Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute

Bicycle Helmet Posters

Summary: Bicycle helmet posters -- available from other sources. We do not have copies!

Many current posters from helmet manufacturers do not feature a "wear your helmet" theme, but the shots of heroes in their helmets carry a message. We do not try to catalog those here, since they are generally just dramatic photos of one racer. In the newer ones the racer is more likely to have a helmet on. You can find many of those at AllPosters.com. But your best bet to find current bike safety posters is with a search like this one on Google. Due to copyright restrictions we do not have many graphics below.

Reasonably Current Posters with Sources

Not available from us!

Click on the small photo for a larger one.
USDOT

This poster has logos from DOT, it's NHTSA branch and the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The theme is "Use Your Head. Before you buy a bicycle helmet, make sure it fits!" There is fitting advice, illustrations of the right and wrong way to wear helmets and info on the CPSC standard. At the bottom it says "Hey Kids - Remind grownups to wear their helmets too!" It is poster number DOT HS 808 746, August, 1998. May still be available: Safety Countermeasures Div., NHTSA, Dept. of Transportation, 4700 7th St. SW, Washington, DC 20590-0001, tel. (202) 366-5399, fax (202) 366-2062.
USDOT

This poster in Spanish shows a man jumping from an airplane without a parachute, and says riding without a helmet, use of lights and reflective materials, and following the rules of the road is comparable. You can ask for the poster on the NHTSA site if you can find it now.


Snell Memorial Foundation

Snell has a helmet fitting poster. The theme is "Four S's: Size Strap, Straight, Sticker." The sticker part is boosting Snell's own certification sticker. It is 26x19 inches, and in color. They ask for a donation of $2.


American Plastics Council

The theme of this poster is "Play it Safe: No Gear, No Game. Plastic safety gear can help save kids' lives." The characters are unfortunately flying though the air doing extreme tricks, but kids know better than to try that at home, right? For a free copy, contact the Plastics Council's web page or call them at 800-243-5790


Consumer Product Safety Commission
The text:

Strap a Helmet On -- It Could Save Your Life

On March 22, 2007, Casey Raffaelli tragically died after falling off his skateboard-he was not wearing a helmet at the time of the incident. Casey, 20, was a talented artist, rowing enthusiast, and criminal justice major in college. Casey's father Kevin (right), a Captain with the San Mateo (California) Police Department; mother Elizabeth (middle),a San Mateo County District Attorney; and uncle Mark (left), Chief of the South San Francisco Police Department, strongly encourage all children, teenagers and adults to follow their local laws and strap on a helmet every time they jump on a bicycle, skateboard, scooter or motorized vehicle.

Older Posters

These are helmet posters from years gone by. Sorry, but we do not have current sources for most of them!. (A few can be found at AllPosters.com.) These are mostly of historic interest. Click on the small photo for a larger one.


The Protective Headgear Manufacturers Association.

This is a smaller poster at 11" x 22" and is done in three colors. It features a large PHMA logo in the center, and across the top it asks "What's Your Sport? - Helmets help to reduce injury and death" Around the PHMA logo in the center are smaller circles with Cycling, Baseball, Football, SkateBoarding, Roller-Blading, Lacrosse, White-Water Rafting, Hockey, Climbing, Speed-Skating, Martial Arts, Equestrian, Soccer, Scooters, Skiing and Snow-Boarding in them. Below that is an illustration of a cyclist on one side with a helmet correctly fitted and on the other side with the helmet tilted back and the caption "Incorrect" Below is "Wear a Helmet/Wear it Correctly" Then below that is Protective Headgear Manufacturers Association with the six current members and the PHMA email address. In mid-2009 we were advised that PHMA had folded up its operations and the poster is no longer available.


Consumer Product Safety Commission

The text:

Strap a Helmet On -- It Could Save Your Life

On March 22, 2007, Casey Raffaelli tragically died after falling off his skateboard--he was not wearing a helmet at the time of the incident. Casey, 20, was a talented artist, rowing enthusiast, and criminal justice major in college. Casey's father Kevin (right), a Captain with the San Mateo (California) Police Department; mother Elizabeth (middle),a San Mateo County District Attorney; and uncle Mark (left), Chief of the South San Francisco Police Department, strongly encourage all children, teenagers and adults to follow their local laws and strap on a helmet every time they jump on a bicycle, skateboard, scooter or motorized vehicle.

As far as we know this one is also no longer available.



USDOT

The US Department of Transportation published this poster with the theme "Ride Like a Champion - Follow the Rules of the Road" It was a full color 18" by 24" blowup of a cyclist in racing gear but carrying a backpack. The cyclist is Nathan Sheafor, 1990 National Champion. The poster was keyed to the pamphlet that DOT produced titled "Along for the Ride - Safety Tips for Bicyclists." Wearing a helmet is only one of 21 points inside, but the helmet was prominent on the poster. The poster and "a limited number" of pamphlets could be obtained from DOT by contacting the Safety Countermeasures Div., NHTSA, Dept. of Transportation, 4700 7th St. SW, Washington, DC 20590-0001, tel. (202) 366-5399, fax (202) 366-2062. We don't find them any more on the NHTSA website, and assume they are not currently available.


