Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute

Bicycle Helmet Laws

Summary: There is no federal law in the U.S. requiring bicycle helmets. The states and localities below began adopting laws in 1987. Most are limited to children under 18, but there are 49 all-ages laws, broken out on our all-ages page. At present, 22 States including the District of Columbia have state-wide laws, and more than 200 localities have local ordinances. Riders of electric bikes are required to wear helmets in some states listed on this ebike page in detail and noted below. More info on helmet laws follows the list.

Jurisdiction	Ages	Year
Alabama *
State law	Under 16	1995
State ebike law	All ages
Montevallo	All ages	1993
Homewood	All ages	1994
Alaska
Anchorage	Under 16	2005
Bethel	Under 18	2004
Juneau	Under 18	2006
Kenai	Under 16	2004
Sitka	Under 18	2005
Arizona
Flagstaff	Under 18	2010
Pima County	Under 18	1995
Sierra Vista	Under 18	1995
Tucson	Under 18	1993
Yuma	Under 18	1997
Arkansas
State ebike law Class 3	Under 21
California
State law	Passenger under 5	1987
State law	Rider under 18	1994
State law	Under 18 * Scooters, skate- boards inline skates	2003
State ebike law	Under 18 except Class 3 all ages
Bidwell Park, Chico off road in middle & upper park	All ages	1991
Connecticut
State law	Under 16	1993/ 1997
State ebike law	Under 16 except Class 3 all ages	2018
City of Seymour (Repealed 1998)	All ages	1998
Delaware
State law	Under18*	1996
State ebike law	Under 18
District of Columbia
District Law	Under16*	2000/ 2004
District ebike law	Under 16
Florida
State law	Under16**	1997
State ebike law	Under 16
Georgia
State law	Under 16	1993
State ebike law	Under 16 except Class 3 all ages
Hawaii
State law	Under 16	2001
State ebike law	Under 16
Illinois
Barrington	Under 17	1997
Chicago messengers	All ages
Cicero	Under 16	1997
Inverness	Under 16	1999
Libertyville (Incentives only)		1997
Skokie	Under 16	2002
Indiana
State ebike law Class 3	Under 18
Kansas
Lawrence	Under16*	2004
Kentucky
Louisville (Parks)	Under18*	2002
Louisville Extreme Park	All ages	2002
Louisiana
State law	Under 12	2002
State ebike law Class 3	All ages
Maine
State law	Under 16	1999
State ebike law	Under 16
Maryland
State law	Under 16 *	1995
State ebike law	Under 16
Allegany Co.	Under 16	1992
Howard County	Under 16	1990
Montgomery Co.	Under 18	1991
Sykesville	All ages	1995
Mass.
State law	Passenger under 5	1990
State law	Rider under 17 *	1994/ 2004
State ebike law	All ages
Michigan
State ebike law Class 3	Under 16
Adrian	Under 15	1998
E. Grand Rapids	Under 18	1995
Farmington Hills	Under16*	1999
Kensington Metropark	All ages	1998
Mississippi
Hernando	Under17*	2010
Jackson	All ages?	2013
Ridgeland	???	2010
Starkville	All ages *	2010
Missouri
St Louis Co.	1 to 16 *
Some areas 2002 County-wide 2008
St Louis Co. munici- palities:
Ballwin	Under 17	2006
Bel-Ridge	All ages	2002
Bella Villa	Under 17	2005
Belle- fontaine Neighbors	Under 17	2005
Berkeley	All ages	2000
Black Jack	All ages	2008
Calverton Park	All ages	2001
Chesterfield	Under 17	2008
Clayton	Under 17	2005
Creve Coeur	All ages	2000
Ellisville	Under 17	2005
Florissant	Under 17	2003
Glendale	All ages	2008
Grantwood Village	All ages	2003
Hanley Hills	Under 17	2007
Hazelwood	Under 17	2007
Hillsdale
Moline Acres	Under 17	2008
Normandy	Under 17	2004
Northwoods	Under 17	2003
Norwood Ct.	Under 17	2004
Olivette	Under 17*	2005
Overland	Under 17	2005
Pagedale	All ages	2002
Riverview	Under 17	2008
Rock Hill	Under 17	2003
St. John	Under 17	2001
Sycamore Hills	All ages	2008
Town & Country	All ages	2002
Velda City	All ages	2006
Velda Village Hills	All ages	2005
Vinita Terrace	Under 21	2001
Webster Groves	Under 17	2004
Wellston
Wilber Park	Under 17	2005
Wildwood	Under 17	2005
St Louis Co Parks	Under 17	2001
- - -	- - -	- - -
Other counties
Columbia	Under16*	2003
St Charles	Under 16	2006
Montana
Billings	Under 16	2001
Nevada
Duckwater Indian Reserva- tion	Under 17	2001
Reno/ Sparks Indian Colony	Under 17	2002
New Hampshire
State law	Under 16	2006
