European Cyclists Federation. Easily half don’t have dedicated infrastructure and yet they don’t wear helmets.
The reason is simple. The main helmet manufacturers are American and when they started suddenly promoting helmets in the late 1980’s, they targeted their local market and aimed helmets at those who cycled there; namely sports enthusiasts and hobby cyclists. The helmet was yet another piece of ‘necessary gear’. They capitalized on their branding of cycling as a fast-paced sport.
Ironically, no helmet manufacturer will tell you that helmets will or can save lives. This is simply because they are merely designed to protect the head from non-life threatening injuries in solo accidents under 20 km/h.
The helmet scepticism in Europe is due to thorough scientifc research on the subject. It can be summed up in the report issued by the European Council of Ministers of Transport [the ministers of transport for each EU nation] called National Policies to Promote Cycling (2004).
“PROMISING, a research project commissioned by the European Union and coordinated by the SWOV Institute for Road Safety Research (2001), suggests that from the point of view of restrictiveness, even the official promotion of helmets may have negative consequences for bicycle use, and that to prevent helmets having a negative effect on the use of bicycles, the best approach is to leave the promotion of helmet wear to manufacturers and shopkeepers.
The report entitled ‘Head Injuries and Helmet Law for Cyclists’ by Dorothy L. Robinson, Bicycle Research report No. 81 (March 1997) shows that the main effect of the introduction of the general helmet law for cyclists in Australia was a drop in bicycle use.”
As a result the national cyclist federations in Holland, Germany, Belgium, Great Britain, Ireland, France, among other countries do NOT promote helmets and fight legislation tooth and nail.
Nice photos: they conveyed a practical level of peace within the daily commute, something I wouldn’t mind seeing more.
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