WHILE there are persuasive arguments in support of and against Deputy Andrew Green’s proposal for compulsory cycle helmets, one thing is certain: nobody in their right mind would consider the increasing number of people who wear helmets while riding their bicycles a bad thing.

Ten years ago, cycle helmets were an oddity. Today, they are commonplace.
Over the years Islanders have, on their own, been persuaded that wearing a helmet while riding a bicycle is a good idea. Deputy Green’s proposal is to raise the stakes and create a law.

To those who cry ‘nanny state’ one needs simply to point to other examples of the state taking steps to protect public safety on the roads, including drink-driving rules, the requirement to wear crash helmets on motorcycles, the need to wear a seatbelt while driving or being driven, and new, as yet unsuccessful, legislation to stop drivers talking on mobile telephones while behind the wheel.

But a counter-argument applies. If the speed limit were reduced to 15 mph on every road in the Island then we would all be safer, and some of us would live longer if tobacco and alcohol were absolutely prohibited.

There is no voice calling for these things and they will not happen – there is an acceptable price for safety, and they lie beyond it. The question that Deputy Green poses is whether cycle helmets meet that acceptable price.

But the question that he must answer is how it can be policed. There is a section of cyclists who consider themselves to be above laws on red lights, one-way streets and riding on the pavement.

Cyclists are unlicensed, unregistered, uninsured and frequently unlit – and so far there is little evidence to show that they want this law, or that they will comply with it.
Deputy Green is right to make his proposal, and right to initiate a States debate. He may even be right about cycle helmets – but his case must be made persuasively, and he needs to prove not only that the law is necessary, but also that it is feasible.