State ebike law	Under 16 except Class 3 under 18
New Jersey
State law	Under17*	1992/ 2005
State ebike law	Under 17
New Mexico
State law	Under18*	2007
State ebike law	Under 18
Los Alamos County	Under 18	1995
New York
State law	Passenger under 5	1989
State law	Rider under 14*	1994/ 2004
Albany County	All ages ebike	2021
Eastchester	Under19*	2004
Erie County Parks	All ages	1993
Greenburgh	All ages	1994
Guilderland	Under 14	1992
Onondaga Co. -Syracuse	Under 18	2001
Rockland Co.	All ages	1992
Suffolk Co.	14 to 17	2000
North Carolina
State law	Under 16	2001
State ebike law	Under 16
Black Mountain	All ages	1996
Boone	All ages	1995
Carolina Beach	Under 16	1994
Carrboro	Under 16	1997
Cary	Under 16	2001
Chapel Hill	Under 16	1992
Charlotte	Under16*	2002
Cornelius	Under16*	2001
Greenville	Under 16	1998
Matthews	Under 16	2001
Ohio
State ebike law Class 3	All ages
Akron	Under 16	2001
Beachwood	Under 16	1990
Bexley	Under 16	2010
Blue Ash	Under 16	2003
Brecksville	Under 18 *	1998
Brooklyn	Under 14	2001
Centerville	Under 18	1999
Cincinnati	Under16*	2004
Columbus	Ages1-17*	2009
Dayton	Under 13	2004
East Cleveland	Under18*	2004
Enon	Under16*	2004
Euclid	Under 14	2001
Glendale	Under19*	2000
Kettering	Under 16 *	2004
Lakewood	Under 18	1997
Madeira	Under17*	2002
Marietta	Under16*	2004
Orange Village	Ages6-15	1992
Pepper Pike	Under 18	2000
Shaker Heights	All ages over5inc pass- engers	1997
South Euclid	Under 14	2000
Strongsville	Under 12	1993
Waynesville	Under17*	2000
Oklahoma
Norman	Under 18	2003
Oklahoma City (city property)	All ages	1999
Oregon
State law	Under16*	1994
State ebike law	Under 16
Penn.
State law	Rider under 12	1995
State ebike law	Under 12
Rhode Island
State law	Under16*	1996/ 1998/ 2007
State ebike law	Under 16
Tennessee
State law	Under 16	1994/ 2000
State ebike law	Under 16
Clarksville	Under 16 except Class 3 elec. all ages
Texas
Arlington	Under 18	1997
Austin	Under 18	1996/ 1997
Bedford	Under 16	1996
Benbrook	Under 17	1996
Coppell	Under 15	1997
Dallas	Under 18	1996/ 2014
Fort Worth	Under 18	1996
Houston	Under 18	1995
Southlake	Under 15	1999
Virginia****
State ebike law Class 3	All ages
Albemarle Co.	Under 15
Alexandria	Under 15	1994
Amherst Co.	Under 15	1993
Arlington Co.	Under 15	1993
Blacksburg	Under 15	1994
Clarke Co.	Under 15
Fairfax Co.	Under 15	1993
Fairfax City	Under 15	2016
Falls Church	Under 15	1993
Floyd County	Under 15
Front Royal	Under 15	1996
Hampton	Under 15	1999
Harrisonburg	Under 15
James City County	Under 15	1999
Luray	Under 15
Manassas	Under 15	1995
Manassas Park	Under 15	1997
Newport News	Under 15	1997
Norfolk	Under 15	2001
Orange Co.	Under 15
Petersburg	Under 15	2000
Prince William Co.	Under 15	1995
Radford	Under 15	2000
Roanoke	Under 15	2000
Salem	Under 15	2000
Stafford Co.	Under 15
Vienna	Under 15
Virginia Beach	Under 15	1995
Williams- burg	Under 15	2001
Wise	Under 15
York Co.	Under 15	1994
Washington State
Aberdeen	All ages	2001
Auburn	All ages	2005
Bainbridge Island	All ages	2001
Bellevue	All ages	2002
Bremerton	All ages	2000
Des Moines	All ages	1993
DuPont	All ages
Duvall	All ages	1993
Eatonville	All ages	1996
Enumclaw	All ages	1993
Fircrest	All ages	1995
Gig Harbor	All ages	1996
Hunts Point	All ages	1993
Island Co. (Rec. only.)	All ages	1997
Kent	All ages	1999
King County Repealed in 2022	All ages*	1993
Lakewood	All ages	1996
Milton	All ages *	1997
Orting	Under 17	1997
Pierce Co.	All ages	1994
Port Angeles	All ages	1994
Port Orchard	All ages	2004
Poulsbo	Under 18	1995
Puyallup	All ages	1994
Renton	All ages	1999
Seatac	All ages over 1 yr	1999
Seattle	All ages	2003
Snohomish Repealed	All ages	2002
Snohomish skate park only	All ages	2002
Snoqualmie	All ages	1996
Spokane	All ages *	2004
Steilacoom	All ages	1995
Tacoma Repealed in 2020	All ages *	1994
University Place	All ages	1996
Vancouver	All ages	2008
W. Virginia
State law	Under 15	1996
State ebike law Class 1,3	Under 15
Clarksburg	Under 18	1993
Morgantown	All ages	1993
S.Charleston	Under 18	1994
St. Albans	Under 18	1995
Wisconsin
Port Washington	Under 17	1997

