Eurosport's lead cycling presenter, Orla Chennaoui, has called for people to stop shaming cyclists who don't wear helmets. She also criticised the Daily Mail, when writing about her views on cycling helmets, for emotively using the case of a 15-year-old who suffered a life-changing injuries while cycling.
Chennaoui, who is from Northern Ireland and is an avid cyclist, recently said she was often questioned and disparaged when she shared social media photos of herself cycling around Amsterdam, where she lives, without wearing a helmet. She said rather than putting energy into shaming cyclists who don't wear helmets, people would be better served reclaiming the roads for cyclists, which would improve safety and foster healthier lifestyles.
The Daily Mail reported on her remarks and cited the case of Oliver Dibsdale, a 15-year-old boy who crashed off his bike in Britain and suffered a life-changing brain injury. The paper added he may have been less severely injured if he had been wearing a helmet, though Chennaoui has now responded to that article about her initial views.
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"I have full respect for anyone who wears a helmet, I always wear one on my road bike, and I perfectly understand the arguments for," she said in those initial remarks. "The counter argument for looking at the wider health implications of encouraging more people to get on their bikes however, is a lot more nuanced and, sometimes, difficult to understand."
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And now, in reply to the Daily Mail piece, she said "we need to stop using our energy shaming individual choice and start using it to force changes that will make our roads safer, our people healthier".
"My wearing a helmet will not give you a segregated bike lane. My wearing a helmet will not make your children safer on the roads. As long as we’re squabbling over individual choice, we’re allowing the people responsible for safe roads off the hook," she said, adding general road safety was not down to cyclists or drivers.
"Yes, each of us has to take personal responsibility, but the responsibility for road safety falls to our governments. We have entire, tax-funded departments dedicated to making our roads safe for us to move as best we can. The more energy we waste shaming the individual choices of grown adults, the more we alleviate responsibility where it can really matter."
She added the Daily Mail story "emotively cites the tragic case" of Oliver Dibsdale but "doesn’t cite the examples of kids hit by trucks, or vans, or cars, because of a lack of protected, segregated bike lanes".
"We need to stop assuming the status quo is the only way. The Netherlands only became bike friendly because the people forced it. They were sick of their children being killed on the streets, so the fought to reclaim them. Stop squabbling about helmets. Start pushing for change."
