azza1625/createdebate-arguments huggingface dataset:
Debate: Do you think bicycle riders should wear helments?
Side: Yes they should

and what I find interesting, is that there are often events when, for some people, things are never safe enough. I'm not saying it's not human nature to protect ourselves, but I am saying it's life that we will sustain the odd bump and bruise now and again and it's from these minor injuries that we learn to avoid the major injuries. People of all ages fall over on their bicycles every day but it's an extremely rare occurance for the results of these falls are anything but trivial but it is common to hear that because a helmet was worn in one of these events that the helmet provided some type of significant protection. Sometimes I wonder how it was that people rode bicycles with very little problems for over 100 years. It wasn't until the advent of the modern bicycle helmet that the public has come to be convinced of how we cannot do without them.
Debate: Do you think bicycle riders should wear helments?
Side: Yes they should

Here in America we used to call it Madison Avenue Syndrome since most marketing and sales companies were located there. They can make a case for just about anything! When I was a kid we had no helmets and I know of no one or remember no one who suffered as a result of it. The same with motorcycle helmets. There are states that demand them and states, like where I live that do not. I have a Fireman friend who wouldn't ride without one on. I guess he's seen too much from accidents he has attended. What do you think about motorcycle helmets? Would you say they are a boon to safety or not?
Debate: Do you think bicycle riders should wear helments?
Side: No they shouldnt

What I understand about motorcycles is that the circumstances of their crashes are far different from the circumstances of bicycles crashes. I find bicycle crashes to not be so nearly dangerous but that's not to say bicycle crashes can't be dangerous. One rare occasion they can be. It's at this point where I look to see if a bicycle helmet can help prevent injuries in the severe crashes and what I've found is they cannot. Our police and firemen up here (BC) attend these crashes and find the cyclist is just as dead when cyclists are wearing helmets as when they are not. And you are right. I've come to believe this is a condition of Madison Avenue Syndrome. It's not for little reason most lobby groups attempting to get helmet law passed are sponsored by helmet manufactures using "research" funded by helmet manufactures. It's an easy sell to convince parents that their children are at danger and they have the cure even if when you look at the issue with a logical and detached manner it makes little sense that that's the case.
Debate: Do you think bicycle riders should wear helments?
Side: No they shouldnt

I agree with your arguments. Perhaps you post got marked with the conclusion "yes they should" by mistake :-)
Debate: Do you think bicycle riders should wear helments?
Side: Yes they should

Just a footnote to really answer your question fully. I think all cyclists, skateboarders, etc should wear a helmet but I do not think it should be mandatory. The thing is that it can't hurt to wear one and it may just save slight head trauma when worn. Of course we all know that speed has an impact and how you're hit has an impact on the final result. I've seen people simply walk away from these types of accidents but I've also seen people die when they are hit "just right." It may, as David says, give a false sense of security but it really can't hurt to wear one.
Debate: Do you think bicycle riders should wear helments?
Side: No they shouldnt

Saved by a helmet ? Possibly, but not very likely. See the article "A helmet saved my life" as a starter. Also, see the paragraph in the commentary on the article "Promoting safe cycling and helmet use" referring to liners in helmets probably being too stiff to offer adequate protection in a crash : "The BMA [British Medical Assoc.] describes how helmets are intended to work.This is not, however, necessarily the reality. The senior engineer of Bell Sports, the leading helmet manufacturer [18], and the Australian Federal Transport Bureau [19], have commented that the foam in helmets may be too stiff so that it does not crush as designed."I have seen and read about people without helmets not hurting their heads in accidents, while sustaining minor or more serious injuries to legs and arms. It _can_ hurt to wear a helmet :o Risk compensation by cyclisto Risk compensation by car driverso "Helps" convey the false message that cycling is dangerous, and thus discourgae cycling for safety concious people, especially mothers regarding their kids. o A helmeted head is larger, hotter and l little bit heavier and means for instance that built in reflexes to bend the neck when falling on the back might not be sufficient to avoid a helmet smashing into the ground.o False stories about being saved by the helmet propagate, wetting the slippery slope to compulsiono Increased size and non-slick surface of helmet might mean increased chances of neck injuries. o Increased size and non-slick surface of helmet might mean increased chances of rotational injuries on the brain tissue.
Debate: Do you think bicycle riders should wear helments?
Side: No they shouldnt

