Cyclists ride without helmets in protest of mandatory laws

ABOUT 50 cyclists — flanked by police — have protested against SA’s helmet laws, riding without one on Sunday.

IT WAS helmets off for about 50 cyclists flanked by police for a protest ride from Elder Park to Bowden on Sunday .

Leading the bareheaded pack was Sue Abbott, of Scone in NSW, who is in Adelaide for a court battle on Tuesday over a fine for not wearing headgear while in town for a global cycling conference herelast year.

She faces a similar case for flouting the “unnecessary law” in her small home town later in the year.

A number of anti-helmet riders came from interstate, including Kathy Francis, secretary of the national Freestyle Cyclists group which is lobbying for mandatory helmet laws for adults be axed, for national health reasons. A petition with nearly 3000 signatures is available on its website.

Ms Francis was jailed in Melbourne for not paying fines for riding without a helmet about 18 years ago. She has only recently taken up riding again, and is now active in the group’s aim to change the law.

“There is a Federal Senate inquiry into the ‘nanny state’ and this is high on the list of items,” she said.

The largely helmet-free group left Elder Park at about 2.30pm and rode via the Linear Park bike trail beside the Torrens River to Henley Beach, then boarded a train to The Adelaide Bike Kitchen at Bowden.

Ms Francis said that at this stage, the group, which was formed in October 2012, was lobbying only for adult riders to “have a choice”.

The group represents “utility or transport cyclists”, who are commuting, or riding locally and to the shops rather than sport cyclists who ride long distances at high speeds.

Ms Francis said only Australia, New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates had laws requiring bike helmets, along with some provinces and cities in the US and Canada.

Senior Constable Mick Klose said he was happy to be among six police escorts enabling the safe protest, “and to allow for rolling road closures along the route”.

Freestyle Cyclists treasurer Nick Dowd believes helmets “scare people, and make them think that cycling is dangerous”.

“About a quarter of Australians say the helmet laws stop them from riding,” he said, admitting that “hat hair” was a consideration for some but still a factor that reduced cycling activity.

“When the primary cause of preventable death is inactivity, riders without helmets is better for our health than doing nothing,” he said, pointing to a lack of evidence that the law saved lives.

Adelaide organiser Sundance Bilson-Thompson said more than 100 riders had registered support.

“Laws in the Northern Territory has allowed adults to make their own choice since 1994,” he said.

“And in the NT there is a much higher proportion of cyclists, a much higher rate of females riding, and triple the rides to work than here.”

Ms Abbott claims she refuses to wear a helmet “because it is an unnecessary law, and unnecessary laws are bad for society”.