Mandatory Bicycle Helmet Laws in the United States

Origins, Context, and Controversies

Datos Bibliográficos

ID11025943
AutoresKathleen Bachynski (0000-0002-8195-7773, Kathleen Bachynski is with the Public Health Program at Muhlenberg College, Allentown, PA. Alison Bateman-House is with the Division of Medical Ethics and the Department of Population Health at New York University Grossman School of Medicine, New York, NY.), Alison Bateman-House (0000-0001-6921-9666, Kathleen Bachynski is with the Public Health Program at Muhlenberg College, Allentown, PA. Alison Bateman-House is with the Division of Medical Ethics and the Department of Population Health at New York University Grossman School of Medicine, New York, NY.)
Año2020
Volumen110
Número8
Páginas1198-1204
Fecha de publicación2020-08-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaAmerican Journal of Public Health (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0090-0036 • E-ISSN: 1541-0048
EditorialAmerican Public Health Association (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.2105/ajph.2020.305718
PMID32552017
OpenAlexW3036596268
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas1
Referencias citadas5

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. (Am J Public Health. 2020;110:1198–1204. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2020.305718)

Context (archaeology) · Criminology · Environmental health · Injury prevention · Occupational safety and health · Poison control · Political science · Public health · Sociology · Suicide prevention · History · Human Factors and Ergonomics · Injury Epidemiology and Prevention · Law · Medicine · Traffic and Road Safety · Trauma and Emergency Care Studies