See this page for ebike helmet laws.

This is a US list. For countries outside the US please See below.

* Also covers electric bicycles or one or more non-bicycle wheeled vehicles: in-line skates, roller skates, skateboarders, non-motorized scooters. There are other laws that cover them too, but we don't have the info on all of them yet. New Mexico was the first to include tricycle riders. The ebike list is on a separate page.

** Florida permitted counties to opt out. Three initially did so, but now have all rescinded their exceptions. Private property (a driveway, for example) was excluded but all roads and trails are covered.

*** Jackson, MS law exempts riders who are riding in a cul- de-sac or dead end street in a residential area.

**** Virginia's state enabling legislation permits localities to adopt laws covering only children under the age of 15. Although as shown by the blanks we do not have official confirmation in every case, all of the Virginia laws we have found specify "fourteen and younger." (shown as under 15 in our table)

That's a total of 22 states (including the District of Columbia as a "state") and at least 202 local laws. Only 13 states have no state or local helmet laws at all. (Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, South Carolina, Utah, Vermont and Wyoming)

These are bicycle helmet laws. As noted, we often do not have good info on what laws cover skaters, scooter users, Segways, ebikes or other conveyances, although where known we have a * indicating that. In 2018 the State of Connecticut was the first to pass an electric bicycle law that requires helmets on e-bikes for all ages. Other states are adopting similar laws promoted by People for Bikes.

Here is the same list by date that the law became effective.

We update our page periodically by searching those local municipal and County codes that are available on the web. You can do that for your community at Municode.com if your own code is posted. Washington State codes are found at Municipal Research Services Center of Washington. Aside from the published codes, our sources are community residents who email us to tell us about their law.

We also have another page with more info on mandatory helmet laws, including copies of some of them. And we have a page for anyone writing a new law suggesting language on standards. We recommend looking at the Hernando, MS, law passed in 2010 as one that covers all the bases and has up-to-date language on standards.

The National Traffic Safety Board has made an unprecedented study of bicycle injuries and countermeasures, announced in 2019. They recommend major improvements in almost all of the elements that make up the bicyclist environment, and also the passage of all-ages helmet laws. An early press release in November 2019 said the study will be available soon.

If you are lobbying for a law, the Ohio Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics has produced this unique https://ohioaap.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/2022-Bike-Helmet-toolkit.pdf. "Assisting local communities in educating decision makers on the importance of a youth bicycle helmet law."

To search the web for details on state and local laws, we recommend this page on the League of American Bicyclists site.

Here is a map of the US highlighting the states with helmet laws.

State and local helmet laws now apply in states that include more than half of the total population of the US, but actually a much smaller portion of the population is covered, less than 15 per cent, due to age limitations of the laws. Laws have been proposed and may be either defeated or in some stage of the legislative process in a number of other states. In 2020 that includes at least Kentucky. And a proposed NY State law targeted at New York City would require helmets for every rider on a bicycle, e-bike or e-scooter in a city with a population over 1 million.

If you need detail on the provisions of these proposed laws, including penalties, enforcement, associated educational campaigns, helmet banks or giveaway programs, treatment of contributory negligence (liability) provisions, or dates of enactment, Safe Kids Worldwide has a status sheet on bicycle helmet laws available from Meg Farrage at 202-662-0616. We are indebted to Safe Kids Worldwide for their help in keeping our list up to date, and to Ralph Wessels for information on the Washington State communities. Shirley Scatcherd provided the info on the St. Louis County local laws (35 of them!), and we have her original detailed compilation of them up. We also have an email with detail on the St Louis County Law including their unique street sign.

