Fool Quiz
Road Rules
March 11, 1998

1) About how many bicyclists are fatally injured each year?

1. 500 
 2. 700 
 3. 960 
 4. 1200 
 5. 2500

1. 50,000 
 2. 100,000 
 3. 250,000 
 4. 400,000 
 5. 500,000

1. Type A 
 2. The mid-block rideout 
 3. The cross-stream weave 
 4. The wheely pull 
 5. The no-hands U-turn

1. Use both brakes 
 2. Wear tight-fitting clothing 
 3. Signal before you turn 
 4. Wear a helmet 
 5. Use a headlight

1. Colliding with another bike 
 2. Colliding with a car 
 3. Colliding with a pedestrian 
 4. Falls 
 5. Intoxication

1. Elizabeth Hurley 
 2. Bob Marley 
 3. Hal Hartley 
 4. Halle Berry 
 5. William Harley

1. Bicycle riding 
 2. Poisoning 
 3. Falling 
 4. Firearm injuries 
 5. Alcohol intoxication

1. Boat motors 
 2. Bowling balls 
 3. Pool tables 
 4. Jet skis 
 5. Bicycles

1. ANSI 
 2. ASBR 
 3. NBRS 
 4. ASPCA 
 5. AARP

1. Beverly Hills Sycling Institute 
 2. Bicycle Height Scoring Institute 
 3. Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute 
 4. Bicycle Heaven in Sports Illustrated 
 5. Bicycle Handlebar Society of Indiana

* * * * *

Answers:

1) About 1200 bicyclists are fatally injured each year. A child (or an adult, for that matter) needs to remember that a bicycle isn't a toy.

2) Over half a million bicycle-related injuries are treated in our hospitals' emergency rooms each year.

3) The most frequent accident type for young riders is called mid-block rideout. It happens when the rider enters the road from a driveway or alley without slowing or stopping. The motorist has no time to avoid the collision. How do you avoid this? The same way you do in driving a car: stop, look left, then right, then left again. Unless you want to be Dead Again.

4) By far the most important thing you should do as a bike rider, or as someone who's supervising your children's bike riding, is to wear a helmet. Head injuries are by far the most common cause of death among cyclists. As a man once said to us one freezing January morning in New York City, trying to sell us a hat: "This thing goes on your head! And your brain is in your head!"

5) Most injuries are due to falls, not colliding with someone else, whether in a vehicle or not. And 80% of those injuries are head injuries. We'll say it again: WEAR A HELMET.

6) William Harley hooked up with the Davidsons to make the Harley-Davidson motorcycle. Demand was strong for the motored bicycles, which required pedaling when going uphill. Harley-Davidsons these days generally don't require that you pedal. But wear a helmet anyway.

7) In the U.S., approximately 600 children die from bike injuries each year; this exceeds the combined death rate from accidental poisonings, falls, and firearm injuries.

8) Brunswick Corp. <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: BC)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: BC)") end if %> does indeed make bicycles, but it doesn't make jet skis. The company grew net income from $38 million in 1992 to $185 million in 1996. If you want to go jet skiing, you still can, but leave the Brunswick Corp. alone.

9) The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) sets the standards for bike safety helmet. There is also an organization called the Snell Memorial Foundation that sets standards; the helmet you buy should comply with at least one of them. The ASPCA may also deal with bicycle safety, but probably only if you have a chimp riding a unicycle.

10) The BHSI is the Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute. It's on the web, it's run by volunteers, and it has Frequently Asked Questions. One of them is, "Who makes the coolest helmet?" We first wondered who would have designated themselves the coolness police. Then we realized that coolness, in this context, means "the helmet that provides the most cool air to your head." We apologize for jumping to conclusions.

-- David Wolpe(TMF Dbunk)