Quote:
Originally Posted by dale@thecoys.net
Well, it's interesting. But not quite equivalent to a helmet in all situations.
Imagine if you glide under a big tree branch and your head hits the branch - or you just fall over the handlebars and your head hits the ground first.
However, in many situations it would be far better than "no helmet at all".
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We should bear in mind that it is a bicycle helmet. In that country, bicycles are used for commuting purposes, and I am sure it is intended for the street, and not for mountain bikes, or even sidewalks.
Not too many trees are allowed to hang branches down into the street lanes, as they would surely hit vehicles enough that they pose small risk to the heads of bicyclists. (Hitting your head on a branch is a pretty exclusively segway application, because we are taller than bikers, and often on the sidewalks, where vehicles do not go)
I did not see all the tech data, but I thought I did see momentum changes and angles as part of the deployment factors. I suspect that people pretty rarely just fall over the handlebars of a segway and hit their head without an angle or momentum change. As a matter of fact, I cannot even imagine how one could fall over the handlebars at all, unless the segway wheels come to an abrupt stop, and that pretty much would be a momentum change of the first order...
On your last point, I do believe this would be better than no helmet at all in some situations, possibly many situations. It could even be worse than no helmet in some situations...
As a humorous sidebar... I recall many depictions of a rascal of a youth on a bicycle or skateboard rolling down the street with a rolled up newspaper or just his hand, smacking a line of cars one at a time, causing their alarms to ring... Quite a cacophony of sound!...
Skip ahead to 2014, and the equivalent delinquent is using those ring toss looking roller devices, or possibly a solo wheel, rolling down the street, casually flicking the back of every one's collar, causing inflatable helmet after inflatable helmet to deploy amongst the unsuspecting gliders/bikers.