Evaluations

You can access here a compendium of bicycle helmet safety program evaluations taken from the Centers for Disease Control's MMWR issue titled "Injury Control Recommendations: Bicycle Helmets" Please send us any other evaluations you may see in the future so we can add them to this page.

Here is a link to a formal study on the effect of bicycle helmet legislation on bicycling fatalities.

Consumer Product Safety Commission staffer Greg Rodgers has published a study concluding that the presence of a State law increases helmet use by 18.4 per cent.

New York State reported that since it introduced its first helmet law in 1989 for passengers under 5, and its second in 1994 for riders under 14, the annual rate of cyclists hospitalized from bicycle-related traumatic brain injuries fell for the under 14 group from 464 in 1990 to 209 in 1995. The rate for cyclists 14 and over for the same years declined less rapidly, from 454 to 382. There is no way to determine exactly what proportion of the improvement was due to helmet laws, since there is no data on improvements to bicycle facility safety, rider education or total miles ridden in those years, and helmet promotion campaigns by Safe Kids Worldwide and others were active in the state. But it is likely that increased helmet use, prompted by passage of the first law in 1989 and the promotion campaigns in New York communities, played a role in the reduction of injuries.

New Jersey reported in July of 1997 that since it introduced a helmet law for kids under 14 the number of bicycle-related fatalities for that group fell by 60 per cent, from 41 in 1987-1991 to 16 in 1992-1997. For riders age 14 and over the figures were 75 and 71. The School Board of Sommers Point, NJ added a helmet rule and boosted helmet use by those who ride to school from 6 per cent up to more than 70 per cent. Their attorney thought that failure to require helmets could leave the School District liable in the event of an injury.

Duval County, Florida, reported an increase in helmet use by all ages from 19 per cent in 1996 to 47 per cent in 1997 after the Florida law was passed. Bicycle deaths fell from five to one, and injuries from 325 to 105. Results were even better in the age group covered by the law. Hillsborough County, Florida, also reports an increase in helmet use and a decline in injuries after passage of the same law.

A study done in North Carolina using actual field observation before (1999) and after (2002) their law covering kids under 16 passed showed a small increase in adult helmet use but no increase for kids covered by the law. Overall on-street NC helmet use went from 18% to 24%, with larger gains among mountain bikers. The study concluded that "statistical analyses indicate that the law failed to generate a differential increase in helmet use by children ages zero to 15 years, mandated to wear helmets, compared with those ages 16 and above and not covered by the law. Although the difference in helmet use between surveys (1999 pre-law and 2002 post-law) was significant, it is clear that the helmet requirement has had little effect on increasing helmet use by children thus far." As far as we know they have not updated the study since 2002.

A study published in Pediatrics in 2002 found that in Canada the bicycle-related head injury rate declined significantly (45% reduction) in provinces where legislation had been adopted compared with provinces and territories that did not adopt legislation (27% reduction). A 2010 Canadian study showed that bicycle usage remained constant after helmet laws were adopted in two provinces, and that helmet use was increased more by all-ages laws than those applying only to children.

A study of California statistics by Lee et al published in Accident Analysis & Prevention in 2005 shows that head injuries in the under-16 group covered by the law went down by 18.2 per cent in California after the state helmet law was passed. There was no change in adult head injury rates.

This statistical analysis concludes that passing a state-wide bicycle helmet law covering youth riders reduces cycling by those who are covered by the law by 4 to 5 per cent. We note a number of problems with the data they used, but are still concerned about the conclusion. No actual rider counts have ever shown that result anywhere in the US.

Notes

Tacoma, Washington, repealed their all-ages law in 2020. The repeal was part of a major overhaul of their city's micro-transportation environment. An article in the News Tribune had background. In 2019, the Tacoma Police Department handed out 12 citations for people not wearing a helmet.

The National Survey of Bicyclist and Pedestrian Attitudes and Behavior, a Gallup poll sponsored by the US Government, found that 90% of cyclists support helmet laws for children, while 62 percent support such laws for adults. (Here is an excerpt from the study with details.)

The Spokane law was passed by the City Council over the Mayor's veto. The Mayor wanted to delay, reduce coverage to those 16 and under, not cover skateboarders or inline skaters and coordinate with neighboring jurisdictions. The Council vote was 5-1 with one absent. Here is a columnist in the local newspaper who agreed with the action. In April 2019 the City Council exempted people riding electric scooters rented through smartphone apps.

