Bicycle Helmet Laws By State

Some of these local ordinances do prohibit all riders including adults from cycling without a helmet.

Bicycle helmet laws by state. In several states local ordinances may extend. 17 and younger footnote 1. Bicycle helmet laws have recently been cropping up across america at both the state and local levels. If you don t see your state on this list it means there s currently no state level law mandating helmet use by bicyclists.

Many states understanding the benefits began to adopt laws on wearing helmets for bicycles in 1987. The parallels with bicycle helmet laws are obvious. Riders are not wearing helmets and head injuries are rising as cycling becomes more. Approximately half of the states have some sort of law on the books that requires a child to wear a helmet and there are also several cities and municipalities that have adopted similar measures.

State motorcycle helmets motorcycle type vehicles not covered by the motorcycle helmet law. There is no comprehensive federal legislation covering bicycle helmets at this time. This bikeportland blog article concludes that their law has not had much effect. Here s a look at state bicycle helmet laws in the u s.

In most states the law is limited to children under 18 but there are many states starting to implement the law now. A cpsc study on the effectiveness of state helmet laws concludes that a state helmet law increases helmet use by 18 4 per cent. Only 21 states and the district of columbia have statewide bicycle helmet laws and they apply only to young riders often riders younger than 16. Of the 29 states which have no state wide bicycle helmet laws 16 have individual localities towns cities counties etc with separate local ordinances in place.

No state has a universal bicycle helmet law. Moped defined by the state as having an engine displacement of 50 cc or less brake horsepower of 1 5 or less and a maximum speed of 25. Local government helmet laws.