As a Latin American this is so weird , but cool . <| sep |> message me <| sep |> It ' s a wine shop , though . Not a vape shop or anything . <| sep |> The year is 1988 , it ' s 700 am , and I ' m riding my bike across the Pyrmont bridge on the way to work . I ' m apprehensive about the daily confrontation with the lone security guard , who will insist I walk my bicycle across the whole 400 meters of deserted bridge . It ' s a stone in the shoe of an otherwise idyllic trip to work . 6 months later I move to Annadale , again I contemplate riding to work . It ' s notfar , but the route is terrible , it takes me down Victoria Rd and over the then Glebe Island Bridge . There is no shoulder at all , the road ispotholed and caries an amazing amount of traffic , which typically flows at 70 80 kmh well above the posted 60 kmh limit . I contemplate a bikehelmet to try and mitigate the risk of what is so obviously in hindsight a bad idea . The clincher came when driving home . I see 3 men , side byside , in the curbside lane bombing down the hill towards the bridge . They are all dressed for the tour , and all wearing bike helmets . They wereprobably doing at least 50 kmh , as was the bus some 6 feet behind them . I contemplated the results of a crash under those circumstances , a sneeze a wheel caught on the edge of one of the innumerable potholes and would be game over , for all three of them . I decided that I will continue to drive until I could find a better route . Little did I know that it was the end of me riding to work in Australia . Cycling was becoming increasingly popular , and people started to notice that most cities are terrible places to ride a bicycle , no bike lanes , narrow shoulders and aggressive drivers . Changes were pushed for by doctors alarmed at the increase in bike riders ending up in hospital . Enthusiasts , and people who sold bike helmets , pushed for helmets to be made mandatory . New Zealand had recently passed an all ages bicycle helmet law , after the tireless campaigning of by a grieving mother , who had sadly lost her son to a bicycle accident . The obvious impact on cycling participation was dismissed . The people pushing for the MHL already wore one , sold helmets , or didn ' t ride . Initially the law was introduced but no penalties were attached . The police complained loudly that they couldn ' t enforce the law without fines . Fines were introduced . It worked . After a couple of tickets , me , and everyone I knew , stopped riding . Cycling dropped by 36 %. The drop among women under 20 was 90 %. Hey presto , no need for any planning changes , no money required for cycleways . Perfect ! Problem solved . Australian cities and towns are typically quite spread out . Children quickly discovered that a ten minute bike ride to see a friend blew out into a 45 minute hike , you could wear the helmet , or you could take the risk of a fine . Most simply decided they ' d just stay home instead . Police would park outside schools to catch the helmetless lawbreakers . The kids got the message , but what they heard was not safety . What they heard was the police are not there to help you , they are there to rob you , and serve it up with pious lecture . Before the law approximately 80 % of school children rode to school by bike , just one year after the fines were introduced it was 5 %. It has stayed there for an entire generation . Kids have got fatter as we as a society have decided to demand they armor up to do anything . Instead of ensuring the environment is reasonably safe for kids we ' ve demanded they shoulder the responsibility to avoid cars . We have lied to them about helmets effectiveness because it ' s easier than inconveniencing motorists . Some people say it ' s not a big deal to wear one , and in a way they are right , but that isn ' t what happened . What happened is cycling ended for most of the population the number of trips made by bike in Australia is 1 . 6 % for reference it was 5 % in Perth in 1988 . Australia has had a 20 year experiment and it ' s an abject failure . It has taken a great deal of pleasure away from thousands of people , and in exchange we have got less , than , nothing . Heart disease killed 24 , 000 people last year in Australia , suicides were 2 , 273 2011 motor vehicles accidents were 1 , 219 2011 Pedestrians were 189 , Cyclist deaths were , wait for it , 35 . More people died falling out of bed .