The Shaker Heights, Ohio, law covers adults but not kids under the age of 5 years. It does cover passengers on bicycles, however. The Austin, Texas, law was originally for all ages, but a grass-roots protest movement resulted in limiting it in October, 1997, to riders under 18. A similar change was made in Barrington, Illinois. Seymour, Connecticut, repealed its law. (The referendum also included an unpopular no-smoking law.) An attempt in 1999 to force a referendum on the Farmington Hills, Michigan, law for riders under 16 failed for lack of signatures.

El Cerrito, California, dropped its 1993 all-ages law in 2013, noting that the 1994 California State statute takes precedence. In 2015 there was a California State Senate bill that would have expanded their law to cover all ages, skateboards, non-motorized scooters and more.

The Dallas all-ages law was changed in June, 2014 after 18 years and now applies only to riders under 18. The impetus was the establishment of a shared bicycle program, whose promoters believed a strictly-enforced all-ages law would severely restrict their program. A local newspaper reported that the majority of the citations had been handed out in poor, minority neighborhoods, leading to charges that the law was not evenly applied. A Dallas News article showed that few citations had been handed out to younger riders.

The City of Oakwood, Ohio, has taken an different route by adopting a resolution encouraging the use of helmets. It directs the Safety Department (Police) to develop educational programs for helmet safety. It also provides the authority for officers to "wave over" minor cyclists who are not using protective head gear. No fines or other deterrents are permissible as this is not an ordinance, but a "soft mandate."

King County, Washington, mounted a comprehensive safety program with many elements, including their all-ages helmet law. They brought their child deaths down by 62 percent over a nine year period. But in 2022 they decided to repeal the law, just two years after Tacoma had done so. The reason: data showed that enforcement had been minimal and had disproportionately affected people of color and people experiencing homelessness. The Metropolitan King County Council has budgeted more than $200,000 to buy helmets and expand education.

Many bicycle clubs, the US racer's organizing body, USA Cycling and the Triathlon Federation require helmets in their events, although they may or may not support helmet laws. Touring organizations like Adventure Cycling usually require them for organized tour riders. U.S. military regulations require helmets on military facilities. The National Bicycle Dealers Association opposes mandatory helmet laws. Bicycle Retailer and Industry News has editorialized against them.

International

There are mandatory helmet laws in Argentina, Australia, Austria, most of Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Croatia, Estonia, Finland, France, Iceland, Israel, Japan, Jersey, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, New Zealand, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, United Arab Emirates and parts of the United States. In 2017 a new review of their effects was reportedly being undertaken at the University of New South Wales in Australia. This Wikipedia article includes them. And here is an article from the UK on legal penalties for not wearing a helmet in some countries.

In Australia, bicycle helmets are mandatory in all states and territories for all ages. Compliance is high but varies by area, with some cities over 90% and rural areas much lower. In the State of Victoria cyclists' head injuries declined 41%. There were 36% fewer child riders on the road, immediately after the legislation passed, but perhaps more adult riders. Changes in ridership may or may not have been related to the passage of the laws, and the road culture in Australia is unique to that country. (No similar effects have ever been documented in the US.) Injury reduction was below expectations, but still spectacular. Hospital data from Western Australia showed that the number of intracranial injuries was cut in half with increased helmet use, while head injuries were less serious, and hospital stays shorter. There is more analysis in this journal article and this followup article. In a survey done in 2011, those who do not ride a bike for transport cited road safety and traffic as their main concerns, with about 16% saying helmets deter them, ranking number 13 in the list. In 2011 a film maker in Brisbane produced this anti-helmet law video for an organization called Helmet Freedom that hopes to repeal the Queensland law. In 2012 a study of long term bicycle related head injury trends for New South Wales found indicators that cycling had increased and head injuries had dropped over time. Posting comments on this blog the critics continued to debate. In 2016 Canberra announced they would study the possibility of relaxing their helmet law for "parks, town centres and other low-speed environments such as shared zones and university precincts" in an effort to increase ridership.

New Zealand's national helmet law took effect in January, 1994. A study showed that although cyclists' injuries increased in the years thereafter, head injuries declined. A 2018 report on national government statistics showed that $55 tickets issued for failure to wear a helmet had declined 75 per cent in the past five years, reaching a low of 2,618 nationwide, down in 2019 to 1144. In 2018 a group tried to organize helmet law repeal rallies, but the one held in Wellington turned out only 25 cyclists, and a subsequent poll showed that 70 percent of 57,000 respondents said that cyclists should be required to wear helmets. (link above) This article in 2021 has the current situation.

