Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute

NHTSA Publications on Bicycle Safety

Summary: The US Dept. of Transportation (NHTSA) has these publications and more available free for downloading on line.

These materials are all on the NHTSA site unless they have changed all their links again. If so, start with their Home Page and search. You can also download them in .pdf format for printouts by clicking on the link "Printable version" on each page. Here we have links to the NHTSA server except for some .pdf files we do not find on their server. You can check the NHTSA page with this search for new ones that we don't know about yet.

Demonstrating Bicycle Helmet Effectiveness: A How-to Guide

One of DOT/NHTSA's best publications. In addition to egg drop, melon drop and hammer demos, it has a Pledge form. It has photos of each step.

Easy Steps for Fitting a Bicycle Helmet

How to fit your helmet. Also available in Spanish as Consejos y pasos para el uso debido del casco para montar bicicleta. (August 2006) The .pdf files are included on our Toolkit CD.

Kids and Bicycle Safety

Probably best for late elementary to mid-school kids. Sections on Safe Riding Tips, Rules of the Road and Sidewalk Riding. On the Toolkit CD as nhtsakids.pdf Also available in Spanish as Los inños y su seguridad al montar en bicicleta. The .pdf file is on our Toolkit CD as spanishkids.pdf.

7 Smart Routes to Bicycle Safety

Seven ways to bicycle safely. Includes info on helmets, bike maintenance, riding gear and safe riding practices. (DOT HS 810 773, May 2007) The .pdf file is on our Toolkit CD as nhtsa7.pdf.

Prevent Bicycle Crashes

This three page flyer includes a message for parents about bicycle safety. Facts about bicycle-related crashes, injuries and fatalities, along with tips on how a parent can help prevent them from happening are included. Typical crash situations between motor vehicles and bicycles are explained. (2007) The .pdf file is on our Toolkit CD as nhtsacrash.pdf.

Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety

This fact sheet covers ped and bike crash factors, but blames the victims and scarcely mentions that poor street and facility design is the basic underlying cause responsible for most of the problems.

National Strategies for Advancing Bicycle Safety Report 2001

An attempt to formulate a national strategy for bike safety. It seemed like a good idea at the time as NHTSA and CDC formed a National Bicycle Safety Network to pursue it, but both agencies dropped the ball.

Bicycle Helmet Use Laws: Lessons Learned from Selected Sites CD-ROM 2004

Early lessons learned from Austin, Texas; Jacksonville and Duval County, Florida; the State of Maryland; the State of Oregon; Port Angeles, Washington, and Seymour, Connecticut. Was once available as a CD.

Videos

NHTSA has done five .wmv videos that were once online on the DOT site. Send us an email with your postal mailing address if you need the DVD version. There is no charge for it, and we include some other videos as well.

Resource Guide

This CD is for the bicycle safety professional and others who are proactive in developing programs at the state or community level, not for consumers. It is a compilation of existing and proposed countermeasures to solve a wide range of bicycle safety problems. We don't know if it is still available or not, but you could send a request for a copy of the interactive CD ROM with your contact information to: pbic@pedbikeinfo.org

These publications are just a few of the ones on the NHTSA site. Please note that we do not have copies of any of them for distribution on paper, but can send the videos on DVD.