r/TikTokCringe • u/mindyour • Jul 19 '26

Discussion ER doctors warning parents against getting their kids e-bikes and e-scooters.

@beachgem10

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78

u/innominateartery Jul 19 '26

I wonder if there were any cultural shifts that undermined expert advice, trusted sources, and concern for others? /s

27

u/churningaccount Jul 19 '26

-6% annually is still a ridiculously fast pace for societal norms changing. I double checked that figure twice before commenting it.

Essentially that means that helmet use has fallen more than 40% over the past decade, and the pace of decline hasn't relented.

Helmets are going to start to look out of place soon, if that hasn't begun already. We are already at the point where helmet users are a minority.

16

u/organizedchaos5220 Jul 19 '26

I fide an e-bike if i can around town, because gas is out of control, and i rarely ever see another biker with a helmet. I mean its Florida so take that how you will

4

u/Dr_mombie Jul 19 '26

Florida doesn't even have helmet laws for street motorcyclists. If dad rides his road hog without a helmet. He isn't going to care if his kid has one for their 20mph e-bike.

14

u/socialcommentary2000 Jul 19 '26

The speed at which bad information propagates through our society is unprecedented in human history. We also really haven't updated the methods that PSA's get out to the general public. It was easy back in the day for broadcasters to make room for that and it literally got out to everyone...because there wasn't any other avenue to use. Nowadays with the internet, it's almost impossible to get messages to people without it being drowned out in contrary static.

2

u/tanksalotfrank Jul 19 '26

Pseudo-intellectual contrarianism is so basic too, but they feel so important and edgy when they're literally just wrong.

1

u/TurkeyPhat Jul 19 '26

We've had mass text alerts for how long?

I always thought they should be used a lot more by local governments and the like.

4

u/Canuck_Lives_Matter Jul 19 '26

My five year old is one of like three kids in his whole school who wears a helmet on his bike. I don't get it...

2

u/nalaloveslumpy Jul 19 '26

I'm going to guess that ebikes have increased the number of teen riders who will refuse to wear safety gear.

1

u/rockskillskids Jul 19 '26

I'd imagine it's not so much that riders have changed to stop using helmets. But with the rise of all the rideshare rentable Zip bikes & Lime scoooters, there's a lot of new riders who were never accustomed to using a helmet in the first place.

5

u/kbotc Jul 19 '26

As much as blaming Trump would be the obvious, there’s an even more obvious culprit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lime_(transportation_company)?wprov=sfti1

Founded in February 2017 and no one’s using a helmet on rentable bikes and scooters

3

u/Dr_mombie Jul 19 '26

I know you put /s, but I do have a serious reply.

The Helmets For Kids initiative faded into obscurity. I received atleast 2 helmets in elementary school from that program in the late 90s/early 00s. We came back from lunch to new helmets on our desks, and there was a guest teacher there to teach us about the bicycle hand signals and our responsibilities on the road. Then we practiced the signals in class navigating pretend roads between our desks.

2

u/5510 Jul 19 '26

"Science is woke nonsense that has no idea what it's doing"
-posted from my iPhone (that only works because a shitload of advanced science working)