New helmet study group receives European funding

The European Science Foundation is funding a new multidisciplinary research group that will study the effectiveness and design of cycle helmets and whose founding members include occasional road.cc blogger Dr Ian Walker from the University of Bath.

Dr Walker is best known for his research, published in 2006, that suggested that drivers give cyclists without helmets more room than those wearing them, and also famously sported a blonde wig while riding his bike to demonstrate that women got a wider berth than men.

The new project falls within the ambit of the organisation European Co-operation on Science and Technology (COST), which provides an intergovernmental framework for partnership in research across a range of disciplines, and which has previously conducted a project on motorcycle helmets.

COST says of the new initiative:

“Cycling is an excellent sustainable alternative to driving. Cyclists have few safety options, of which a helmet is one. However, there are strong indications that law-mediated increases of helmet usage for cyclists cause confounding factors which temper the positive effect of these helmets on head and brain injury. Furthermore, current helmet design is suboptimal. Since several fields are important to bicycle helmet optimization, a combined effort involving all of these is necessary; so that a given parameter is not optimized at the cost of another. Finally, the attitudes of cyclist towards helmets will be focused upon; providing tools for improving helmet usage. The multidisciplinary approach respects the complex nature of the issue, it is unique in Europe, and will provide more complete information to legislators, manufacturers, end-users, and scientists, ultimately leading to increased safety for cyclists.”

In layman’s terms, that means examining the efficacy or otherwise of compulsory helmet laws and the pros and cons of introducing such legislation, whether the design of existing helmets could be improved, and bike riders’ own attitudes towards helmets.

Scientists from some 20 countries throughout the continent will be involved in the study group, and their findings and recommendations could be used in refining EU safety standards as well as providing a greater understanding of issues surrounding helmet use.

Dr Walker told the trade website BikeBiz: "COST Actions tend to feed into European standards, which is a valuable part of their role as not only do they provide a pan-European perspective on the issues involved, but they involve a lot of impartial scientists and are unlikely to be swayed by manufacturers' lobbying" – although manufacturers will be able to participate in the study group.

COST Actions does not itself fund original research, but provides a framework for researchers in different places to co-operate and share their knowledge.