but one must acknowledge that pedestrians are hurt and die from head injury at no lesser rate than cyclists. (http://www.vehicularcyclist.com/fatals.html) Wouldn't it be logical to ask pedestrians to wear helmets as we ask cyclists to? If we do not, isn't that illogical?
Debate: Do you think bicycle riders should wear helments?
Side: Yes they should

If that is true then you're absolutely right...it would be illogical. I would simply and rather err on the side of caution after what I saw this past week with my own grandson! Perhaps babies should wear seat belts in their strollers too if pedestrians have just as many head injuries?
Debate: Do you think bicycle riders should wear helments?
Side: Yes they should

Baby strollers often do come with a seat belt to prevent the child from falling out, but back on topic, according to data supplied to CTC (the UK's national cycling association) by UK Department of Health, the proportion of cyclist injuries which are head injuries is essentially the same as the proportion for pedestrians at 30.0 % vs. 30.1 %According to the Canadian Institute for Health Information, simple falls (excluding falls from bicycles) and motor vehicle collisions (again, excluding cyclists) account for 81% of head injuries attended to by hospitals. Assaults (or intentional injury) account for a further 9%. All sports injuries (cycling included) account for less than 4% of head injury admissions.Senior women account for an alarmingly high percentage of head injury admissions due to the frequency with which they fall and hit their heads. I'm not sure too many people are advocating helmets for them, are they?
Debate: Do you think bicycle riders should wear helments?
Side: Yes they should

I know it seems cool not to wear a helmet, but its for your own saftey. There was a person that got ran over but, the helmet saved his live! So not to prevent brain damage, Wear a HELMET!!!!
Debate: Do you think bicycle riders should wear helments?
Side: Yes they should

Yes of course it's logical.I compare it to the seat belt argument,my aunt now has a closed head injury because she was thrown from the car.People need to realize the impact of their activities.
Debate: Do you think bicycle riders should wear helments?
Side: No they shouldnt

Analysis of the effect of seat belt legislation showed, to everyone's great surprise, that the laws had no overall effect, but that there was in some cases a significant shift from driver injuries to pedestrian and cyclist injuries.
Debate: Do you think bicycle riders should wear helments?
Side: No they shouldnt

Nicoleacola, you cite an injury to a car user, so I assume you wear a helmet when taking a trip by car. Car occupants suffer head trauma in far greater numbers than cyclists. Our heads are exposed to risk virtually anytime so should we wear helmets for all moving activities?
Debate: Do you think bicycle riders should wear helments?
Side: Yes they should

I know this is directed at someone else, but I also agree with the seat belt argument. There's no rationality to wearing a helmet in a car because our bodies are more protected in a car than they'll ever be on a bike. Given, the point of helmets is for brain protection, and that's because the common way someone suffers a bike accident, is by banging their head against hard surface. And not because it broke up and they bled to death, but because the impact caused an aneurysm. Just like seat belts have slight flaws in which they can get jammed when you get in an accident and need to get out of the car but can't, helmets can also fail for the purpose they serve. But overall, it's WISER to wear a helmet on a bike than to be ignorant and suicidal about it. There's been so many bike accidents when someone didn't wear a helmet and people regret not wearing a helmet because that's all it would've taken to beat the odds.Also, what about on motorcycles? Ya'll saying just because a bike rider typically goes 30-40mph slower than a motorcyclist, that they shouldn't have to wear a helmet either? Think of the analogy of an egg in a box. The egg is our brain, the box is our skull, a helmet is bubble wrap around the box. A cheap helmet offers approx 1" of padding around our skulls. An expensive helmet offers approx 2". The more padding/bubble wrap, the more chance of less brain damage upon impact. I think you are all thinking about how unfashionable and annoying helmets feel and you're looking for any excuse to avoid wearing one. But you don't understand the human brain what-so-ever. But of course, your fate is in your hands.
Debate: Do you think bicycle riders should wear helments?
Side: No they shouldnt

