TOP STORY Continued from Page 1 look at cycling accident victims, is leading the charge. The solution, however, may be more complicated than simply having the provincial government sign a bill. Allan Lamb, manager of traffic safety education for ICBC and a strong advocate of helmet use, isn’t _sold on the idea of legislation. @ “T think any law that’s going to l i i Ver S| S82 55 | ah reduce injuries and save lives is worthwhile,” Lamb says. But, he adds, although helmet legislation may be worthwhile, it represents only one part of the solution. “Legislation alone will not doit. You need legislation, enforcement and education,” he says. “We look for this panacea when we should be looking at changing attitudes.” Lamb says studies suggest that without enforcement a helmet law would not succeed. He points to the example of seat belt legislation. When the law was implemented in British Columbia, seat belt use im- mediately increased. But if enforce- ment hadn’t been introduced into the _equation a short time later, com- @pliance would have diminished again, Lamb says. The two elements — legislation and enforcement — go hand in hand, he says. ~ So how does a community enforce bicycle helmet legislation when its police department already has more than enough to do? At this point Lamb doesn’t have an answer, and that’s why he’s reluctant to endorse helmet legislation. “Tm not convinced that’s the route to go.” : Lamb is not the only cycling advo- cate who doesn’t wholeheartedly embrace the idea of mandatory hel- met use. Denys Beames of the Greater Victoria Cycling Coalition also has concerns about enforcement. “It would be nice to see everyone wearing a bicycle helmet — the doc- webors would be happy — but how do you enforce it?” Beames asks. The real issue, Beames and Lamb say, is the disturbing number of bicycle accidents. The emphasis, they suggest, should be on prevention rather than cure. “A helmet doesn’t prevent acci- dents,” Beames says. Indeed, while Victoria has the best bicycle-riding climate (recent weather notwithstanding) in Canada, British Columbia motor vehicle drivers have the worst record in the country. Add to that the fact that automobile drivers and bicycle riders don’t always get along on the road and you have the potential for ‘@isaster. “We've got a serious driving prob- lem in B.C.,” Lamb says. “There’s a lot of animosity between drivers and cyclists.” It's been suggested that the best way to protect cyclists is to separate them from motorized traffic through the establishment of bicycle paths or lanes. But again Lamb cautions against oversimplifying the situa- tion. He says bicycle lanes, which are separate lanes (for cyclists only) on existing arteries, create a whole new : set of difficulties. “As soon aS you introduce yet another lane of traffic, my sense is you re asking for more problems than you already have,” he says. Bicycle lanes would represent one more variable for motorists to con- sider in the already-complicated business of getting from point A to point B, Lamb says. It’s not some- thing they really need, he adds. Another consideration is cost. Someone — probably the taxpayers — would have to pay for road widen- ing to accommodate the bicycle lanes, Lamb says. Meanwhile, separate bicycle paths have the benefit of no interaction be- tween motorized traffic and cyclists, but they, too, are not without their hazards. As with bicycle lanes, paths fe BICYCLEITIS OWNER Hans Kumbruch tries on one of the many makes of hel- ROAD WARS don’t come for free, and they’re also not as safe as they appear, Beames says. A bike path must be at least three metres wide to accommodate two-way traffic, he says, and even then accidents are bound tohappen;, sometimes with alarming frequency. Such concerns, however, haven’t persuaded Lamb to disregard the no- tion of bicycle lanes or paths. As chairman of the Capital Regional District's Traffic Safety Commission, he’s in the process of determining what, if any, combination of bike paths, lanes and routes would be suitable for Greater Victoria. He says the commission will have a state- met available. All helmets sold in Canada have to meet Canadian Safety Association standards. Photo by CHUCK RUSSELL What to look for in a bicycle helmet. u've decided to take the In- surance Corporation of British Columbia’s advice and “get your head into a bike helmet.” So what should you look for and how much will you have to pay? Denys Beames, a bicycle safety in- structor and member of the Greater Victoria Cycling Coalition, says it’s hard to go wrong when you purchase a bicycle helmet. Virtually all the hel- mets on the market today have been approved by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), the Snell Foundation or the Canadian Stand- ards Association (CSA). Any one of the three approvals means the helmet will provide sufficient protection, he says. Helmets work by absorbing the im- pact energy so the brain doesn’t have to, Beames says. Some helmets have a hard plastic shell over the foam inte- rior, while others have no exterior shell. Both models offer the same amount of protection in the event of an accident, Beames says. The advantage of a helmet with a hard shell is that it will take more incidental abuse. Beames recommends hard-shell hel- mets with few openings for off-road cycling, where the rider may en- counter twigs and branches. 