I was on the way back home from work one day when this happened:
- "You should wear a helmet. Or at least ride all the way to the right."
As I explained earlier, now in the times of Covid-19 I stopped using Minuteman Bikeway. It's too crowded and I feel safer on the road, even though car traffic seems to be back to normal. Having all drivers encapsulated in metal cans means that at least they don't exhale on me when I ride my bike alongside.
Anyway, the woman who spoke those words through the opened passenger side window seemed actually to be truly concerned. She looked worried that someone may hit me with a car and she thought the best solution in this situation was for me to put a styrofoam lid on. Sigh...
Unfortunately, as more and more Americans driving small cars and switch to SUVs, the effectiveness of bike helmets gets reduced even more. Not that they were particularly effective against speeding cars before, but now when cyclists are facing speeding trucks, helmets are more useless than ever.
Still, most people, like the woman quoted here, feel that helmets are some sort of a miracle car repellent. But Americans don't drive cars anymore - now they drive trucks instead. SUV sales have been booming in the United States, from 7% of vehicle sales in 1990 to an expected 50% in 2020. The vehicles used for daily commute by most Americans became larger, heavier and more powerful over the last 20 years. On top of that, they are deliberately designed to look aggressive and intimidating on road, which is accentuated by very tall, nearly vertical front, with hoods often much higher above the road than a roof of an ordinary sedan.
2020 Chevy Erector...uhm, I mean, Silverado. Ideal "car" for insecure males.
No helmet is going to protect you, when you are hit by a speeding wall - and that's what these comically oversized trucks essentially are. Unfortunately, motor industry doesn't care. They admitted that they "spent a lot of time making sure that when you stand in front of this thing it looks like it's going to come get you".
And they do. United States is clearly heading in the wrong direction when it comes to pedestrian casualties. While European Union managed to reduce pedestrian deaths by nearly 40% within the last 12 years, U.S. increased it by 53% in about the same time frame. That's no surprise though. When Germany is planning on banning SUV in cities, recognizing they are terrible for pedestrians, cyclists and environment, America's automakers make sure nothing would disrupt them in selling huge trucks, such as a proposal to factor pedestrians into vehicle safety ratings.
Apparently, roads layered with dead bodies is the price we need to pay for American "freedom".
