Recently, the city sold part of its citizen’s birthright for $41 million by granting a city-wide bike contract to an outside franchise. The initiative represents, in theory, a wonderful effort and one that will bring efficient means of exercise and transport to many New Yorkers. What’s a shame, though, is that the bicycles come without helmets and that rental is not dependent on allegiance to the appropriate safety measures.
According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), over 1.7 million Americans suffer brain injuries every year, many caused by bicycle accidents, bringing billions in unnecessary medical bills and unquantifiable emotional pain. I am one of the victims of this oversight by our municipal governments. My mother spent 10 years of her life in a coma because she did not wear a bike helmet.