Why do people over 60 have to wear a bicycle helmet? It’s ageism! † Columns & Opinion

According to CBS, the number of bicycle deaths with an E-bike has increased slightly since 2020. Martin Damen, director of the Road Safety Research Institute, advises the cabinet to make bicycle helmets mandatory. Fine, I say. It is an effective and cheap way to save a lot of suffering. There are plenty of countries where wearing a helmet on a bicycle is just as common as wearing a seat belt in the car. So why not? But no. That is not how it works in the Netherlands. Don’t touch the Dutchman and his bicycle! Do not force them to wear a helmet!

We can’t force all those young people who navigate back and forth through wind and weather with true death contempt through traffic on their E-bike on their way to school, can we? Then you are immediately the loser of the schoolyard, right? Then as a parent you ask that your child is going to be bullied? Then from now on you take your child to school by car, right?

All those people who enjoy cycling to work? Our national pride. Tulips. Clogs. Dutch cyclists. With a flushed face from exertion, glowing with health, parking their bicycles in the designated racks at their office? You can’t have to put a helmet on that, can you? Before you know it, the entire Malieveld will be full of angry Dutch people again. If traffic on the A2 comes to a standstill, lieutenant governors are once again threatened with death and furiously drunk coffee on Museumplein.

Brake on!

New. Do you know what we do? We are going to advise the cabinet that people over sixty should put such a thing on their knees. They probably don’t mind. Because they are already old. And half dead. They don’t mind riding around like a jerk at all. According to Martin Damen, you seem to start having problems with your balance from the age of fifty-five, so a helmet like this is quite handy if you fall over in traffic. Stigmatizing? I’m almost fifty-four.

If I or one of my friends has problems with his or her balance, it’s almost always because of excessive drinking and then we leave that bike alone. We order a taxi or stumble home. We are that wise. It seems to me that someone with balance problems does not get on a bicycle anyway. Are people over sixty obliged to wear a helmet? Oh now I get it. That is super handy for other road users. Then you see at a glance that another grandma or grandpa (dry wood) arrives on the bike, so you have to be careful. Release gas! Brake it!

age discrimination

According to my sources, sales of E-bikes, especially among young people, have soared since the corona pandemic. So why is it recommended that people over 60 should wear a helmet from now on? Because they can no longer think for themselves? Are a traffic hazard? Most of the over-sixties I know who regularly cycle are very fit, still work or do volunteer work. In short, they are still very much alive. I don’t know a single elderly person who still gets on their bike when he or she is no longer able to do so. Ageism! That is it. No more.

In my opinion, a bicycle helmet is intended to promote road safety. So. Either everyone is obliged to wear a helmet, or no one. Not that half-hearted Dutch thing please”

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