This is a very, very good point. Giving moderately high speed vehicles to youth, without bodily protection like at least a helmet, is very dangerous. It should at least be against the law not to have a helmet.
But yes, young people are very bad at assessing the situation at any given moment in traffic. This comes after a few years of spending time in traffic. Not even after you have your license. Way after that fact.
With all that said, building for people rather than cars is a good move any day, IMO.
Helmet laws are tricky. They discourage people (especially low income) from riding bikes at all, and disproportionately give that same group extra legal or financial trouble.
The only good argument I saw against seat belt laws was this, that it gives cops more excuses to stop folks “driving while black” and blame it on something else.
This is a very, very good point. Giving moderately high speed vehicles to youth, without bodily protection like at least a helmet, is very dangerous. It should at least be against the law not to have a helmet.
But yes, young people are very bad at assessing the situation at any given moment in traffic. This comes after a few years of spending time in traffic. Not even after you have your license. Way after that fact.
With all that said, building for people rather than cars is a good move any day, IMO.
Helmet laws are tricky. They discourage people (especially low income) from riding bikes at all, and disproportionately give that same group extra legal or financial trouble.
The only good argument I saw against seat belt laws was this, that it gives cops more excuses to stop folks “driving while black” and blame it on something else.