In some European countries, cycle helmets have become mandatory in the last few years. In Malta, cycle helmets became mandatory for all cyclists in April 2004. In Sweden, cycle helmets became mandatory for children up to 15 years of age on January 1st 2005. The same group of cyclists has to wear helmets in Slovenia and the Czech Republic. In Spain, cyclists have to wear a helmet outside urban areas except when going uphill.

The Swedish government conducted an international literature search, summarized in a study published in 2003. They found that helmet laws can achieve levels of usage not achieved by education alone, that helmet laws reduce head injuries, and that helmet laws can result in a reduction of cycling by young people.

Iceland's mandatory helmet rule, a ministerial decree covering children under 15, came into effect in September of 1999.

The British Medical Association examined the evidence and recommended in 2004 that the UK adopt a mandatory helmet law for both children and adults. They had previously recognized the benefits of helmet use but had feared that a helmet law might reduce cycling, resulting in negative net health benefits. That same argument led readers polled by the BMA's magazine to vote against helmet laws in 2011. In 2010 Jersey was considering a new law that would require helmets for riders under 18, having rejected a proposal for an all-ages law. The UK's Transport Research Laboratory has published a paper on the effectiveness of helmets. It found that in 2008, 34 per cent of riders in the UK were already wearing helmets on major roads, and 17 per cent on minor roads. In a 2011 poll of 4000 cyclists conducted by the non-profit IAM, ten percent of the respondents said they would quit cycling if a mandatory helmet law were enacted.

The Copenhagen Post reported in November, 2009 that a failed attempt to pass a Danish law requiring helmets for those under 12 was being revived after evidence surfaced that the proportion of Danish cyclists arriving at emergency rooms with head injuries was declining as helmet use there has increased to about one in six cyclists.

In 2011 Switzerland considered a helmet law as part of a package to reduce road deaths, but the Transportation Committee of the National Council rejected the recommendation.

Canada has provincial and local helmet laws. Ontario's helmet law for cyclists under 18 took effect in 1995. It was originally to have covered all ages, and there is a bill in parliament now to extend it to do that. There is spirited opposition by a few cyclists there. (see links below) Proponents cite the cost of cyclists' injuries to the national health system, without reference to the much greater cost of treating those injured in cars, a blind spot also found in the US. In March, 2003, the Canadian Institute for Health Information announced that hospitalizations due to cycling-related injuries were down 12.5 per cent between 1997-98 and 2001-02. Head injuries fell even more precipitously, by 26 per cent during the same period. British Columbia's 1996 all-ages law was very successful in increasing helmet use, according to an evaluation project for this law conducted by the University of North Carolina. It showed substantial increases in helmet use after the law was passed. There are exceptions to the law for medical exemptions, those with heads larger than size 8 (manufacturers had not yet begun producing the extra large helmets available today) and those whose religion requires headgear that makes helmets impossible (primarily Sikhs). Nova Scotia's law came into effect in 1997 and covers all ages. New Brunswick also has an all-ages law. In Quebec, the Montreal suburbs of Cote Saint-Luc and Westmount have passed by-laws requiring the use of bicycle helmets within their boundaries. In October, 1997, the Cote Saint-Luc law was extended to cover bicyclists and skaters of all ages. Alberta added a law on May 1, 2002, requiring helmets for riders under 18, including passengers and toddlers on tricycles. Prince Edward Island's law was effective on July 5, 2003, and covers all ages. A research project in Toronto before and after their law came into effect showed that "although the number of child cyclists per hour was significantly different in different years, these differences could not be attributed to legislation. In 1996, the year after legislation came into effect, average cycling levels were higher (6.84 cyclists per hour) than in 1995, the year before legislation (4.33 cyclists per hour)." Conclusion: Contrary to the findings in Australia, the introduction of helmet legislation did not have a significant negative impact on child cycling in this community. Manitoba's under-18 helmet law came into effect in 2013. They will permit first-time offenders to avoid a fine by taking an on-line bike safety quiz. A 2015 law in Newfoundland and Labrador required all cyclists of any age to wear a helmet. In 2021 only two provinces, Saskatchewan and Quebec, do not have mandatory helmet laws.

Korea has adopted a mandatory helmet law that took effect in September 2018. Cyclists are fighting it, and it may be amended.

Dubai adopted an all-ages mandatory helmet law in 2010. The fine for not wearing a helmet is 500 dirhams, about $136 US.

