41) The following appeared in a health newsletter.
A ten-year nationwide study of the effectiveness of wearing a helmet while bicycling indicates that ten years ago, approximately 35 percent of all bicyclists reported wearing helmets, whereas today that number is nearly 80 percent. Another study, however, suggests that during the same ten-year period, the number of bicycle-related accidents has increased 200 percent. These results demonstrate that bicyclists feel safer because they are wearing helmets, and they take more risks as a result. Thus, to reduce the number of serious injuries from bicycle accidents, the government should concentrate more on educating people about bicycle safety and less on encouraging or requiring bicyclists to wear helmets.
Write a response in which you examine the stated and/or unstated assumptions of the argument. Be sure to explain how the argument depends on these assumptions and what the implications are for the argument if the assumptions prove unwarranted.
123) The following appeared in a health newsletter.
A ten-year nationwide study of the effectiveness of wearing a helmet while bicycling indicates that ten years ago, approximately 35 percent of all bicyclists reported wearing helmets, whereas today that number is nearly 80 percent. Another study, however, suggests that during the same ten-year period, the number of accidents caused by bicycling has increased 200 percent. These results demonstrate that bicyclists feel safer because they are wearing helmets, and they take more risks as a result. Thus, there is clearly a call for the government to strive to reduce the number of serious injuries from bicycle accidents by launching an education program that concentrates on the factors other than helmet use that are necessary for bicycle safety.
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the recommendation and the argument on which it is based are reasonable. Be sure to explain how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the recommendation.
125) The following appeared in a health newsletter.
A ten-year nationwide study of the effectiveness of wearing a helmet while bicycling indicates that ten years ago, approximately 35 percent of all bicyclists reported wearing helmets, whereas today that number is nearly 80 percent. Another study, however, suggests that during the same ten-year period, the number of accidents caused by bicycling has increased 200 percent. These results demonstrate that bicyclists feel safer because they are wearing helmets, and they take more risks as a result. Thus there is clearly a call for the government to strive to reduce the number of serious injuries from bicycle accidents by launching an education program that concentrates on the factors other than helmet use that are necessary for bicycle safety.
Write a response in which you discuss what specific evidence is needed to evaluate the argument and explain how the evidence would weaken or strengthen the argument.
G1: A ten-year nationwide study of the effectiveness of wearing a helmet while bicycling indicates that ten years ago, approximately 35 percent of all bicyclists reported wearing helmets, whereas today that number is nearly 80 percent.
G2: Another study, however, suggests that during the same ten-year period, the number of accidents caused by bicycling has increased 200 percent.
C1: These results demonstrate that bicyclists feel safer because they are wearing helmets, and they take more risks as a result.
C2: Thus there is clearly a call for the government to strive to reduce the number of serious injuries from bicycle accidents by launching an education program that concentrates on the factors other than helmet use that are necessary for bicycle safety.
A1 (G1): The self-reported data is reliable and comparable.
A2 (G2): The increasing number of accidents are caused by the factors in C1.
A3 (C2): The proposed education program can alter bicyclists' behaviors regarding other factors.
A4 (C2): The bicyclists are to blame in most of the accidents.
how accurate are the survey results
- do the respondents represent the bicyclists nationwide (maybe one survey focuses more on young people who tend to take more risk)
- how are the questions phrased (whether they wear helmets vs. how often they wear)
the change of accident rates and the causes of the accidents
- maybe more people bike now
- maybe more pedestrians shared the road with bicyclists
- road condition get worse
- the percentage of accidents caused by careless cycling
the causes of accidents involving serious injuries and whether education can address the causes
- maybe serious injuries in some accidents could be prevented by wearing helmets
- maybe accidents involving serious injuries are caused by bad weather for which the education campaign would not be very helpful
- maybe accidents were caused by cycling under the influence of drug (then education is helpful)