motorcycle taxi originally uploaded by Robert S. Donovan
Last week’s poll asked what you were grilling for Memorial Day weekend. We did burgers last weekend and bought some more for this weekend. Next weekend we’re having some big ribeyes I have aging in the fridge. I was a little surprised that so many people were doing up steaks for Memorial Day instead of the traditional burgers and hot dogs, however I was pumped to see 0 people responding they were grill vegetables ;-)
This week’s poll comes after sitting out in the grass with my father, son, and wife talking about the colors and types of trucks and cars going by on the busy road next to our home. The Rooster is a big fan of trucks but also seems interested in motorcycles. We got onto a discussion about how this is the Nanny State and yet we allow people to ride motorcycles without helmets and how backwards that is. My father noted that many of the riders who are anti-helmet claim if they put the bike down they’d rather go out quickly than be placed in a vegetative state for the rest of their lives because the helmet “saved” them.
What do you think about helmet laws? Do you find them to be a contradiction considering the typical response Minnesota has to safety issues (see fireworks)? Do you think that it’s better to go out quickly or be left “alive”? Whatever you have to say about this one vote on the sidebar and then comment on below. After you do both of those things feel free to check out our expired polls in the archive or read through the previous posts about polls here.
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June 3rd, 2012 at 7:45 am
Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of happiness. To me that means the government has overstepped its authority in about every way it can. The only helmet I ever wore was a military issued one and that was only for drills and alerts nearly fifty years ago. In 1973 my 20 year old brother and US Army veteran was wearing a helmet while riding a new motorcycle to a college class and was hit by a drunk driver who ran a red light. My brother was a vegetable for six weeks before he died.
June 3rd, 2012 at 12:08 pm
I think you’re an idiot if you don’t wear a helmet, but I think you should have the right to be an idiot.
June 3rd, 2012 at 1:24 pm
I have always worn a helmet except for the first 10 minutes I rode in a state without a helmet law. There was no supreme thrill or feeling of freedom. My pursuit of happiness was not affected by a helmet law when I grew up. My pursuit of happiness is greatly influenced by my neighbors who set off fireworks. But life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is a concept from the Declaration of Independence and not a Constitutional quarantee. I’m sure that most every law works against someone’s personal pursuit of happiness from driving 110 MPH down the highway to the public abusive drunk.
June 3rd, 2012 at 2:21 pm
I wear a helmet at all times, even if I’m just going around the block.
However I still think it should be my own decision to wear one or not.
June 3rd, 2012 at 6:32 pm
So, Bill, since you commute on a pedal-bike, not the motorized variety, do you wear a helmet?
(…and this Calkins guy seems to have some logic underpinning his post – how did he end-up here? Lazy Lightning must have an irresistible pull…)
June 3rd, 2012 at 9:19 pm
I wear a helmet every time I ride. I feel those who don’t wear helmets are making a stupid choice. I have yet to hear a compelling reason for not wearing a helmet. However, it is a choice that the government should not interfer in.
June 4th, 2012 at 1:32 am
I never wear a helmet, but I’m not “anti-helmet”. I’m not offended nor do I pass judgement when I see someone wearing one. I don’t feel any substantial surge of national pride or freedom from riding without a helmet. I’m an educated, intelligent person and I’m aware of the laws, statistics and risks. I base my decisions on many factors and guess what, safety doesn’t always win out. I don’t need your validation of my exact reasoning so I won’t even go there.
So far the poll shows some people in favor of a helmet law, although judging by the comments we are in agreement that someone else’s helmet has no bearing on your life. In contrast to smoking, there’s no “second hand head injury” and a rider’s death or injury is covered by their own insurance. I would argue that my head would actually do less damage to your car than a helmet. So why do you (those of you in favor of a helmet law) care if I wear a helmet? Are you just more comfortable when you have a bunch of rules to follow? Maybe you have daddy issues?
June 4th, 2012 at 7:46 am
There is a seat belt law, but no helmet law. I just can’t get over that inconsistency. Although I am not really passionate about a helmet law. Someone in my family might need a kidney or other organ someday. The brain dead are great donors.
