Bicycle helemt wearing

Bicyclists are one of the most vulnerable groups of road users. The reasons for this are the relatively high speed and the proximity of motor vehicles. In contrast, a cyclist has little protection; he does not have a vehicle body around him and usually wears only ordinary clothing. Wearing a bicycle helmet significantly reduces the risk of severe head injuries in the event of an accident. As we found out in a survey, most cyclists are aware of this. Nevertheless, they often refrain from wearing a bicycle helmet, among other things, because they mistakenly consider the risk to be low for short distances. Wearing a helmet is considered to be uncomfortable, and carrying it around is considered to be inconvenient. In a behavioral community intervention, we distributed stickers showing the Bavarian Prime Minister wearing a bicycle helmet to bicyclists (students and employees) who parked their bicycles in front of or rode away from the university building. Through this intervention, we immediately achieved a doubling to tripling of the percentage of cyclists wearing helmets. This success was briefly maintained after the intervention, although the proportion decreased again over time.