Re: For mandatory helmets, Editorial Sept. 16

Last year Baljinder Badesha of Brampton received a court ruling that forces him to wear a helmet while riding his motorcycle. Ontario Superior Court Justice James Blacklock ruled that our health care system would be saddled with "undue hardship" otherwise.

Justice Blacklock further added: "There is a clear increase in the risk of devastating brain injury or death with the accompanying burdens on family members and the public in terms of medical needs."

The same logic should be applied to cyclists. Wearing a bicycle helmet should be law. Yes, I am an avid cyclist who always wears a helmet.

Jeff Green, Toronto

Helmet laws would undo decades of efforts by urban cycling advocates to promote mass cycling in workaday clothes and to create an urban cycling culture.

Cycling is not only for athletes in lycra racing wear and specialized gear. In cycle-friendly countries such as Netherlands and Denmark, helmets are all but unknown, and there are no mass deaths or grievous injury tolls there. Netherlands starts cycling education in schools, so all cyclists and drivers know how to keep cyclists safe.

Here in Montréal, we have followed the lead of Paris in striving to develop an urban cycling culture. Much remains to be done, but the bikeshare scheme – impossible with a helmet law – has contributed to a qualitative leap in the number of people commuting to work, school and activities by bicycle, in normal city clothing.


    There is a huge difference between advocating the use of helmets, and any other form of armour for cyclists, and imposing it. The latter will have the perverse effect of discouraging the growth in everyday cycling.

    Maria Gatti, Montreal

    Nothing settled in cycle wars, Sept. 15

    It is surely Yvonne Bambrick, of the Toronto Cyclists Union, who has "missed the point" with her comment, "Helmets protect cyclists after they fall." By the same token, seatbelts protect drivers after they crash, yet they are mandatory because we can't prevent all car accidents any more than we can prevent all cyclists from falling.

    She also stated in a previous article that helmets are a "barrier" for cyclists; however, as we learn in this article, they are clearly a "barrier" to serious injury or worse.

    Ian Fraser, Toronto


      As a long-time commuter cyclist who has lived in both Vancouver and Toronto (and who has been hit twice in a bike lane by cars running red lights in this city) I can assure you that excessive regulation is no substitute for good design.

      Toronto's approach is flawed compared to Vancouver's. There, major bike routes are not along the main arterial roads where traffic is at its most dense and drivers at their most frustrated. Instead, the major bike routes parallel main thoroughfares on residential side streets that have been fitted with roundabouts at every intersection and cyclist priority crossings at major arterial intersections.

      The result is a pleasant bike ride with less exhaust fumes, lots of room for cyclists to pass one another, separated bike and car traffic, no "door jambing," a calmer interaction when cars and cyclists do meet, and a whole network of small businesses that serve the cyclist commuter population. It's a win/win approach for everyone.

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      Ryan Fritsch, Toronto

      Don't peddle licences, helmets to cyclists, Letter Sept. 14

      Joe LaFortune suggests motorists should be given an additional test at licence renewal time. May I remind him that motorists already have "drivers ed" and need to pass a test to obtain a licence. Cyclists have no education or test of any kind and I therefore suggest it is the cyclist who needs educating.

      Motorists are licenced and insured because of the damage they can do with their vehicle, but only the other day we read of a pedestrian losing her life after being hit by a cyclist. The victim's family has no access to compensation because the cyclist is not required to carry a licence or insurance.

      After paying thousands of dollars to purchase a vehicle then paying vehicle licences, insurance and gasoline taxes toward the cost of maintaining the roads, the motorist contributes significantly for the privilege of using them. The cyclist buys a bike and then expects a dedicated lane to ride on.

      As a cyclist, I consider myself to be under the same rules as someone who rides a motorcycle. I keep to my lane, do not weave in and out of traffic, do not use the sidewalk or try to beat red traffic signals by using the pedestrian crosswalk.

      Tony Griffiths, Brampton

      During a bike ride in June, I hit a curb and went over my handlebars, doing a perfect face plant: broken nose, cut upper lip, hand abrasions and neck injuries. The EMS attendant who provided first aid told me that my helmet probably saved my life. Bike helmets should be mandatory for all riders, just like seatbelts are for all drivers.

      Richard Gareau, Misissauga