FIRST the British and now the Spanish have joined the European chorus declaring compulsory bike helmets may not be the best thing for our wellbeing after all.

This is good news for Brisbane City Council's flagging CityCycle scheme and even better news for those among us who would love to use a CityCycle but don't happen to be carrying a helmet when the urge strikes.

A British Medical Journal poll of its readers - remembering their readers are doctors - revealed many believed compulsory cycle helmets potentially deterred people from taking up cycling and meant many didn't get the health benefits of added exercise.

Somewhat surprisingly, more than two-thirds of BMJ-reading doctors voted against mandatory cycle helmets for adults.

More recently, a Spanish study on a CityCycle-style scheme in Barcelona found bike hire saved lives and cut carbon emissions by an estimated 9 million kilograms a year by reducing dependency on cars. Now that's a healthy strike for the planet.

Even in the crazy traffic areas of Paris and Rome, where anyone on wheels puts their life at risk, cyclists are not required to wear helmets.

In Queensland, though, we can only cycle if we do what we're told and put on our helmets. We're not to be trusted with making our own life decisions.

Personally, I would like to be able to take advantage of all those lovely yellow bikes parked around Brisbane but since I seldom carry a bike helmet in my handbag, it never happens.

Yes, dare I say it publicly, I am prepared to risk not wearing a helmet. It's my life and my destiny so I would like to have some control over it.

I've spent the past two years living in the Netherlands, a country where the bicycle reigns supreme. The population of 16.5 million is packed into an area the size of southeast Queensland and because it's so flat, most people cycle.

But no one has to wear a helmet, even though it is the major form of transport for kids going to school, businessmen going to work and grannies going shopping.

I once even spotted a childcare worker pedalling six young charges in a wagon attached to the front of her bike - and none of them was wearing a helmet. Imagine that.

Admittedly, Dutch cyclists have designated paths, cycle racks and their own traffic lights.

The point is, though, millions of people every day risk head injury and yet none of them seems particularly bothered. I cycled a lot and, unfamiliar with the streets, often dangerously. Yet I never felt the desperate need to insure myself with a helmet.

Back in Brisbane, on a beautiful Sunday morning, I am taunted by those lovely yellow bikes at the New Farm CityCat dock, calling me to take them for a spin around the park or to the Powerhouse or to a nearby coffee shop.

The call of the cycle must be ignored because I don't carry a helmet.

And the CityCycle scheme is not going to work for tourists either. Few would think: "I'm going to Brisbane, must remember my bike helmet."

Perhaps two-thirds of British doctors, the Spanish researchers and the rest of the cyclists in busy, crowded Europe have got something we don't - freedom of choice.

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Dot Whittington is a Brisbane freelance writer.

Originally published as On your bike now, if you please