Are bike sharing schemes leading to a major rise in head injuries? Researchers warn cities with bike share programs see rise in accidents - and say helmets should be compulsory
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Having a bike sharing scheme can increase the risk of head injuries among cyclists by 14 percent, researchers have found.
Researchers looked at the change in head injuries before and after the implementation of bike-share programs in five cities in the United States and Canada.
They called for schemes around the world to implement helmet loans for riders.
New Yorkers use the Citibikes dotted around their city. However, researchers warn that helmets should be available to riders following a rise in head injuries among cities who run bike sharing schemes
SEATTLE SET TO OFFER HELMETS
In September, Seattle will implement a bike-share program called Pronto Cycle Share, one of the first such programs in the United States to offer helmet rentals.
Each helmet will cost $2 and be sanitized after each use.
Providing helmets in Seattle is essential due to King County's bike helmet regulation law.
Other cities have now been urged to look at implementing similar schemes.
Researchers from the University of Washington and Washington State University looked at the change in head injuries before and after the implementation of bike-share programs in five cities in the United States and Canada.
They also gathered similar data for five cities that did not have bike-share programs.
Of all bicycle-related injuries that occurred in bike-share cities during the study period, the proportion that were head injuries rose from 42 percent to 50 percent after bike-share program implementation.
No such increase was found in cities without these programs.
'Our results suggest that bike-share programs should place greater importance on providing helmets so riders can reap the health benefits of cycling without putting themselves at greater risk for injury,' said Janessa Graves of the Washington State University College of Nursing, who led the research.
London's hire scheme has been a huge success, and is dubbed the 'boris bike' after Mayor of London Boris Johnson (pictured)
Helmets are regularly shown to help lower the risk of head and brain injury, whereas not using a helmet can increase fatality among people who incur a traumatic brain injury in a biking accident.
Despite these findings, many bike-share programs worldwide do not offer helmets to cyclists.
Graves and her colleagues examined trauma-registry data for bicycle-related head injuries for two years before and one year after bike programs began.
They studied the same timeframe in control cities.
They collected injury data from trauma center databases and registries in the United States and Canada.
The cities with bike-share programs were Boston, Miami Beach, Minneapolis, Washington, D.C., and Montreal, Quebec. None of the programs provided helmets to users during the study period.
The cities without bike-share programs were Los Angeles, Milwaukee, New York City, Seattle and Vancouver, British Columbia.
"It doesn't take much effort to wear a helmet when you bike," Graves said, "but doing so could make all the difference."
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She led the study; Frederick Rivara, a UW professor of pediatrics, was senior author.
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