The Helmet Law Working Group including Central Seattle Greenways, Real Change, Cascade Bicycle Club, and Beacon Hill Safe Streets, as well as members from other organizations has written a letter to the King County Board of Health recommending the repeal of the King County bicycle helmet law with endorsement from APBP.
The research, outreach, and discussion of the working group sought to understand the impacts of King County’s bicycle helmet law, including its disproportionate enforcement by Seattle police against people of color and homeless bicyclists. Findings were that Black cyclists have received citations at nearly four times the rate of white cyclists; homeless individuals have received nearly half of all recent helmet citations. Their research and advocacy were recently featured in The Seattle Times and The Guardian.
The King County Board of Health is now reviewing the helmet law beginning with a panel discussion at their meeting on June 17. The letter to the Board of Health urges them to keep all bicyclists safe from harmful policing by repealing the helmet law, or at the least, removing the possibility of punitive, armed enforcement.