Public Safety Legislation and the Risk Compensation Hypothesis: The Example of Motorcycle Helmet Legislation

J G U Adams
Additional contact information
J G U Adams: Department of Geography, University College London, 26 Bedford Way, London WC1H 0AP, UK

Environment and Planning C, 1983, vol. 1, issue 2, 193-203

Abstract: The ‘experiment’ in the United States of America in which twenty-eight states in the latter half of the 1970s repealed their laws which made the wearing of motorcycle helmets compulsory is widely believed to have proved conclusively that helmet legislation is a highly effective public health measure. The principal statistical foundations of this belief are found in a report to Congress by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and in a study by Watson et al. These foundations are examined and found to be open to criticism. The evidence surveyed here suggests that the effect, if any, of helmet legislation on motorcycling fatalities is perverse. The ‘risk compensation theory’ is proffered as a possible explanation of the available evidence.

Date: 1983
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/c010193 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:envirc:v:1:y:1983:i:2:p:193-203

DOI: 10.1068/c010193

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Environment and Planning C
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().