June 4th, 2012 at 7:49 am
I don’t really care if anyone wears a helmet or not. Unless…I as a taxpayer end up having to pay for additional medical care because of significant head injuries that could have been prevented by wearing a hemet.
June 4th, 2012 at 7:56 am
No to helmet laws. I’m against any law that is designed to protect us from ourselves. Seatbelt laws fall into this. Stepped up “enforcement” of seatbelt laws has to be the absolute biggest waste of our taxpayer dollars ever.
Helmet laws just below on that on the list of things and thank goodness we don’t have them here.
Bike helmets laws, like they’ve passed in California even worse.
At some point we have realize that the more we attempt to protect people from themselves and stop allowing the natural process of evolution to run its course by removing the dipshit from our ranks the more we have to run into dipshits in our day to day course.
Seriously if you aren’t hurting else it shouldn’t be regulated.
June 4th, 2012 at 8:10 am
C&V wrote:
I don’t like wearing a helmet and I find the idea detestable in general but The Wife asked me to and I have two kids to think about more than my desire not to do so. Thus, I wear one when I bike commute.
June 4th, 2012 at 8:13 am
Sank wrote:
I’m too lazy to look these up but they’re clearly not for adults or aren’t enforced because when I was out there two weeks ago for work I saw exactly 1 person riding with a helmet on. The rest of the folks were bareheaded. That said, there really weren’t that many bikers. Their car culture (even if you live less than 5 miles from work) is ridiculous.
They looked at me funny when I told them I bike 5 miles one way to work. They seriously asked why I didn’t drive. Well, I don’t like paying $3.50/gallon for gas. I certainly wouldn’t like to pay $4.75. That and I only have one car. While the biking and the gas prices raised eyebrows, the fact that we only had one car seemed to be the biggest problem of all.
Minnesotans are so weird.
June 4th, 2012 at 8:51 am
I really don’t care one way or another, but sometimes when I get behind one of those dump trucks spraying gravel all over the road or a piece of debris gets kicked up and pings off my windshield, I think what it’s like to ride on a motorcycle and get nailed in the face or head by one of those things.
June 4th, 2012 at 11:21 am
People ought to be able to wear helmets or not. Same for seatbelts. Likewise, insurance companies ought to be able to charge higher premiums for people who don’t wear helmets or wear seatbelts.
It may be puzzling the people can ride without a lid but can’t buy a roman candle. But it’s really simple: Bikers are organized and vocal; fireworks buyers are not. Squeaky wheel and all that.
I’ve never driven a motorcycle, but I ride bicycles all the time (one road, one MTB). I wear a helmet all the time. Same for skiing and snowboarding. A helmet won’t always save you, but the cost of wearing one is minimal (in my calculation) and the benefits could be substantial.
June 4th, 2012 at 2:14 pm
MSPD: It sucks. Even bugs can suck. I don’t wear a full helmet most of the time because it is uncomfortable. The half helmet I wear leaves my chin and lower face exposed. Sand, gravel, can all sting quite a bit. Don’t even get me started on cigarette butts…
June 5th, 2012 at 10:48 pm
Eh, I’m usually with the small government folks on this one. I’ve from SD and they enacted their seatbelt law in 1999 (nearly the last state in the country to do so) and only because the feds threatened to yank highway money. People grumbled about it, but the law in SD is a secondary misdemeanor, so you have to get pulled over for something else, which I’m pretty OK with. I feel that wearing a seatbelt or helmet is up to the individual (FWIW, I don’t usually wear my seatbelt, and no, I can’t really answer why…I just don’t). I’m also disturbed by the number of motorcyclists on highways wearing shorts and flip flops (but with a helmet). Have fun with that road rash or stump, should you get hit.
June 10th, 2012 at 7:02 am
[...] week’s poll asked what you thought about helmet laws and specifically if you believed that because Minnesota doesn’t require riders to use them [...]
September 19th, 2012 at 8:13 am
[...] children without helmets was stopped and charged with gross misdemeanor child endangerment. While people should be permitted to make their own poor choices regarding helmets, riding with two unprotected children is absolutely insane. On August 3, 2012 at approximately 8:22 [...]