The reality of head injuries is that there are far more motorists suffering from head injuries than cyclists suffering from them. Proportionately, it hasn't been shown that cyclists suffer to any greater degree either.It's important to under the mechanics of brain injury and what happens inside the skull that leads to it. If there has or has not been trauma to the outside of the head is no indication to an injury inside the head. A read of some research that explains what happens when an injury occurs may be in order
Debate: Do you think bicycle riders should wear helments?
Side: No they shouldnt

Sassybaby, you might want to know the tests cycling helmets go through mean they should provide some protection from a simple fall (provided the cyclist lands on the top of his/her head). They cannot provide protection from being "run over". In virtually every case of death to a cyclist, a motor vehicle was involved and in every area that has imposed upon cyclists to wear helmets, the deaths from being run over have not changed in spite of helmets being worn. In some cases injuries and deaths to cyclists have dropped after implementation of mandatory helmet laws, but the reasons shown for this is a simple reduction of people cycling (because they do not want to wear helmets) and/or a historic trend of fewer traffic incidents through better enforcement of traffic law and improved road design that has preceded helmet use
Debate: Do you think bicycle riders should wear helments?
Side: Yes they should

According to bhsi.org, 540,000 bicyclists visit emergency rooms with injuries every year. Of those, about 67,000 have head injuries. There would be 67,000 less people visiting emergency rooms if they simply put a helmet on their head. They are inexpensive as well, so I do not see how bicycle riders should not wear helmets.
Debate: Do you think bicycle riders should wear helments?
Side: common sence

Wow, I was right. Common sense is under rated. "I guess I can risk being in a lot of pain, so that I don't have to wear this dorky helmet." In most cases it's not a matter of life and death but come on. I think people just don't like doing what they are told to do.
Debate: Do you think bicycle riders should wear helments?
Side: No they shouldnt

1. You're right. People don't like being told what to do. Go talk to Russians, Czechs, Hungarians, Poles, Lithuanians, etc. It took them over 70 years to get rid of people who told them what to do. 2. There's a simple concept called "risk assessment". You are at risk of a lot of pain all of your life. Risk should be assessed objectively to determine if abnormal measures (like wearing of protective headgear) is warranted. I would guess you have never objectively measured your risk in performing tasks or activities that we perform daily in our lives. Perhaps you should, since cycling is lower risk than the sum of all lifetime risks. Source: http://www.vehicularcyclist.com/comparat.html Your so-called common sense is trumped by the facts.
Debate: Do you think bicycle riders should wear helments?
Side: Yes they should

I think the people in communist countries would rather live in the U.S. and wear a dorky looking helmet. It's not like anyone has to ride a bike. You have the freedom to walk or drive, anywhere you want. Regardless of the science of helmet protection the point is that while yes we are free but we have laws to help us have better lives.
Debate: Do you think bicycle riders should wear helments?
Side: No they shouldnt

Yes Jake, but in a democracy, we have the right to speak up about unjust, unneeded, and ineffective laws.Riding a bicycle benefits not only the rider of the bike, but all the people in society who care about clearer roads, clearer air and lower health care costs. Placing unnecessary and restrictive obstacles in the way of potential cyclists only hurts us all.
Debate: Do you think bicycle riders should wear helments?
Side: No they shouldnt

That is not pragmatically correct, people have much more freedom to drive cars in the U.S. than to walk, as far as I can see. Almost all road infrastructure is car-centric. And this came about in large part because car, petrol/gas/cars were subsidised. Directly or indirectly. Ever heard of economic externalities ?
Debate: Do you think bicycle riders should wear helments?
Side: No they shouldnt

As to the universal value of common sense, here are some is some other common sense knowledge ( of old):o The earth is flat as a pancakeo The sun travels over the sky. Possibly circling the eartho Bloodletting is one of the best treatments there are, for a host of illnesseso If you get sick, or if natural catastrophes happen, it must be because of a sin the individual or the society committed on some level
Debate: Do you think bicycle riders should wear helments?
Side: No they shouldnt

