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Cycling fines soar

cycling, regulation, Safety, , , ,

Cycling FinesMost of us have heard recently about warnings issued by police to local riders for rolling through STOP signs.

The SMH reports that the number of fines handed to cyclists in NSW has surged by more than a third in the first year of increased penalties, which has led to the state government collecting more than $2.2 million in revenue from the top-five offences.

Almost two-thirds of the 9760 infringement notices issued in the 12 months after the new laws were introduced were for failing to wear helmets, the fine for which quadrupled to $319 on March 1 last year.

Read more at the SMH >>>

Bike helmet review throws cold water on sceptics: they’ll likely save your life

cycling, Health, regulation, Safety, , , , ,

From the Sydney Morning Herald…

Cycling HelmetTampere, Finland: The largest review yet of bike helmet use by 64,000 injured cyclists worldwide has found helmets reduce the chances of a serious head injury by nearly 70 per cent.

Claims that bike helmets damaged the neck and caused serious brain injury were also found to be wrong in the study by University of NSW statistician Dr Jake Olivier, who presented on Tuesday to the international injury prevention conference Safety 2016 in Finland.

Do cyclists really need to wear flouro?

cycling, Safety,

Flouro-cyclistThis article will promote some interesting discussion….

From SMH (6/8/2016): When it comes to safety on two wheels, is brighter really better, or have we been sold the great fluoro fallacy?

“Being visible is different from being noticed. Visibility is about standing out from the background and cyclists can enhance that, especially in poor weather or low lighting conditions, by wearing high-visibility materials,” says Dr Sandar Tin Tin

“But being noticed is different because it depends on drivers’ attention to and expectation of the cyclists,” she says.

This distinction is key to a Transport for London commercial, viewed more than 22 million times on YouTube, that asks viewers to count how many passes a basketball team makes.

Surge in number of fines for cyclists not wearing a helmet

cycling, Health, regulation, ,

From the Sydney Morning Herald….

The number of infringement notices issued by police has risen dramatically following a recent crack down on cyclists who do not wear approved helmets.

cyclist-fines-graph-700

The latest statistics show a 56 per cent rise, to 1545, in the total number of fines issued in the two months after the government increased penalties for cyclists on March 1, compared with the same period a year earlier. 

The fine for riding without a helmet more than quadrupled on March 1 to $319.

The amount of fines collected from people riding without helmets totalled $350,262 in March and April, compared with just over $50,000 in the same period in 2015.

 

A fit body leads to a fit brain

cycling, Health,

Exercise helps your brainFrom the Sydney Morning Herald…..

The most persistent theme in exercise science in 2015 was that to live long, age well and maintain a nimble mind and shapely brain, we must be physically active – but not for as much time as many of us might fear, or in the ways that many of us might guess.

Certainly the most encouraging research this year focused on the links between regular exercise and improvements in our thinking and the structure of our brains. There has been discussion in past years about how exercise increases the number of new neurons in the brain and sharpens thinking skills and mood, especially as we age.

But this year, interest among scientists in exercise and brain health seemed to reach a critical mass. Many new studies are highlighting previously unexplored ways in which exercise changes our brains and minds. A recent brain-scan study in Japan found that the brains of fit older men were almost as efficient as the brains of young people.

 

New rules for cyclists – 2016

cycling, regulation, , ,

The NSW government has announced new rules relating to cycling. These new measures will come into effect in March 2016.

1 MetreFrom 1st March 2016….

 

Changing attitudes to bicycle helmets

cycling, regulation

Cycling HelmetThere is currently a great deal of public discussion about laws relating to the wearing of helmets by cyclists.

In the early 1990s laws mandating that cyclists wear bicycle helmets were introduced in Australia. But as early as 1978 attitudes towards the wearing of helmets were changing.

The article below, published in today’s SMH, is part of that discussion, reflecting on changing attitudes since the late 1970s.