“I wear this helmet because Mrs. Myrtie loves me.”

“I wear this helmet because Mrs. Myrtie tells me to.”
When a dear family friend and fellow cyclist found out I was riding a broken-down bicycle named Freddy around Europe while I was studying abroad, she had some loving, yet emphatic, advice:
“John, wear your helmet.”
When I got back from overseas I taped a piece of paper with the flags of all the countries I’d ridden in on one side of my helmet. On the other side I taped my above reason for wearing it.
If zooming around at up to 30 mph only a small slip from a rough ride on the asphalt wasn’t enough reason for cyclists to be concerned with safety, we’re sharing the road with some rather larger vehicles.
State law says that bicycles have the same road rights as anyone else.
But state law is little cushion against a homicidal SUV.
Happily, I’ve been very pleased with the great courtesy shown by Cleveland County’s motorists. But this does touch some concerns cyclists have about their rights to ride and survive, and will make a nice second column next week.
But for now anyone interested in learning a little more about cycling safety can go to www.ncdot.org/transit/bicycle, which offers safety guidelines, free cycling maps of N.C. and an online “Interactive Crash Data Tool.”
It’s a program where you can enter in different variables (helmet use, drunk driving, cyclist’s direction) and it spits out the reported accidents in North Carolina. Without devolving too deeply into math, in 2003 no cyclists confirmed to be wearing helmets were killed in accidents. 17 were.
So I’ve been an avid helmet-wearer for years. I showed Mrs. Myrtie my helmet a few years ago and she gave a minor critique.
It now reads:
“I wear this helmet because Mrs. Myrtie loves me.”