Decriminalize Bicycling: Repeal Mandatory Bike Helmet Laws

Note: This is a lightly edited version of the opinion piece printed in the June 2021 issue of Bicycle Retailer and Industry News.

May 25 marked the one-year anniversary of the murder of George Floyd and subsequent mobilization of the Black Lives Matter movement that forced the bike industry, and all segments of American society, to reckon with systemic racism. In the months following Floyd’s death, bike brands and bicycling organizations released statements of solidarity with the BLM movement, and some announced initiatives aimed at improving diversity, equity, and inclusion within our largely white industry.

These were good first steps, but they are not enough. As activist Tamika Butler writes: “Bicycling cannot solve systemic racism in the United States. But systemic racism can’t be fixed without tackling it within bicycling.”

Tackling racism within bicycling means using the industry’s voice and political capital to enact change within our sphere of influence. One issue where the industry can flex its muscle? By helping to repeal mandatory bike helmet laws, which have a history of racial bias in enforcement, and which also dissuade people from riding bikes.

Now is the opportunity to scrub these laws, and others that criminalize bicycling, from our books. It is an opportunity for the bike industry to prove that its words opposing racism and racial bias are more than lip service. 

Such a repeal effort is underway in Seattle, where a multi-year analysis of ticketing data by researcher Ethan Campbell shows that Black people have been ticketed at a rate nearly four times greater than white people. This despite data that shows Black people make fewer bike trips in the city.

It’s not just a Seattle problem. Research and reporting from other cities has shown that Black people and individuals of color have been disproportionately stopped or ticketed while riding bikes in New Orleans, Washington, D.C., Oakland, Chicago, Dallas, and Tampa, among other localities.

Due to this data and history, the organizations for which I work, Cascade Bicycle Club and Washington Bikes, have joined a coalition calling for the repeal of the King County, Wash., helmet law enforced in Seattle. There is local precedent for repeal. Tacoma, Wash., eliminated its helmet law in 2020 following concerns about inequitable enforcement.

Let’s be clear: helmets can prevent brain injuries, which is why I wear one nearly every time I ride. It is also why Cascade Bicycle Club provides them for free to youth in its education programs, and why it requires them to participate in the organization’s group rides and events.

Wearing a helmet when bicycling in American cities, where cycling infrastructure is woefully inadequate, is common sense. As Charles T. Brown, CEO of the organization Equitable Cities, told The Guardian: “It is important for all cyclists to wear helmets, though I don’t think it’s something that should be mandated by law.”

Why? Because helmet laws, as well as other minor bicycling infractions, have been used as a pretext to target people of color. There is a parallel effort to repeal jaywalking laws for the same reason. History shows that these minor infractions can turn deadly. Dijon Kizzee, 29, was shot to death by police in Los Angeles in August 2020 after allegedly committing an infraction on his bike.

In Seattle, nearly half of the helmet tickets went to homeless individuals, who conceivably can’t afford a helmet. This is enforcement that causes more injury than it prevents.

Supporters of helmet laws strike me as sincere in their belief that such laws save lives, but these critics of repeal efforts sometimes suffer from a tunnel vision that prevents them from seeing the big-picture negative societal consequences of helmet law enforcement. They toss out red herring arguments asking if supporters are going to repeal seat belt laws next. But even this is a lame argument: every car comes with seat belts. You don’t have to go buy them.

Critics also say that repealing helmet laws “sends the wrong message.” Their knee-jerk refusal to consider helmet law repeals, however, sends a far more insidious message: We are tone-deaf to the issue of racially biased policing, and to the concerns of communities of color who ride bikes.

The message repeal advocates are sending is simple: Helmets Yes, Helmet Laws No. Wear a helmet, duh. Leave the police out of it. From a societal and taxpayer perspective, why do we mandate that police enforce bike helmet laws? Don’t they have real crimes to solve?

Even if you reject the racially biased policing evidence, there are numerous other reasons to repeal mandatory helmet laws. There is no convincing data to show that helmet laws improve safety. The United States has one of the highest rates of helmet usage, but our fatality rate far exceeds that of nations where helmet use is exceedingly low, such as the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany. That’s because real safety for people riding bikes comes from more investment in bicycling infrastructure such as protected bike lanes, slower motor vehicle speeds, and less inattentive or reckless driving.

Critics of the repeal effort punt away their responsibility by saying that racial bias in enforcement should be a matter of police reform. That’s true. Racial bias in policing must be addressed, and the bike industry should be infuriated that anyone riding a bike is targeted unfairly. So the question remains: where are the bike industry task forces and pro-helmet-law lobbying efforts advocating for police reform?

At least two people riding bikes have been killed by motor vehicles this year in Seattle. One was crushed by a truck, the other smashed by a hit-and-run driver. It is doubtful that a helmet would have saved either life. As a representative from Giro noted during an industry forum, bike helmets are not designed to protect wearers from the blunt force trauma of being struck by a motor vehicle. Let’s focus on the real danger: motor vehicles and reckless drivers.

Helmet laws also dissuade people (especially newcomers to bicycling) from riding bikes at a moment in history when we desperately need people to get out of cars and onto bicycles and electric bikes--for our climate, for our air, for our health and prosperity.

The evidence is clear: wear a helmet. But stop punishing people who don’t. The bike industry has an opportunity to use its head, and its heart, to show that it truly cares.    

Paul Tolmé is the content strategist and media relations manager for Cascade Bicycle Club and Washington Bikes. The views expressed here are his own and do not reflect the positions of his employer. To learn more, read his blog post “Helmet Yes, Helmet Laws No” at wabikes.org