This cargo bike company banned its riders from wearing helmets
The business said it was for safety concerns
Photo by:
@pedalmeapp
No, it’s not April Fool’s Day. A London-based e-cargo bike and bicycle cab company Pedal Me confirmed that it banned riders for its company from wearing helmets. The reason? All in the name of safety.
“Overwhelmingly, our staff experience injuries off the bike, not on the bike,” Pedal Me cofounder Ben Knowles said on Twitter. He was responding to queries online after he said that the company banned its riders from wearing bicycle helmets quite some time ago. “People that are taking risks that are sufficient that they feel they need to wear helmets are not welcome to work for us,” he added.
..at source. We do this by:
1) Thorough risk assessment.
2) Extremely high level of training, on an ongoing basis.
3) Near Miss reporting – we track near misses, and minor injuries, and tackle the causative factors.
(2/n)
— Pedal Me (@pedalmeapp) February 4, 2022
The company believes that cyclists take more risks when a helmet is worn. They also said that the majority of injuries that their riders experience come when they are off the bike, not on.
According to an article on Forbes, Knowles expanded on this idea on a Zoom call. He said that the company is instead working systematically to reduce risks, and had their riders and their safety in mind. Knowles added that the most common injury his staff reported at Pedal Me was being “pinged” by bungee cord hooks.
There are two areas for discussion here IME:
1) Are helmets useful in normal cycling?
2) Are helmets more or less useful for our use case?
— Pedal Me (@pedalmeapp) February 4, 2022
Some of the other more common injuries sustained by the cyclists at the company included falling down the stairs.
Pedal Me also suggested that one of the reasons their cargo bike riders don’t need a helmet is they can’t get thrown over the handlebars as on a regular bike, one of the most common causes of head injuries when cycling. Since the riders are on a cargo bike, with a 1-2 meter pod in front of the handlebars, they stated that it is not possible to fall over the bars.
