Besides our win a bicycle helmet contest, it being Bike To Work Week, and getting a little Vancouver Sun attention, we here at The Community Against Preventable Injuries recently tried something a little unorthodox in our attempt to get people thinking about bike helmet use in BC. This past weekend, we descended on 20-odd locations around Vancouver and left bike helmets emblazoned with our latest campaign message, “You’re probably not expecting to need a helmet today”, hanging from bike racks.

Our team dropped them off Friday afternoon, and Friday night I went out hunting for them, hoping to get a sense of the impressions they made or didn’t make on passersby. In my head, this strategy was the simplest and easiest way to get feedback on the campaign. In reality, it was surprisingly neither simple nor easy.

The big problem was that I couldn’t find any. I hit three different locations, and no helmets. I figured that because many of them weren’t locked to the racks, they’d quickly be snatched up. But I thought at least one helmet would still be there considering that it was only a few hours since they were dropped off. Never underestimate the power of free, my friends.

So while I searched for our helmets, I thought I would ask cyclists about the subject of bike helmet use. That’s how I met Lisa (see picture above). She’s a twenty-something (I know better than to ask a complete stranger her age), self-proclaimed cyclist since birth. I saw her road bike outside the shop she was working in and convinced her to talk to me. While I peppered her with questions, she logged onto this blog from her shop computer. Lisa said she once worked as a telemarketer, so it was refreshing for someone else (me) to be asking the annoying questions for once.

Me: Why do you wear a helmet?

Lisa: I always wear a helmet. I know people who’ve gotten into trouble, and they wouldn’t have done so well if they weren’t wearing a helmet when they’d fallen.

Me: Have you always worn a helmet?

Lisa: I wore a helmet when I was a kid, but during my teenage years, I didn’t wear one.

Me: Why not?

Lisa: It just wasn’t cool to wear a helmet.

Me: Why (sounding like a four-year-old)?

Lisa: They were dorky. Most of them are still dorky.

“Helmets are dorky” is an excuse I’ve heard before. Another familiar one is, “Helmets mess up my hair”. One friend of mine said that if they made helmets that looked like hair, like on The Flight of the Condors hair helmet episode, she would never take her helmet off. But then my friend is a little odd.

I continued searching for our helmets over the weekend, and just seconds before I was going to call off my quest, I spotted one out of the corner of my eye. The helmet on Broadway and Main Street was still there, likely because it was locked up with a bike chain. Having survived for two whole days without having its chain sawed off, this particular bit of guerilla attention grabbing did make an impact on Christine (Age 21. She told me. I didn’t ask).

Me: Hey! Did anyone in this coffee shop ride their bike here today?

Christine: I did (everyone else in the shop looked at me like I was a crazy person).

Me: Did you see that bike helmet with the sticker on it on the bike rack outside?

Christine: Yah.

Me: What did you think of it?

Christine: You’re not crazy right?

Me: Debatable.

Christine: Well, I like guerilla advertising, so I definitely noticed it.

Me: Do you wear a helmet?

Christine: Yes—Well, unless I forget to wear it.

Me: Is it a cool helmet?

Christine: Definitely not.

Me: So why do you wear it?

Christine: For safety, even though it wrecks my hair.

I sensed Christine was beginning to think I was as crazy as the rest of the coffee shop patrons thought I was, so I left her to brew.

As I made my way home feeling triumphant for finally finding one of our helmets, I thought about the reasons these two women gave me for not wearing their bike helmets: forgetting to wear it or thinking they were uncool.

I have a question for all you bike helmet wearers reading this: When has wearing your helmet protected you from harm?