While Boston officials are still eager to partner with an MIT vendor, a fix to the lack of safety gear in the citywide bike system is unclear.
Boston’s Hubway bicycle sharing system provided 650,000 trips between July 2011 and July 2012, its first 12 months of operation, and while the program appears to be a success there has been one glaring omission: helmets. Kris Carter, interim director of Boston Bikes, said at a Jamaica Plain Business and Professional Association Meeting this week that a helmet system was supposed to be in place last fall but never came to pass. “The mayor is aware of the need,” he said. Carter was at the meeting to pitch the idea of a Hubway station in Jamaica Plain, but a conversation on the system's lack of helmets erupted. He said Hubway officials are looking into teaming up with HelmetHub, an MIT-based company that has created a helmet vending machine…
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Are the ads, featuring battered and bloodied cyclists, an effective way to communicate the need for helmets, or do they turn people off to commuting by bike?
Boston's new ad campaign promoting bike helmet use has been the talk of the web this week. The ads, featuring graphic images like a young man with a bloodied face, are designed to show people the consequences of riding without a helmet. Not everyone thinks that's the best way to get the message across. Bostonrider.org, the Hub's go-to blog for cyclists and anyone interested in city transportation issues, thinks the ads would scare would-be cyclists from even trying. Universal Hub weighed in as well, saying the ads hot you like a two-by-four to the face. And nationally, Atlantic Cities picks up on the controversy as well, asking whether such shaming campaigns are ever effective. What do you think? Does a little fear act as a motivator? Or …
cher
12:07 am on Saturday, October 20, 2012
so yeah, had i not worn a helmet, i would have sustained the same injuries and complications. had i not, i could and very well may have sustained worse. why take chances? a good helmet costs what, $60? aren't you worth that? more ›