My gut feeling – just from my own experience going to school in Melbourne in the ’90s – is that many children stopped cycling to school in Victoria after helmet laws were brought in because your average helmet at the time weighed too much and had poor airflow. They were also pretty ugly compared to what you can get today. Particularly the “Stackhats” from the mid ’80s.

Before 1990, some schools required their students wear a helmet if they were cycling to school. If you were caught without one before or after school you might suffer some sort of punishment (detention, etc). Weekends were your own responsibility.

These days I don’t think helmets are really much of a problem for children. Bikes aimed at children are generally a lot better than back in 1990, too – eg. mountain bikes with suspension and plenty of gears. I think the issue is really just that there is much more motor traffic on the roads, and kids don’t have many safe places to ride, and their parents know that. Many parents don’t want to cycle with their kids. School teachers don’t want to be seen encouraging potentially unsafe activity, so we now have whole generations of people who are missing out. Probably many more children now that have never learnt to ride a bike now than there were in the late ’70s. A bit sad really.

- ozz

Personally I think helmet laws would probably be a good idea (because it would destigmatise helmet use among beginners), but if people don’t wear helmets I really don’t care that much.