Helmet laws are a bone of contention for many riders. Without a national law saying that helmets are or are not required (despite the CDC's efforts), we've ended up with a seemingly random set of laws that are different in whatever state you're in. If you wear a helmet you're always covered (literally and figuratively), but if you like to feel the wind in your hair it's hard to know where you can and can't do it legally. Let's straighten that out.
Some say every rider, everywhere, should be required to wear a helmet, for their own safety and to reduce the burden on our health care system. Others say helmets are good, but it should be the right of the individual to choose whether to wear one or not. Still others say there should be absolutely no helmet regulation at all. When I lived on the border between Massachusetts (a universal helmet law state) and New Hampshire (with no helmet laws at all), I'd always see motorcycles stopped at the state line. Northbound riders would be taking their helmets off, and southbound riders would put them on. If you're going to make the choice to remove your brain bucket, you should know where Johnny Law will allow you do it.
Helmet Laws Are Tricky:
Helmet laws fall into four general categories: required for everyone, required for everyone under 21, required for everyone under 18, and not required at all. Many states have their own special stipulations for passengers, engines under 50cc, or the amount of health insurance a rider must carry to go without a helmet. Here's a listing of who has to wear a helmet, in alphabetical order by state.
Alabama: Everyone
Alaska: Under 18
Arizona: Under 18
Arkansas: Under 21
California: Everyone
Colorado: Under 18 (riders and passengers)
Connecticut: Under 21
Delaware: Under 19
Florida: Under 21
Georgia: Everyone
Hawaii: Under 18
Idaho: Under 18
Illinois: No helmet law
Indiana: Under 18
Iowa: No helmet law
Kansas: Under 18
Kentucky: Under 21
Louisiana: Everyone
Maine: Under 18
Maryland: Everyone
Massachusetts: Everyone
Michigan: Under 21
Minnesota: Under 18
Mississippi: Everyone
Missouri: Under 26*
Montana: Under 18
Nebraska: Everyone
Nevada: Everyone
New Hampshire: No helmet law
New Jersey: Everyone
New Mexico: Under 18
New York: Everyone
North Carolina: Everyone
North Dakota: Under 18
Ohio: Under 18
Oklahoma: Under 18
Oregon: Everyone
Pennsylvania: Under 21
Rhode Island: Under 21
South Carolina: Under 21
South Dakota: Under 18
Tennessee: Everyone
Texas: Under 21
Utah: Under 21
Vermont: Everyone
Virginia: Everyone
Washington, D.C.: Everyone
Washington (state): Everyone
West Virginia: Everyone
Wisconsin: Under 18
Wyoming: Under 18
It may surprise some people to see that only 19 states, plus Washington D.C., have universal helmet laws. Older riders may be particularly surprised since in 1967 the federal government required states to enact helmet laws to qualify certain federal safety programs and highway construction funds. Nearly all states had such laws by the early 1970s, but as the decade went on states managed to stop the Department of Transportation from denying funds over helmet laws.
Still, only three states — Illinois, Iowa, and New Hampshire —have absolutely no helmet laws whatsoever. The majority of states have laws requiring helmet use for younger riders (and, in Colorado, younger passengers).
Some states require riders to carry a minimum amount of health insurance coverage to go without a helmet. The qualifications are different in every state and constantly changing. Texas, for example, currently prohibits law enforcement from stopping a helmetless rider for the sole purpose of verifying that their insurance coverage meets the requirements, but the government is trying to change that.
We got our information for this list from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, which keeps an up-to-date list of helmet laws on its website. If you're taking a ride through several states and wish to go bare-headed, check this list before you go so that you know where you can and can't do this legally — at least, for this week before the laws change again.
Source: IIHS