The City of Seattle, under pressure from a well-organized biking community, is working diligently to integrate cyclists into its traffic planning, and recently unveiled the latest draft of its Bicycle Master Plan. Buoyed by an extra $32 million to spend on bike-related projects, the city is hoping to address not only the car-bike hotspots, but also improve to overall flow of bicycle traffic through the city. Any region-wide plan must also address bike traffic flow across Seattle’s two most heavily-traveled bridges, the 520 and I-90 bridges. These two bridges are the primary connectors between downtown Seattle and the growing Eastside suburbs, and the I-90 bridge already provides access to cyclists. The Washington State Department of Transportation is considering various alternatives for replacing the aging, overcrowded 520 bridge, and all present plans include a lane for bikes. If you listen to this guy, you might conclude that all of this planning is a waste of time. I have to admit, I’m intrigued by the notion that traffic signals encourage drivers and riders to shirk their responsibilities to each other. All of my bike accidents have occurred while riding in a designated bike lane, and I’m convinced that the bike lane caused both me and nearby drivers to become complacent about the risks of sharing the road. I would have been much safer riding on a “sharrow,” or a shared car-bike lane. Leave it to the Dutch to once again flip conventional wisdom on its ear, and devise a simple solution to what we in the U.S. find vexing. Hopefully, the Seattle planners are paying attention. Those precious extra dollars will go a lot further with some innovative thinking. The idea that safety measures actually increase the risk of an activity is gaining in popularity. Steven Levitt and others have debated this theory in relation to the new paradigms of car safety: mandatory seat belt laws, car seats, air bags and anti-lock brakes. Now comes a study which suggests that bicycle helmets increase the risks of accident to those riders who wear them. The theory is that drivers are less careful when driving near helmeted cyclists than those without helmets. The theory was tested by the researcher himself – he rode his bicycle both with and without a helmet and measured how close drivers passed by his bike. He found that cars pass an average of more than three inches closer to riders with helmets than those without helmets. I’m not in a position to dispute the research, but here is my own view: helmets may or may not prevent accidents, but they certainly do prevent the most serious injuries when accidents do occur. I suggest keeping the helmet on until we see a few more studies.