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Canberra cyclists may yet feel the wind in their hair, as the ACT government is considering helmet-free cycling in low-speed conditions. ACT Road Safety Minister Shane Rattenbury confirmed the government's commitment on Thursday to investigate the risks and benefits of allowing people to ride bicycles without a helmet in certain environments. Speaking on the release of the 2018 Road Safety Report Card, Mr Rattenbury renewed the territory's commitment to zero deaths on the roads. But he admitted the issue of mandatory bike helmets in Canberra was a vexed one. "The issue is one that throws up a tension between immediate trauma and public health benefits," he said. "If removing the requirement for helmets actually encourages more people to cycle, and the overall health benefits that come from that outweigh the risk of immediate trauma from an accident, this is a tricky area to weigh up. But it's a question worth asking and worth examining, which is why it's in the road safety action plan, to actually have a look at it." Although there had yet to be any substantive research into the issue under the action plan, he said there were indications that the requirement to wear a helmet was putting some people off cycling in Canberra. "There are people that indicate that having a helmet is a barrier to them riding a bike, they don't like to wear them, they see it as inconvenient, and certainly when it comes to things like bike-sharing schemes, it has proved to be quite challenging," he said. "People don't want to use a previously used helmet, they also don't want to carry around a helmet with them all the time in case they decide to use a bike-share scheme, so if something like the bike-share scheme comes to the ACT, these questions get thrown up and require us to think about the different sides of the policy discussion." Pedal Power ACT's position on the issue was equally non-committal, with the acknowledgment that mandatory helmet laws had "become an emotive topic in Australia". "Within our organisation alone, our members have a range of conflicting positions on this topic," the body said in an official statement. "There is significant evidence that once riding a bike, a rider is better protected against serious injury whilst wearing a helmet when compared to not wearing a helmet," it said. "Conversely, a wide range of other factors influencing bicycle use mean that the evidence of whether mandatory helmet laws contribute to overall community health and safety is far from settled." Mr Rattenbury, himself a keen cyclist, said he had lived for several years in a country with no mandatory helmet laws. "I was not required to wear a bike helmet, nobody did. But people chose to wear them, for example, when they were getting on a high-speed racing bike and going out and doing higher speed work," he said. "So again, there's a nuance to this discussion that is worth having with our community." Australia is among only a few countries in the world with enforced mandatory helmet laws for people of all ages, while many other countries require helmets only for children, or for cyclists in certain areas or conditions.

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