More Christchurch people would cycle if they did not have to strap ugly helmets to their heads, a style-conscious city councillor says.

Cr Aaron Keown wants New Zealand’s compulsory cycle helmet law reviewed because he believes it is stopping people from getting on their bikes and is jeopardising Christchurch’s hopes of becoming the Amsterdam of the South Pacific.

Keown fled police twice when he was in his 20s because he was cycling without a helmet. On a third occasion he was nabbed and fined.

He has hardly been on a bike since because he refuses to wear a helmet. He believes it is impossible to look cool wearing one and reckons that as long as the helmet law is in force, many people will not take up cycling. [Stuff]

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Yup, here’s bicyclist mentality summed right up for you. One minute they’re bitching that the roads aren’t safe enough for bikers. The next minute they’re bitching about having to wear helmets because they’re “ugly.” By the way these are the same guys who, if you said that drivers shouldn’t have to wear seatbelts, would immediately say something like “see, drivers don’t really care about safety.”

Honestly I don’t get it. On the one hand the dude says that more people would bike if they didn’t have to wear helmets, and more bicyclists is undeniably BAD. On the other hand, more people biking without helmets means more asshole bikers getting clocked upside the brain when they inevitably breeze through a red light, which is undeniably GOOD. I dunno. I’m torn here. Could go either way.