Risk Compensation

Risk Compensation, and the Bicycle Helmet.

At the back door of my house there is a small ledge about 15 cm wide, and a 20cm or so drop to the grass. I can stand on this ledge with the door closed and not fall to the ground. I am totally confident, I can lean out a bit without even hanging onto the frame, I can turn around, I can wave my arms about and I don’t fall. I feel no fear of falling; even if I did fall, the worst thing that could possibly happen is that I get my socks wet.

If I were to take the same 15cm wide ledge and put it 50 meters up a wall I would not be quite so confident of not falling. I have never found myself in such a position, but if I did I don’t imagine that I would be waving my arms, or dancing around or whatever. I think I would be frozen to the spot, terrified that if I so much as farted I would tumble to the ground. I would not feel comfortable in such a position without a harness, ropes, and a giant airbag on the ground below.

Why this should be so is not entirely clear. If I didn’t know how high the ledge was, say if I was blindfolded, it would make no difference to me and I would not need all that safety equipment, and I probably wouldn’t fall. But because I see a threat of injury or death on the high ledge that there is not on the low one I need to hold on to feel confident of my position.

The same can be said for bicycles and helmets. I fall off my bike and hit my head surprisingly infrequently. Most of the time I don’t need my helmet. Even in heavy traffic I hardly ever receive a blow to the head sufficiently violent to require a helmet. So why do I wear one?

There is a term that is in fashion at the moment, ‘risk compensation’. It defines the situation where with a reduced risk of injury (actual or perceived), by means of seatbelts, a.b.s. brakes, helmets etc, drivers and riders act proportionally more recklessly. If I know that an accident won’t kill me, or even scratch my skin, I will make less effort to avoid a collision, particularly if I perceive myself to be in the ‘right’.

I can understand to a certain extent how it appears to be this way. In some cases it may even be true. It is certainly more likely to be so for drivers of cars and trucks. The metal shell of the vehicle naturally protects them. It is enough to provide protection from most small collisions. Add things like seatbelts, airbags, abs brakes, crumple zones etc. and the occupants are practically invincible. A driver with that much protection would start to feel a bit invincible, because for the most part they are.

With bicycles this is not necessarily the case. A helmet does offer some protection from injury, but only to the head, and only in certain types of impacts to the head. That still leaves plenty of exposed skin, and plenty of potential for getting seriously hurt. If I wear a helmet or not makes little difference in a fall, either way it’s going to hurt. Wearing a helmet does not encourage me to ride in a fashion that increases the chances of falling off. It does offer some protection to me if I do fall.

Wearing seatbelts or helmets, or having airbags and so on does not reduce the risk of having and accident, it only reduces the amount of injury sustained when they do happen. Safe cars do not make safe roads, particularly for those who do not have the same level of protection. It’s like giving everyone a gun, and when people inexplicably start getting shot, encouraging them to wear bulletproof vests. You’ll still get shot, but it won’t be quite as fatal. Probably. And may the gods help those who cannot afford a vest.

Looking at the thing in terms of ‘risk compensation’ a pretty ugly picture is painted. Cyclists are forced into wearing helmets because of the hostile nature of the road. It’s not much protection, but it is something. There is another way to look at it. It may appear the same as ‘risk compensation’ but the effect is different. Let’s call it ‘realisation of potential’.

Riding a bicycle can be done without falling off. I do it most of the time. It’s like standing on the low ledge. I feel safe and confident and can ride to the limit of my ability and to the limit of the bicycle. Put me on the ‘high ledge’ in heavy traffic and some of my confidence vanishes, and because my will is frail, some of my ability vanishes with it.

Somewhere, some part of me knows that I can still ride just as well. When all else is equal, it is only the greater potential for injury that impairs my performance. Not actual injury, which you would reasonably expect to impair performance, just an idea that it might happen. Putting on a helmet is like putting on a harness; I remain on the high ledge, but the fall is less likely to be fatal. The idea of it happening is less likely to arise. I can concentrate on what I am doing so that I don’t fall of the ledge and never actually require the harness.

In an ideal world it is always safer to ride on the ‘low ledge’, but this, I am afraid to announce, is not an ideal world. The only place to ride is on the ‘high ledge'; there is no ‘low ledge’. A helmet gives me enough protection to ride closer to the potential that the bicycle and my legs will allow, and have a larger margin for error than I would without one. A helmet can be used to encourage an increase in ability up to the point where it is not needed any more.

I feel I now know riding well enough to not wear a helmet, even in heavy traffic. Past experience tells me that I hardly ever fall off. But I also know riding well enough that I still habitually wear a helmet anyway. I have the carcasses of three shattered helmets that remind me that I am not perfect, and neither is hardly anyone else. I may think I don’t need one to ride to the shop, but the inconvenience of wearing one is insignificant, the benefits should something untoward happen are substantial. Besides the Law requires me to wear one, and who am I to argue with the Law.

I wear a helmet not to allow me to ride more carelessly, but to make riding forgiving enough to allow me to learn how to ride to my full potential in an environment where even a small mistake could be fatal. It lets me ride without a lot of the distracting thoughts like ‘what if I crash’, which are irrational and unnecessary, and I can then concentrate on riding in a way so that I won’t fall off.