Rad Rider
The Rad Rider poster had a great graphic that matched the website that has now disappeared. The theme was "Rad Rider, Safety Cycler! featuring the Whiz on Wheels in Motor City Mahem!" Attributed to the Inland Empire Health Plan, who sponsored Rad for his time in the sun, ending some years ago. Somebody had fun creating this one.


Pennsylvania
The theme is simple: "Helmets! All the pros wear them" and the pros include a baseball player (Darren Daulton), hockey player (Terry Carkner), football player (Keith Byers), skateboarder and two cyclists. The last three are kids, not pros. Sponsored by the Medical College of Pennsylvania, St. Christopher's Hospital for Children, the Philadelphia Phillies, the Philadelphia Flyers and the Philadelphia Eagles.


British Columbia
Theme: "At this point, bike helmets are looking pretty good. Strap on some protection. Wear a helmet." The illustration on this poster anticipates the Harry Potter style by some years! Sponsored by the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia, BC Medical Association, Bicycling Association of BC and BC Home and School Federation. 17x22 inches.


British Columbia Another Canadian poster, this time on the theme "It never hurts to be in style. Get your head into a bike helmet." Sponsored by the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia, BC Medical Association, Bicycling Association of BC and BC Home and School Federation. 17x22 inches.


Manitoba on the Web

Manitoba created several posters when their helmet law went into effect May 1, 2013. You may be able to download them to print out, but we don't know where to find them any more.


Bikecentennial

The predecessor of Adventure Cycling produced this helmet spoof poster in 1990. Noting that helmets had become popular but some still shunned them, the Air Bag Bicycle Helmet was offered as a possible solution. The photos show balloons being blown up as the cyclist falls at .1, .5 and .9 seconds to become fully inflated before the impact, filling the baseball cap and pushing it up high off the head. The concept was by Greg Siple, a Bikecentennial founder. Lest anyone miss the joke, the large yellow panel at lower right says "Bikecentennial urges every cyclist to use a helmet bearing the ANSI or Snell Foundation sticker," the politically correct advice in the pre-ASTM, pre-CPSC age.


Pro-Tec This poster featured Rebecca Twigg, then a leading US female racer, buried in a pile of Pro-Tec helmets. The theme was "Rebecca wears ProTec or she wears nothing at all!" It was produced in the late 1980's. Although the wholesome athlete's smile on Ms. Twigg's face makes it clear that this was more a joke than a serious come-on, it was the earliest attempt we can remember to sell helmets with feminine appeal, and may have had a lot to do with Ms. Twigg subsequently winning a Bicycling Magazine award in that category.
The helmets shown are the Pro-Tec Mirage model, the first all-foam helmet with an internal reinforcing mesh, a major advance in helmet construction imitated by almost every manufacturer of high-end helmets since. It appeared in 1989, dating the poster in that era, when Pro-Tec was still headquartered in Kent, Washington. The nylon mesh extended across all vents, although it is obscured in this photo by the mesh covers. In the original poster you can see both the mesh and a small mole on Ms. Twigg's left shoulder that was not airbrushed out. Although some may quibble with the theme, we would rate this as one of the most innovative helmet posters ever produced, featuring one the most innovative helmets of that era.


Swedish Helmet Campaign

Another very innovative helmet poster, this one from Sweden. The riders were nude.


Scottish Rite Children's Medical Center

This poster was sponsored by the Masons in conjunction with the Wilbur and Hilda Glenn Hospital for Children, located near Atlanta, GA. The figures include a boxer, football player, baseball batter, bike rider and inline skater, all wearing helmets. The caption is "Helmets are Pro Tection." This poster is not dated, but the helmets include a cloth-covered Bell that probably would put it in the early 1990's.


Texas Department of Public Safety

This poster was developed by the Texas Department of Public Safety for its campaign titled: Neighborhood Adventures in Bicycle Safety - Striving to be a SuperCyclist. The campaign was run in the mid-1990's. The theme is "Maintain Your Brain: A SuperCyclist Always Wears a Helmet.


U of Arizona

This poster was one of many drawn and painted by kids participating in a contest sponsored by the National Center for Neurogenic Communication Disorders at The University of Arizona in Tucson.


Tough Guys

Tough guys wear helmets, with stern looking law enforcement types glaring at the camera and of course wearing their helmets.


Ontario in English and French

Ontario issued a colorful poster in English on one side and French on the other.

Rhode Gear

This one was printed by a bicycle equipment supplier, Rhode Gear.


HeadSmart

Cute kid looking at a turtle, with the message that you were not born with head protection, so you need a helmet.

Two honorable mentions: no helmets!

We don't know where to find these two.

Cuba: Cuida tu carroceria

This is our only Spanish language poster. It came from Cuba about 1990. No helmet, but it's a bird, after all. The smiley face in the upper left corner uses a bicycle to frame the eyes, a unique adaptation.


Albert Einstein

This poster is a photo of Albert Einstein taken in 1933, so of course he is not wearing a helmet. But there is the World's Smartest Man on a bicycle with a very happy face. It speaks volumes. We can't find it online any more. The copyright belongs to the California Institute of Technology Archives.