Here is a link to a YouTube video dealing with the many pitfalls in blindly believing in and acting decisively on the basis of "common sense".
Debate: Do you think bicycle riders should wear helments?
Side: Yes they should

Although this sounds very compelling, how cars give more space to helmet-less riders, there could be bias in the study. For starters, only one bicycle rider participated and he used one bicycle. Perhaps, people would have reacted differently if there were a different person or bicycle. Also, I don't think the experiment was large enough. They should have had many cyclists on the roads in various bicycles, wearing helmets or not, male and female, during different weather conditions, and on different types of roads. I know it's a lot, but every aspect has to be taken into account. Perhaps the drivers who passed him the first time all had bias toward drifting farther away. Also, it never mentions if there were cars in the other lane of oncoming traffic, thus prohibiting the drivers from moving too far.I took a stats course this year and now I look at every experiment and study this way. -_- But you have to admit there was a huge possibility for error/bias/etc. :)
Debate: Do you think bicycle riders should wear helments?
Side: No they shouldnt

I agree totally. This small experiment, was first of all too small, and possibly not very well designed. It does not prove anything. In the strictest of senses, proving something is extremely hard, as you will know from the statistics course. The point is still, that the question has been raised. Risk compensation by car drivers as a reaction to helmet wearing or wig-wearing has entered the debate. Compared to other sounder and "drier" and more convincing reports on helmets ( e.g. those of Dorothy Robinson and W. Curnow ), this one got way too much attention. Ian Walker has a talent, or the "bizarre" angle captured something that journalists fell for. They way to often go after what is "fun" or stirs up emotions rather than what is wll argued and important.
Debate: Do you think bicycle riders should wear helments?
Side: Yes they should

this study also brings up an important point in the debate. That people often wear helmets because of what other people in cars do around them. Bicycle helmets are so obviously not designed for impacts with cars but the general (- gravely - mistaken) consensus is that a helmet should be worn for these collisions.
Debate: Do you think bicycle riders should wear helments?
Side: Yes they should

Yes because even though they may be pros doesn't mean they cant fall! its safety first.
Debate: Do you think bicycle riders should wear helments?
Side: No they shouldnt

Everybody falls supersydgiz. Unless you can provide some evidence that cyclists injure their heads at a greater rate than others and that bicycle helmets are effective at preventing injuries, the argument is pretty selective and discriminatory
Debate: Do you think bicycle riders should wear helments?
Side: No they shouldnt

There are other ways and better of achieving safety objectives. Reduced speed of cars. Improved education for cyclists and car drivers, both in courses and using awareness campaigns etc. More cyclists on the streets has also generally improved road safety ( in towns and cities at least )
Debate: Do you think bicycle riders should wear helments?
Side: Yes they should

yes they definitely should.!! What happens if you fall off and damage your head at least a heavy duty helmet protects you from at least some damage.
Debate: Do you think bicycle riders should wear helments?
Side: No they shouldnt

I am sorry to say, but it appears that you have not read 10% of the arguments in the debate on this page...
Debate: Do you think bicycle riders should wear helments?
Side: Yes they should

They should wear helmets. That does not mean that they shall wear helmets.
Debate: Do you think bicycle riders should wear helments?
Side: Yes they should

because helmets can save peoples lives, some people dont wear helmets because they think theyre cool, but being cool could be the barier between death or being cool.
Debate: Do you think bicycle riders should wear helments?
Side: common sence

Well, yeah, bicyclers should where helmets. It's really common since. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwGLoRFvf1k  would you really want to go through any of these big crashes without one.
Debate: Do you think bicycle riders should wear helments?
Side: No they shouldnt