Finland passed a mandatory helmet law with an effective date of January, 2003. It covers all ages, but there is no fine associated with breaking the law.

Spain adopted a mandatory helmet law for cycling outside of cities in 2004. Helmets are not compulsory in towns and may be removed while climbing steep hills. In addition, Spain adopted a mandatory helmet law for riders under 17 in March of 2014.

Iceland's under 15 rule is mentioned above

The Czech Republic requires helmets for those under 16.

France has a lively discussion on helmets going on. The best summary is probably this page on the Mieux se Déplacer å Bicyclette site. They analyze deaths in Paris and in France as a whole and conclude that helmet usage is a personal question but can save lives. In 2017 a French law went into effect requiring helmets for anyone under 12 years old, with a fine of €135 for an adult carrying a child on their bike without a helmet or accompanying a child who is cycling without one.

The Netherlands has a similar discussion, focusing primarily on children and seniors. Helmet laws would be a big step for a country as bike-centric as the Netherlands, where cycling has been made safer by meticulous attention to road facilities, legal structure that places all blame on a motorist in a crash and by high volumes of riders. A study published in 2020 by van den Brand et al concluded: "In this study we found that patients with TBI due to bicycle accidents did not wear helmets as often as a comparable control group. This association could not be established for patients with TBI as a result of a collision between a bicycle and a motorized vehicle. This study has some limitations, but the results strongly suggest that TBI in adult cyclists could be reduced if cyclists in the Netherlands would wear a helmet more often. Future research should focus on establishing the exact frequency of bicycle helmet use in the Netherlands and ways to promote helmet use without discouraging cycling."

Germany examined the question of a mandatory helmet law in 2023 and reportedly decided not to pursue it.

Japan adopted a national helmet law in 2008 that requires children under 13 to wear helmets. This page has some info on that. A Yomiuri Shinbun article reported that 76 per cent of the surveyed parents of kids 1 to 6 years old had bought helmets for their kids, but only 54 per cent said the kids always wear them. A 2023 law requires all riders of all ages to use helmets, or at least says: “Cyclists must make an effort to wear a helmet.” The government found that in a crash unhelmeted riders were about twice as likely to die as helmeted riders. There will be no punishment for failure to observe the law. There are reports of new helmets being marketed in Japan as a result of the law.

Mexico City briefly adopted a mandatory helmet law, but an article on the European Bicycle Federation site said they repealed it in February of 2010 in an effort to support their shared bicycle rental program, Ecobici. We have more comments on our page on shared bicycle programs.

In April of 2003 the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) announced that it intended to make helmet use compulsory in the professional races it sanctions. The ruling has stuck this time (in 1991 an compulsory helmet rule was rejected by the riders). It followed several well-publicized deaths, including that of Kazakh rider Andrei Kivilev. Kivilev died of a head injury without a helmet. The impetus for the ruling had also grown since a helmeted rider fell on a turn at an intersection in a rainy Dutch stage of the Tour de France and hit his head on a concrete bollard in the center of the road, but to the astonishment of the crowd got up and raced away. In 2004 the UCI even extended its requirement for impact protection to the teardrop-shaped "chrono" helmets the riders use in time trials for better aerodynamics. The rule initially had an exemption for elite riders in climbs of more than 5 km. The current version is here.

Our View

The Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute supports carefully drawn mandatory helmet laws covering all age groups because we believe they are needed to raise awareness that helmets save lives, in the same way that seatbelt laws and smoke detector requirements were used to inform the public that those safety devices were necessary. Many riders and parents do not know that they need a helmet, and the laws educate as much as they force compliance. We also believe that most riders regard helmets as a fashion item rather than as a safety appliance, and like any other fashion this one may wane. We support efforts like Vision Zero to improve the safety of the cycling environment to reduce the need for helmets, and that should always be regarded as the primary injury prevention measure for reducing all injuries to cyclists. We would include safety education for both riders and car drivers as an important element of that effort. We do not believe that wearing a helmet causes riders to take additional risks. We believe that in this country promoting helmets will not detract from the effort to improve road safety, and in fact has stimulated those efforts, giving us the most widespread and best-supported campaigns for better road safety for cyclists that we have ever had in our history. We are keenly aware that increasing riders may reduce injury rates, but we do not believe that helmets discourage cycling in the US. Since bicycles on a public road are vehicles, we believe that the operator has the rights and obligations of vehicle users in our ever-more-populated and outrageously unsafe road environment, so requiring a bicycle helmet is as reasonable as requiring a helmet on a motorcycle rider or requiring seatbelt usage in cars. We would support provisions for medical exemptions based on a doctor's certification or religious requirements for headgear.

