On 6/30/2020 10:22 AM, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 6/29/2020 12:48 PM, sms wrote:
On 6/28/2020 7:48 PM, wrote:

snip

I am positive in the USA you cannot buy a bicycle helmet
for that cheap. Wal-Mart, who I assume sells bike
helmets, could not make enough profit on a helmet to sell
it that cheap. It would not be worth the bother of
selling. I'd guess $9.99 is the cheapest for helmets in
the USA. Still worth wearing a helmet even at that
outrageously high price.

I've seen closeouts of CPSC approved helmets for as low as
$2, but normally helmets for kids start at around $10 with
$15-20 being more common.

There are many different organizations, both public and
private, that provide free helmets for children. The
bottom line is that the lack of $15 to buy a helmet is not
going to keep a kid from acquiring a helmet if they really
want to ride a bicycle.

Here's the real bottom line:

There are plenty of kids whose parents will never spend $15
on a bike helmet, often because they are poor.

Could they scrape up $15? Sure. But at a certain income
level, if you come up with $15 you think carefully about
what to spend it on. Perhaps it will go for co-pay on a
prescription. Perhaps it will pay for a movie at a discount
theater. But a bike helmet is unlikely to be near the top of
the list.

Can they find a helmet giveaway and get a free helmet? Only
if they're very, very lucky. The count of helmets given away
is absolutely dwarfed by the number of kids whose families
don't feel they can afford a helmet, even if they do buy
into the propaganda that one is worth having.

Besides, for a lot of low-income kids, $15 would be better
spent fixing their bike brakes or otherwise getting their
bike working safely and properly. I've volunteered
mechanical work at bike rodeos, and the condition of a lot
of bikes is much scarier than the lack of a helmet.

Similarly, if you're going to teach a kid one thing about
bicycling, it should not be "Always wear a helmet." That
should be far down the list, after "Ride on the proper side
of the road" and "Stop and check traffic before entering the
street" and "Obey stop signs and red lights" etc.

The plague of bicycling brain injuries is almost entirely a
myth. The tremendous protection given by a foam helmet is a
similar myth. There are better places to focus attention.


Not that things you wrote have no import, but if I were to
choose just one thing it would be 'Air your tires.'

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org/
Open every day since 1 April, 1971