Pro racing lasted about one hundred years without riders wearing helmets and they crashed quite often and survived without them. There was much noise made about Andre Kivalev but almost no one mentions Manuel Sonora or Fujinawa, Reinhart, Hailey and Lemire. All of these racers died with helmets on. I think people are projecting their fears into these situations and helmet manufacturers are exploiting those fears to gather a tidy profit
Debate: Do you think bicycle riders should wear helments?
Side: Yes they should

yes bicycle riders should wear helmets . A saying goes 'prevention is better than cure'. The debate owner feels the same after he falls from his bicycle.And in this modern world with to much of busy riders its easy to get injuries. Cut 'should' and add 'are' and Iam sure within a short span of time this debate arises
Debate: Do you think bicycle riders should wear helments?
Side: Yes they should

yes for safe ty reasons but it should not be made a definite rule
Debate: Do you think bicycle riders should wear helments?
Side: Yes they should

Of course because it is very dangerous and without helmets people can die
Debate: Do you think bicycle riders should wear helments?
Side: No they shouldnt

There is no evidence that shows cycling results in more injuries to the head than any other activity or that wearing helmets while cycling leads to any fewer injuries to cyclists than had been the case when helmets were not worn. Some riders may wish to wear helmets because they feel they are taking greater risks than other cyclists, but these riders would do well to understand the limitations of the protection they're wearing. It's common to believe a helmet will provide more protection than they are designed to give and it's not uncommon to find a helmeted cyclist seriously injured because the impact the cyclist has had is far beyond the helmets modest, protective abilities.
Debate: Do you think bicycle riders should wear helments?
Side: Yes they should

There is no evidence that shows cycling results in more injuries to the head than any other activitySometimes a study isn't really needed. I'd be pretty sure that cycling results in more head injuries than say yoga or playing poker. If your on the road, getting hit by a car or coming off your bike is a risk, which makes a cyclist a head injury risk...seems pretty simple to me.There is no evidence that shows hat wearing helmets while cycling leads to any fewer injuries to cyclists than had been the case when helmets were not worn.What negative impact do they have? If you're 'unsure' of their effectiveness doesn't it still make sense to wear them just incase. I don't understand why anyone would be so anti-helmet wearing.It's common to believe a helmet will provide more protection than they are designed to give and it's not uncommon to find a helmeted cyclist seriously injured because the impact the cyclist has had is far beyond the helmets modest, protective abilities.It's anecdotal to say that because someone wore a helmet but suffered an injury people shouldn't wear them. Regardless of how much protection they provide, if it is better than your bare skull hitting concrete then why not give yourself that advantage?
Debate: Do you think bicycle riders should wear helments?
Side: No they shouldnt

It would be wise to, but there shouldn't be a law or anything making it so you have to. It should be your choice if you do or not.
Debate: Do you think bicycle riders should wear helments?
Side: No they shouldnt

Cycling is not dangerous, and helmets do not appear to change that. No cyclist population in the world shows a correlation between helmet use and cyclist head injury rates. Whether individual cyclists choose to wear a helmet on any given ride can safely be left to them, but the evidence shows that at the aggregate level it has no effect either way.
Debate: Do you think bicycle riders should wear helments?
Side: No they shouldnt

Countries with the lowest helmet wearing rates have the most cyclists and the lowest fatality and injury rates per km cycled - see http://www.cyclehelmets.org/Given that it's much safer to cycle in countries with low helmet wearing, what sense does it make to encourage cyclists to wear helmets?
Debate: Do you think bicycle riders should wear helments?
Side: No they shouldnt

Helmet laws have stopped a lot of people cycling and have done nothing for head injury rates, see Robinson DL. No clear evidence from countries that have enforced the wearing of helmets. BMJ 2006;332: 722-5. http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/332/ 7543/722-a.  It also appears that helmets break easily, but don't absorb the impact, see the engineers quoted at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_helmet.
Debate: Do you think bicycle riders should wear helments?
Side: No they shouldnt

There is much evidence to show helmet laws have been a failure where they've been introduced, including Canada, Australia and New Zealand. See sites of the Bicycle Helmet Research Foundation at http://www.cyclehelmets.org and the Vehicular Cyclist at http://www.vehicularcyclist.com