Cycling Visionaries Awards - Project Details

Stadthelm (hometown helmet)

According to scientific studies head injuries in traffic can be reduced with bicycle helmets by 69%. For this reason Bundesverband Kinderneurologie-Hilfe e.V. created a prevention project to promote the use of helmets: Stadthelm is a secure, stylish helmet that creates a connection to the carrier by identification with his hometown. A donation for each helmet sold underlines the social benefit.

“Setz auf den Stadthelm!” (Double sense of meaning in German: “Wear a helmet. Rely on your hometown helmet.”) is a prevention project by Bundesverband Kinderneurologie-Hilfe e.V. to increase the use of bicycle helmets and to improve the safety of cyclists on the roads across the globe.
Since the introduction of „Stadthelm“ in March 2011 there are more than 15.000 helmets in about 60 cities/regions on German and even a lot on French roads. Austria and Switzerland are going to follow this example. For a good reason: Head injuries are the leading cause of death in bicycle accidents of children and young people. In Germany nearly 90% of the 3-6-year-old kids wear a helmet but the helmet usage drops significantly by increasing age of the youth. Only 4% of the 17-30-year-old cyclists wear a helmet. According to these numbers Bundesverband Kinderneurlogie-Hilfe e.V. looked for a way to facilitate the use of helmets to those more vulnerable target groups, but also to the older role models. Therefore the project “Stadthelm” was born with the aim to motivate the use of a visually appealing helmet.
The “Stadthelm”, based on the red dot award winning model of ABUS Urban-I, stands out from other helmets in design and appearance. With a flashy orange triangle and a individual lettering of the city “stadthelm.de|my city”, it serves another purpose: by identification with the hometown a highly emotional connection between helmet and carrier is created. And on top of that the owner of the „Stadthelm“ does something for a good cause: 5,- Euro per helmet sold will be donated to the charitable prevention work of Kinderneurologie-Hilfe, an association which supports children with neurologic problems. This triple use, consisting of the stylish helmet, the city associated identification and the charity aspect, is flanked by a communication concept, which waives the „moralizing forefinger“ and instead focuses action and fun of cycling. In summary, the vision of the project is to increase the fun of city cycling by meeting the cyclists needs of security, style and identification and additional by doing something for the good purpose.
The project is funded by three partners with expertise in different fields but meet in a common purpose: to make bicycling safer. The initiator “Bundesverband Kinderneurologie-Hilfe e.V.” is a federal association which is committed to children with acquired brain damage after head injuries. Besides counseling and aftercare of victims, the duties of the association include networking of regional aid agencies, bodies and prevention work. Since the project began in 2011 already 15.000 helmets were sold and a total amount of 76,000 € was donated to the association and its regional and national community work. The project partner ABUS delivers the helmet and the distribution network and supports the campaign ideally and in substance. Not at least because of the numerous trading partners the “Stadthelm” could be implemented in about 60 cities and regions by now. The communication agency pars pro toto GmbH is the third partner, which is responsible for the planning, developing and managing all communication activities. Numerous partners who rely on the “Stadthelm” (e.g. Healthy Cities Network, the country‘s road patrols NRW and Bremen, Germans cycling club a.s.o, visit homepage www.stadthelm.de) support the project.