{"id":2078,"date":"2006-09-14T13:07:39","date_gmt":"2006-09-14T17:07:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wordpress\/2006\/09\/ditch_my_lid\/"},"modified":"2006-09-14T13:07:39","modified_gmt":"2006-09-14T17:07:39","slug":"ditch_my_lid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/2006\/09\/ditch_my_lid\/","title":{"rendered":"Ditch My Lid?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m sometimes have to scratch my head when reading about published research. Here’s another example’<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Cyclists who wear protective helmets are more likely to be knocked down by passing vehicles, new research from Bath University suggests.
\nThe study found drivers tend to pass closer when overtaking cyclists wearing helmets than those who are bare-headed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Dr Ian Walker, study author and “traffic psychologist,” suggests “the reason drivers give less room to cyclists wearing helmets is because they see them as ‘Lycra-clad street warriors’ and believe they are more predictable than those without.”
\nIn certain situations, there might<\/em> be something to this; on some residential roads drivers may give a wider berth to an erratic-riding mountain biker than they give a steady road biker. But to confirm the paper’s conclusion, one would have to control for several factors that I suspect this study failed to do, such as road type, vehicular traffic speed, cyclist speed, cyclist riding style, et cetera.
\nMoreover, on more “dangerous” roads, drivers probably often can’t distinguish between helmeted and non-helmeted riders, either because: (1) they don’t have time to notice, or (2) the road is so narrow that there’s not much clearance anyway.
\nIn any case, I’m going to continue wearing the helmet. Whatever minimal safety benefit there may be to this study, it’s clearly outweighed by the protection a helmet offers during a low-speed accident.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m sometimes have to scratch my head when reading about published research. Here’s another example’: Cyclists who wear protective helmets are more likely to be knocked down by passing vehicles, new research from Bath University suggests. The study found drivers tend to pass closer when overtaking cyclists wearing helmets than those who are bare-headed. Dr […]<\/p>\n<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2078","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"h-entry","8":"hentry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2078\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}