A DANISH expert on urban cycling has put himself on a collision course with other cycling advocates by saying he will refuse to ride a bike when he visits Adelaide as a keynote speaker at the Velo-city Global conference in May 2014.

In an interview that will appear in Bike SA's Love Your Ride magazine in The Advertiser on Friday, Mikael Colville-Andersen says Adelaide is "depressingly far behind" the world's leading cities when it comes to being cyclist friendly and that he will refuse to cycle here because of Australia's helmet law.

"I don't ride bicycles in cities that have helmet laws," Mr Colville-Andersen said.

"Fortunately, there aren't very many of them in the world, but I will be enjoying Adelaide on foot.

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"The world has been pointing and laughing at your bicycle helmet laws for almost two decades.

"Whenever a helmet law is proposed elsewhere in the world, which isn't often, Australia is held up as the example of how helmet laws destroy urban cycling.

"Hopefully, it will inspire Australian cities and states to realise that in order to encourage people to cycle, infrastructure and traffic calming is the way forward and repealing helmet laws is a part of it."

Mr Colville-Andersen says helmets complicate the simple act of riding a bike - making what is a safe activity appear dangerous and making it difficult for tourists and people who want to borrow a bike to cycle.

He says the emphasis should be on safe roads - achieved by getting more cyclists on the road.

"The risk is that we over-complicate the simple act of riding a bicycle in a city," Mr Colville-Andersen said.

"All you need is a bicycle. Gone is the false impression that you need speciality clothes for riding a bicycle in your city. Open your closet, it's already filled with cycling clothes. They just happen to be the same clothes you walk in, take the bus in.

"It's all about what I call A-Bism. If you want people to ride bicycles in a city, you make the bicycle the fastest way from A to B in a city. Safe infrastructure, traffic calming, bike racks. Period."

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Commuter cyclist Caroline Giezenaar, who arrived in Adelaide from the Netherlands just over a year ago, says she supports Colville-Andersen's call for cyclist-friendly streets and says she doesn't like being forced to wear a helmet.

But the 24-year-old medical researcher, who cycles to work in the city from North Adelaide, says that until Adelaide has more separated cycle paths and slower speed limits in urban areas, helmets are needed.

"In Amsterdam, cyclists are the number one priority. Over there, cars stop for cyclists and everyone has a bike, so drivers know they are there and keep an eye out for cyclists."

Adelaide Lord Mayor Stephen Yarwood earlier told Bike SA he sees a time when it will be safe enough to cycle in the CBD without wearing a helmet.

"I don't believe that we should get rid of helmets now, but we need to aspire to it. It'll only be relevant when we say it's safe enough. I think we're 10 years away from losing our helmets."

Colville-Anderson says he hopes that the Velo-city Adelaide conference will force politicians to make streets more cycle friendly and end the helmet law.

Ms Gieznaar says the time to take off our helmets will come when Adelaide has safer cycle routes and lower speeds on shared streets.

"Separate bike paths - I think that's the main thing," she said.

"And a lowering of the speed limit in certain areas would definitely be safer.

"I think that helmets might make cycling seem a little more dangerous than it actually is. Whereas in the Netherlands everyone has a bike it's just a way of transport, it's just part of our lives."

Bike SA's Love Your Ride magazine is in The Advertiser on Friday.

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