<p>Do many college students use a helmet while riding their bike?</p>
<p>If you ride a bike, do you wear a helmet?</p>
<p>1.) No</p>
<p>2.) Yes, safety first.</p>
<p>No.
No.
10char.</p>
<p>No. If you have any concept of how to ride a bike, a helmet isn’t necessary.</p>
<p>Not true. 10 char</p>
<p>I’d like to ride my bike and wear a helmet when I go to college this fall… but I would have to carry around my helmet all day. If I left it with the bike, someone might steal it, right? Not that helmets are in high demand, but still I wouldn’t want to risk losing my helmet. Anyone have any thoughts about this?</p>
<p>At my college I never see kids riding around with helmets on and when I do ride which is rarely I don’t wear a helmet.</p>
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<p>I’m fairly certain that more often than not, helmets save lives of those who are hit by vehicles. That has absolutely nothing to do with your ability to ride a bike.</p>
<p>NASCAR drivers drive cars for a living, so I’m sure they’ve got a grasp on how to drive a car, yet they still wear a seatbelt. It’s not to protect from themselves, it’s to protect from others.</p>
<p>I’ve ridden a bike nearly every day for the past 5ish years, through suburban and urban areas. I crashed once, as I got distracted and ran into a stopsign.</p>
<p>Unless you’re going to college in a major, MAJOR city (NYC, LA, Chicago) and bike on the street in downtown, you won’t get hit.</p>
<p>^Agreed.</p>
<p>At my school, kids don’t wear helmets because the campus is pretty much closed…there are very few spots besides parking lots and the roads that connect them where you see cars at all. And all the buildings are pretty much right next to each other. The kids that ride bikes are mostly kids that live in the dorms or very close to campus. I’ve never even heard about someone being hit by a car.</p>
<p>No, mostly because a) its unfashionable b) a hassle and c) riding a bike on campus is way safer than riding on the streets with lots of cars around</p>
<p>If you feel more comfortable with one, by all means wear a helmet. I doubt people would be so cruel that they would mock you for it or give you mean stares…at least not too many people…</p>
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<p>Whatever makes you feel better about not wearing a helmet…</p>
<p>Some of these responses are surprisingly ignorant…</p>
<p>In fact, the BETTER you ride the MORE you need a helmet, not the other way around. More advanced cyclists will be riding faster, turning quicker, and in general taking more risks. They may also be riding on roads and keeping speed with traffic, in which case even with a helmet you are putting yourself in pretty major danger. If you are in any way considering a high performance bike, such as a road bike, be warned that they are quick, they are sensitive, and even the best riders take crashes on them because their speed and responsiveness takes a lot of skill to master (and of course, it’s easy to slide out on dirty/ice/etc. at those speeds). </p>
<p>Most advanced cyclists, therefore, will wear a helmet. And at my campus, there are quite a few advanced cyclists who know how to ride quickly and efficiently, as well as ride with traffic, and these cyclists all wear helmets. It doesn’t look dorky at all. Their look is pretty professional and snazzy, with those clip on shoes, hipster bikes, etc. But I agree that is a lot of gear to carry around to class, but I guess they figure it is worth it…carry a helmet that weights like, 10 paper clips, two feet inside a building…or risk a coma…? Choice should be easy.</p>
<p>Now, most college students, however, won’t wear a helmet. I think this is a pretty dangerous situation, especially because even on a “toy” bike you will probably ride alongside cars, scooters, or clueless pedestrians (who may leap in front of you, cause you to fall over the handlebars, and slam your face/head into the ground…and yes…this has happened to me!). Plus there are plenty of BMXers on campus who refuse to wear helmets as well. But, I can’t really judge…because I don’t wear one myself out of fear of “messing up my hair.” Pretty stupid, huh? Especially considering I have hit my head/face on the ground before on a bicycle…it is not that hard to do…especially if you are using the bike as a means of transportation, as it should be used, rather than just riding it in a tiny circle around your dorm haha…</p>
<p>But I certainly don’t look down on those that wear a helmet and I think most college kids are way beyond this point. In fact you look more skilled and cool with a helmet on, in my opinion, but that just might be because only the cool, serious bikers know enough to wear them :P</p>
<p>I wear a helmet–there’s a lot of traffic on/around my campus. I have a u-lock, so I just loop it through the helmet straps before I lock it.</p>
<p>…because every college kid uses a souped-up road bike. Puh leaze. </p>
<p>If you know what you’re doing and use a hybrid / mountain bike, you’ll be fine. Perhaps you just need to ride bikes more.</p>
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<p>Right, and people on bicycles only get hit by cars in “major, MAJOR cities” :rolleyes:</p>
<p>It is the safe thing to do. I know a guy who got into a bike accident on a college campus and almost died.</p>
<p>I’d consider wearing it if someone gave it to me, and I had something sensible to do with it when I stopped riding.</p>
<p>No.
No.</p>
<p>that said, if you are going to ride where cars are driving, I would recommend you wear a helmet.</p>
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<p>This is not true at all.</p>
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<p>This is not true either. You can get hit by an inattentive driver anywhere.</p>
<p>I sometimes think it’d be interesting to clothesline people on skateboards. You could get hit by someone with my sadism and less foresight. Then you’d wish you wore a helmet.</p>