Appeared on January 19, 2010
Mark Stehr Ph.D., associate professor of economics, was featured in an article in the New York Times about how bike helmet laws actually discourage users to go bicycling.
In a new working paper called “The Intended and Unintended Effects of Youth Bicycle Helmet Laws,” Christopher S. Carpenter and Mark Stehr offer a surprising conclusion: while mandatory helmet laws have led to increased helmet use -- and while helmet use has been shown to reduce bicycle fatalities -- such laws also seem to lead to a decrease in actual bike riding.