{"id":2550,"date":"2007-07-26T10:01:44","date_gmt":"2007-07-26T18:01:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2007\/07\/ok_well_whatever_chancellor_helmut_un-kohl.html"},"modified":"2007-07-26T10:01:44","modified_gmt":"2007-07-26T18:01:44","slug":"ok_well_whateve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/archives\/2007\/07\/ok_well_whateve.html","title":{"rendered":"OK, Well Whatever Chancellor Helmut Un-Kohl . . ."},"content":{"rendered":"

The bicycle helmet industry wins by making fashion victims out of hyper-manly bicycle messengers<\/a>:<\/p>\n

A new bike safety law takes effect today requiring delivery workers to wear helmets on the job, and members of the city’s bike messenger community are in a spin.<\/p>\n

“[Wearing a helmet is] something that’s not cool. You look kind of dumb,” said Carlos Ramirez, 32, a 12-year messenger veteran and a Team Puma racer. “I really don’t want to wear a helmet, but I will.”<\/p>\n

Ramirez began wearing a helmet last month, motivated by the law and a friend who hit his head in a bike accident. The new law mandates employers provide head gear, but Ramirez didn’t want just any helmet.<\/p>\n

“I got a really beautiful $200 helmet worn by [cyclists] in the Tour de France,” he said. “It’s really light, so you don’t really feel it.”<\/p>\n

Some messengers don’t care about the $25 to $50 fines. Employers failing to provide helmets could pay up to $250.<\/p>\n

“It should be your choice,” said messenger Scott “Ham” Hamilton, 36. “It’s not like you’re on a motorcycle. You’re not going that fast.”<\/p>\n

He’s no stranger to accidents in his 13 years on the job. He estimates having hit more than 100 jaywalkers.<\/p>\n

“I’ve never seen a jaywalker get a ticket, but when they cross, they don’t look,” he said. “But I’ve got to wear a helmet?”<\/p>\n

He wore a helmet once “to make my grandmother happy.” He doesn’t plan to start wearing one now.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Then again, shouldn’t they be a little more worried about the fact that these guys ride around without brakes<\/a>?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The bicycle helmet industry wins by making fashion victims out of hyper-manly bicycle messengers: A new bike safety law takes effect today requiring delivery workers to wear helmets on the job, and members of the city’s bike messenger community are in a spin. “[Wearing a helmet is] something that’s not cool. You look kind of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-follow_the_money"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2550\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}