We have always been a lot more enthusiastic about promoting voluntary use of helmets than promoting laws, and it would appear from the list above that most U.S. states and localities are too. Even seatbelt laws that have been around for a long time are mostly secondary offense laws limiting enforcement to occasions when a driver has been stopped for something else. But those laws have saved millions of lives. Helmet laws can be useful, but given the problems with enforcing them they will probably not work well in most places until more riders have accepted the need for wearing a helmet. So we favor a stronger push for voluntary usage than for passing new helmet laws, and our website has always reflected that attitude.

At present the pace of new helmet laws has slowed to almost zero. Attempts to extend laws to cover adults have been unsuccessful. Urban riders are increasingly questioning the need for helmets, and certainly the need for helmet laws. WABA, our parent organization, has taken a position opposing the extension of the Maryland state helmet law to adults. A pendulum is swinging. We expect it to swing back eventually as injuries show up, but the positive experience with shared bicycle programs has raised basic questions about the need for helmets, and younger riders are reconsidering. We regard all that as a fashion trend and remain convinced that bike riders need helmets.

We do not participate in the endless Internet "Helmet Wars," among a small group of posters in blogs and social media, but we have a web page up discussing some of the recurring points.

Helmet Law Links

• A Systematic Review of Bicycle Helmet Laws Enacted Worldwide is a 2018 study of helmets laws done at Australia's UNSW Sidney. This link is to the full text .pdf file. The summary: "There are currently 28 countries in total that have a bicycle helmet law. When the data is broken down in terms of countries, states, and cities, there have been at least 273 bicycle helmet laws enacted all over the world. Nine countries have bicycle helmet laws that apply to all ages as well as half of Canadian provinces, some US cities, urban travel in Chile and Slovakia, and interurban travel in Israel and Spain. To date, seventeen jurisdictions have modified their laws and only two laws have been fully repealed (Mexico City and Bosnia and Herzegovina)" In the intervening years the Portland, Washington State, USA law has also been repealed.
• The Rascal Rides Blog has a restatement of some of our list by state as text. They have some interesting notes as well.
• The US Government: the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, part of DOT, has a report called Bicycle Helmet Use Laws: Lessons Learned from Selected Sites CD-ROM 2004. It includes lessons learned from Austin, Texas; Jacksonville and Duval County, Florida; the State of Maryland; the State of Oregon; Port Angeles, Washington, and Seymour, Connecticut. It is a 219 page file in .pdf format. We include that file now on the CD we send with our Toolkit for Helmet Promotion Programs. Email us at the address below if you need just the CD.
• NHTSA also has an interesting page on automotive seatbelt laws, if you can find it. It shows that most states have minimal fines for not wearing a seatbelt. At the time of the report only 21 of them authorized a police officer to stop a car and ticket the driver for not wearing a belt, and some states are adding similar offenses since the #MeToo movement showed that they were disproportionately enforced against people of color. New Hampshire still has no seatbelt law for adults. The parallels with bicycle helmet laws are obvious.
• A CPSC study on the effectiveness of State helmet laws concludes that a state helmet law increases helmet use by 18.4 per cent.
• This BikePortland blog article concluded that the Vancouver, Washington, law has not had much effect. Riders are not wearing helmets, and head injuries are rising as cycling becomes more popular.
• The UK Department for Transport has published a study of helmet effectiveness geared toward decision-making about mandatory helmet requirements.
• The most definitive site that promoted scepticism about the use of helmets and laws to require them was that of the Bicycle Helmet Research Foundation. They find "serious flaws in the evidence most frequently cited in favour of helmet effectiveness. Moreover, it has become increasingly clear that real-world data, from independent sources and based on large populations where helmet use has become common, do not support these claims. Most disturbing of all, there are sources of evidence to suggest that increased helmet use has sometimes been associated with an increase in the number or severity of head injuries to cyclists." All that is on their Policy Statement page. They have links to other like-minded sites. But the site now says: "Since 2020-08-29 this website is an archive, to preserve links. Not much has been added since about 2016."
• New Zealand's John Wren published a good article from the pro-helmet side.

Other Helmet Law Lists

• The law firm De Caro and Kaplen has a page advocating bicycle helmet laws with a map, nice graphics and stats, referencing this page as the source for the bicycle laws.
• The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has a page on bike helmet laws, but it only covers states and does not include ebike laws.
• NHTSA has a page on bike helmet laws but their list has only State laws and was out of date when we last checked.

If you see outdated information on this page, please contact us . This is a difficult page to keep current!