With the proliferation of bike shares over the past few years, I wanted to touch on 2 issues in particular that I repeatedly notice, both safety oriented:
1. NOBODY IS WEARING A HELMET!!! This really stands out, as typically over 90% of the people with their own bikes are now using helmets on the roads. Nobody is going to walk around with their own helmets and then rent a bike, and none of the rentals seem to include helmets at the stations.
2. These people without helmets are unfamiliar with our roads! This makes them more likely to end up in weird/dangerous situations, and not have the proper safety gear when bad things inevitably happen.
Now to be fair, I don't have the stats, and I don't really like bikers either in general (unless you're a mountain biker, which is badass). However, I can't help but think this is all a recipe for disaster when I see all these clueless people riding around without helmets. I don't think my personal feelings on bikers are coloring my viewpoint here, and I have pointed it out to others. If helmets are so important, why do we want hundreds or thousands of non-Bostonians confusedly riding our streets without them? Are we trying to get these people killed?
