Helmet Construction and Performance

• Our basic page on how helmets work and what standards do.

• Our page on the Ideal Helmet.

• Our page describing Helmet Standards.

• Our page describing Helmet testing.

• Our short Summary of Helmet standards: answering five questions on standards.

• Our long Comparison of Bicycle Helmet Standards, comparing the world's bicycle helmet standards point-by-point.

• Our page on what is needed to make progress in helmet standards.

• Our page on the limits of helmet protection.

• Our page attempting to describe What is a "g".

• Our page of calculations for the severity of lab tests compares the drops to MPH speeds.

• Our page on how helmets are constructed and what materials they are made from.

• Our page on helmet foam.

• Our page on helmets in cold temperatures.

• Our page on helmet patents.

• Our page on full-face helmets.

• Our page on helmets that are molded in the shell.

• A study of the effects of sliding resistance of a helmet in a crash.

• A study of chin strap forces in a crash related to the sliding resistance of a helmet.

• Our ideas on what happens in a crash.

• Our best guesses on the cost of manufacturing a bike helmet.
• Our page on bicycle helmet history.

Some great articles

• Motorcyclist magazine published this excellent article on helmets in their June, 2005, issue. Well researched and written, we recommend it highly for general background even though it focusses on motorcycle helmets.

• Lights Out: Can contact sports lower your intelligence? This article appeared in Discover Magazine. It is a very interesting source of info being developed on concussion levels and mechanisms.

Statistics and Medical Journal References

• Our page of Statistics from various sources. Of course they don't agree--just take your pick!

• Harborview Injury Prevention Center's review of studies evaluating helmet effectiveness.

• Our list of Mandatory Helmet Laws in the U.S. and elsewhere.

• A "white paper" on helmet safety from Prudential HealthCare providing an overview.

• A long study and detailed 1995 review of the literature on The Effectiveness of Bicycle Helmets by Dr. Michael Henderson. Badly outdated but still good.

• Circumstances and Severity of Bicycle Injuries, a summary report of Harborview's Helmet Studies. Access the full study on the server of the Snell Memorial Foundation. Highly recommended!

• The UK has published a study of helmet effectivenss geared toward decision-making on mandatory helmet requirements.

• The Health Department of Western Australia has published this study of bicycle injuries and deaths over the period 1981 to 1995. It shows a drop in the proportion of head injuries as helmets were adopted.

• Our review of an article on helmet fit problems as documented by a pediatric practice in Falmouth, Massachusetts.

Consumer information

• Our workshop titled Frequently-Asked Questions About Bicycle Helmets.

• Our Bibliography of Helmet Documents has abstracts of over 500 helmet studies, papers, articles, etc. Most of it was done before 1996. We have references for other bibliographies with more recent publications as well.

• Our Toolkit for Helmet Promotion Programs has info for people who are launching a program.

• A page of information on How to Evaluate a Helmet Program.

• Our page for students researching a term paper on helmets.

The TRIS page

You can research journal articles on bicycle helmets (and other subjects) on the TRIS Search Page. TRIS has more than 400,000 books, journal articles, and technical reports on transportation research from the 1960's to the present. Put "bicycle and helmet" in the search window and it will return more than 145 references. The abstracts are sometimes disappointing, but the citations are very useful.

Evaluations

The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, part of DOT, has an extensive report called

Bicycle Helmet Use Laws: Lessons Learned from Selected Sites CD-ROM 2004

Market Statistics