Our list of Helmet Laws

The LAB Position Paper

How to treat standards

Texts of Laws

• We recommend looking at the Hernando, MS, law passed in 2010 as one that covers all the bases and has up-to-date language on standards.
• The Olivette, Mo law was updated in 2008 to cover "bicycles, motorized bicycles, electric personal assistive mobility devices, scooters, and other similar devices to protect and promote the public health, safety, and welfare."

• Vancouver, Washington's all-ages law, Effective in March, 2008. It covers almost all the bases, and is well worth a look if you are drafting a law. We liked their treatment of helmet standards.

• New Mexico's 2007 law covers tricycles, the only law to do so at the time it was passed.

• Spokane, Washington's all-ages law, passed by their City Council in June, 2004 and effective later that summer. Here is their original Word file. It has some new wrinkles, and inaccurately cites the old defunct ANSI standard.

• The California law adding scooters, skateboards and skates to the bicycle helmet law. Passed in 2002, effective January 2003.

• The Louisiana law for kids under 12 has what we consider the best language yet for handling the standards question. It requires the CPSC standard for helmets manufactured after March 1, 1999 and permits other standards for helmets manufactured earlier than that date.
  

• The Sierra Vista, AZ law for children under 18. It includes skateboarding and requires rental bikes to come with a helmet.
  

• The North Carolina Law for children under 16. They wisely left out anything at all on standards and used the words "protective bicycle helmet" instead. But they require the helmet to be "of good fit," whatever that may mean.
  

• The Pennsylvania state helmet law for children under 12.
  

• The Massachusetts state helmet law for children under 12.
  

• The Delaware state helmet law bill for children under 16 expected to be effective 4/1/96.
  

• The federal government's Child Bicycle Safety Act of 1994 (full title: PL 103-267, enacted 6/16/94), which required CPSC to put together a Federal bicycle helmet standard. We also have the full text of the law in plain ascii format (an 18K file). There was, of course, no funding ever approved to implement the Act, but CPSC carries on regardless.
  

• The Oregon state helmet law for children under 16.
  

• The law for the Canadian province of British Columbia.
  

• The Rhode Island helmet law for children under 8.
  

• Maine's law for anyone under 16 took effect September 18, 1999.
  

• The Hawaiian helmet law for children under 16.
  

• The District of Columbia helmet law for children under 16 , adopted in 2000 with antiquated standards requirements.
  

• The Tucson, AZ helmet law including rentals. It has antiquated standards requirements. After selecting the link you must do a search on "helmets".
  

• The Howard County, Maryland helmet law for children under 16 adopted in 1990 with antiquated standards requirements. Here is the DOT page that shows the amendment lowering the age from under 17 to under 16.
  

• The Billings, Montana helmet law for children under 16 adopted in 2000 with antiquated standards requirements.
  

• The Cary, North Carolina, law for children under 16, adopted in 2001 with antiquated standards requirements.
  

• The Bainbridge Island, Washington, all ages law, with provisions requiring race organizers to notify participants, and a requirement for helmets certified to the CPSC standard or "such subsequently nationally recognized standard for bicycle helmet performance as the City Council may adopt."
  

• The Suffolk County NY law supplementing the State of New York's law covering riders up to 14 with their own ordinance cover riders and skaters from 14 to 17.
  

• Helmet requirements under U.S. military regulations.

More Laws

• To search municipal codes and county codes in many US jurisdictions, we find Municode.com very useful.

• For links to many more state and local bicycle laws, including helmet laws, see the MassBike state laws page.

• You can search for new laws mentioning bicycle helmets using the query facility of the Library of Congress Thomas legislative information server . Just submit a query with the key words "bicycle helmet".

Exemptions for some riders in some laws

Evaluations of Helmet Law Effectiveness

• Our page on Journal Articles has many links to helmet law evaluations.

• CDC's compilation of evaluations done on helmet laws to date. (You should be aware that there were problems with the methodology of the sampling for some of the surveys.)

• An article from the San Jose Mercury News on compliance with the California helmet law in northern California.

• An article from the Virginia Beach, VA, Beacon on their helmet law.

Other Views - some even opposed to ours!

This page was last revised on: February 7, 2013.

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