Mandatory Bicycle Helmet Laws in the United States: Origins, Context, and Controversies

This article examines the origins and context of mandatory bicycle helmet laws in the United States. Localities began to enact such laws in the early 1990s, having experimented with helmet laws for motorcycles previously. As cycling became increasingly popular in the 1970s and 1980s because of a var...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:American journal of public health (1971) 2020-08, Vol.110 (8), p.1198-1204
Main Authors: Bachynski, Kathleen, Bateman-House, Alison
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
AJPH Law & Ethics
Bicycles
Bicycling
Bicycling - injuries
Child
Child and Adolescent Health
Children
Childrens health
Consciousness
Context
Craniocerebral Trauma - epidemiology
Craniocerebral Trauma - prevention & control
Cycling
Environmental awareness
Exercise/Physical Activity
Fatalities
Government Regulation - history
Head injuries
Head Protective Devices - history
Headgear
Health Policy
Health surveillance
Helmets
History
History, 19th Century
History, 20th Century
History, 21st Century
Humans
Injuries
Injury/Emergency Care/Violence
Motorcycles
Nonprofit organizations
Origins
Physicians
Prevention
Protective equipment
Public health
Roads & highways
Safety
Surveillance
Surveillance systems
Traffic accidents & safety
United States - epidemiology
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Description
Summary:This article examines the origins and context of mandatory bicycle helmet laws in the United States. Localities began to enact such laws in the early 1990s, having experimented with helmet laws for motorcycles previously. As cycling became increasingly popular in the 1970s and 1980s because of a variety of historical trends, from improved cycle technology to growing environmental consciousness, cycling-related injuries also increased. Bicycle safety advocates and researchers alike were particularly troubled by head injuries. National injury surveillance systems and a growing body of medical literature on bicycle-related injuries motivated a number of physicians, cyclists, children, and other community members to advocate helmet laws, which they argued would save lives. Controversy over these laws, particularly over whether they should apply universally or only to children, raised public health ethics concerns that persist in contemporary debates over bicycle helmet policies. ( 2020;110:1198-1204. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2020.305718).
ISSN:0090-0036
1541-0048
DOI:10.2105/AJPH.2020.305718