7 Beames says cyclists can expect to pay from $30 to $90 for a cycling hel- met. He says the more expensive models don’t necessarily offer more protection, but they’re often lighter and therefore more comfortable. The biggest concern in a cycling hel- met should be fit, not price, Beames says. It’s important to find a helmet that feels comfortable and has a mini- mum of front-to-back and side-to-side rotation, he says. The helmet that fits properly is the best buy, Beames says. Beames has a couple of words of cau- tion concerning bicycle helmets: “These helmets are designed to be used once and thrown away.” In other words, a helmet is good for one accident. Once you've taken a tumble and your helmet has absorbed the impact, it’s no longer capable of doing its job. “One fall and that helmet is a write- off,” Beames says. “It’s a one-time af- fair.” Meanwhile, parents buying helmets for children under five should be aware that no helmet standard exists for kids that young, Beames says. The problem is that not enough is known about the properties of a toddler’s head, he says. But that doesn’t mean young children shouldn’t wear helmets, Beames adds. It’s just that they won’t have the same level of protection that older children and adults receive. ment or position on the matter by next June. “We are very open to suggestions that bicycle lanes, paths and routes are the direction of the future.” In the meantime, Lamb, Beames and others believe the best way to reconcile the acrimony between drivers and cyclists — and reduce the frequency of accidents — is through education. A good starting point would be to persuade the two warring factions to accept — and respect — each other’s presence on the road, Beames says. “The bicycle is a vehicle with the right to use the road, and the cyclist has a responsibility to obey the rules,” he says. In terms of bicycle safety education, Lamb, Beames and Tim Sampson of the Vancouver Island Safety Council have been busy. Lamb co-ordinates the annual CRD bicycle safety cam- paign, which has been operating for the past five years. Beames, the former bicycle safety co-ordinator for the city of Toronto, is a certified in- structor in bicycle safety and teaches a set of courses locally. Sampson, meanwhile, is the most active — and influential — of the three when it comes to bicycle safety education. He spends four days a week in Greater Victoria schools teaching a bike safety program to children in Grades 1 through 6. The program is free and available to all elementary schools in the three local school districts, but only 33 of 71 schools have signed up for the cur- rent school year. The response, or lack of one, has Sampson perplexed. “It’s a free service, but it’s not an overwhelming response. If I were a principal I'd be jumping at this,” he says. Sampson, a former teacher, would like to see bicycle safety education incorporated into the elementary school curriculum. He reasons it’s more applicable to real life than some of the subjects taught today, and it’s popular as well. “The kids love it. I don’t see any resistance coming out of the stu- dents.” Sampson also is a member of a recently established city of Victoria sub-committee that’s looking at ways to promote cycling in the region. The sub-committee’s first act was to in- stall bicycle racks at city hall. Whatever gains the various bicycle safety bodies make in the months and years to come, one thing is clear: cy- cling will be around for a long time. As the price of gas continues to rise, as public concern about the environ- ment intensifies, and as the desire for exercise grows, the popularity of the bicycle is sure to soar. What goes around comes around. A century ago, prior to the development of the automobile, cycling was a popular and preferred mode of transportation. It’s about to happen again, and that will surely satisfy people like Tim Sampson, Allan Lamb and Denys Beames. “So many people have said Victoria has the potential to be the cycling capital of Canada,” Sampson says. “I have to agree with that.” Adds Lamb: “There are lots of groups out there that are committed to bicycle safety. We are moving in some direction and it is a positive direction.”