Compulsory helmets for cyclists are never going to happen, expert says

A leading cycling expert has said compulsory helmets for all riders are “never going to happen.”

Carlton Reid, executive editor of BikeBiz, said he believed enshrining the mass production of helmets into law would lead to the products becoming “shoddy and dangerous”.

His comments come after The Times reported that Jesse Norman, Minister for Roads, Local Transport and Devolution, is considering plans for helmets and high-visibility jackets to be made mandatory for cyclists.

Mr Norman has since said he does not take a position on compulsory helmets for cyclists but that the matter would likely be raised during a review of cycling safety.

Mr Reid told the Standard: “This is such a contentious issue and it has been going on for a long time now.

"I've had ministers tell me the only way they would ever make cycling helmets compulsory is if usage rates exceeded 70 per cent - at this point we're nowhere near 50.

Helmets are currently designed for people who specifically want to buy helmets - enshrining their widespread use in law would only make the products - mass produced on an even larger scale - shoddier and more dangerous.

"I have no doubt mandatory helmet usage would prove a disservice to the nation's cyclists."

The review comes after new figures showed more than 100 cyclists were killed on British roads last year - with another 3,000 being seriously injured.

Critics say that helmets give cyclists and motorists a false sense of security and acts as a distraction from other causes of accidents such as dangerous drivers.

Although helmet use is high in Britain's largest and most metropolitan cities, Mr Reid says those figure plummets in the rest of the country.

Sam Jones, of Cycling UK, told The Times: "Making helmet-wearing compulsory could undermine levels of cycle use ... the effectiveness of helmets is not the black-and-white issue many think it is."

But Wiltshire councillor and cyclist Jerry Wickham said: “Compulsory helmets plan for all cyclists - I was knocked off my bike a few years ago and without the helmet I was wearing I would have sustained a dreadful injury. This seems common sense to me.”

In a statement posted on his Twitter account on Friday morning, Mr Norman said: “To be clear: there is no “plan” re: compulsory helmets or hi-vis for cyclists as suggested in @thetimes. As @BikeBizOnline reported, I don’t take a position on this. It’s sure to be raised in the consultation, and we will consider it based on the evidence.”