“A ten-year nationwide study of the effectiveness of wearing a helmet while bicycling indicates that ten years ago, approximately 35 percent of all bicyclists reported wearing helmets, whereas today that number is nearly 80 percent. Another study, however

The author suggests that the government should pay attention to citizen’s safety education rather than focusing on asking people wearing helmets in order to alleviate the current safety issue and reduce injuries and accidents. The argument is based on several implicit assumptions that need validation. Otherwise, the author’s assertion is not conclusive and should be taken with caution.

The first assumption is that the numbers the arguer used to contrast the uselessness of helmets are comparable. The national study compares the percentage of people wearing helmets ten years ago and now and supposes there is a significant increase in the usage of helmets, while the accidents number has also increased 200 percent. However, the study does not give the specific figures of how many people were surveyed 10 years before and now, or how they choose the samples. So the research result cannot be trusted. There might be only 30 people engaging in the research and most of which did not wear helmets, while there may be 3000 professional bicyclists surveyed now and the majority of who use helmets for sure. And also, the correlation between the population wearing helmets and bicycle-related accidents is arbitrary and invalid. Since the population has increased substantially over the years, increase of accident numbers is not surprising at all. And the reasons for bicycle-involved accidents are obscure. For example, the accidents may well be caused by automobiles and no matter the bicyclists using helmets or not, the incidents would happen. While ten years ago, there were fewer cars and less traffic while the bicyclists were mainly responsible for most accidents. Thus, unless these assumptions are substantiated, the argument is unwarranted.

In addition, the assumption that turning to safety education will be the solution to the problem is questionable. Even if use of helmets is not effective and other measures should be adopted, many other suggestions can be proposed other than safety education. For instance, appointing specific bicycle lanes and areas for bicycles may well prevent serious accidents involving automobiles.

Furthermore, the assumption that the severity of accidents is more serious now is unfounded. The author does not give detailed descriptions about the accidents now and before. So the problem may not be as serious as he/she states. And also, the assumption that bicyclists wearing helmets may be more risky is unproven as well. If the arguer can provide more evidence to demonstrate the assumptions, his/her suggestions would be more strengthened.

To sum up, the argument is based on several assumptions that are not warranted. The arguer should prove the comparability of the study he/she cited. The cause of accidents should be indicated. And the relationship between wearing helmets and accidents should be demonstrated. If these implications are all proven well-founded, the validity of the argument would be much strengthened.