A few years ago, Washington and other states around America decided that folks riding motorcycles should wear helmets before they set out on the highways and biways. While there was a good deal of protest to this idea, eventually it became known that wearing a “brain bucket “ on a fast-moving vehicle that has a tendency to eject the rider into everything from telephone poles to ongoing traffic wasn’t such a bad idea.

Folks who bucked the man, the system or whatever ended up with tickets or wondering from a hospital bed why they didn’t wear their helmets to begin with. Time passed and soon enough almost everyone was doing it.

Helmets were a must on motorcycles and offered protection to riders whether they used their bikes every day or once in a blue moon.

Next up, the auto driver. Click-it or ticket became the rage last year, and folks traveling without their seatbelt got an $86 surprise. Such surprises are still occurring regularly, we assure you.

Eventually, the bar for car safety will be raised to the same standard as motorcycles. Virtually everyone will wear a seatbelt and virtually everyone will wear a helmet — hundreds of would-be deaths and injuries will be prevented as a result.

With the motorcycles and autos on their way to safer roads, the Kitsap County Commissioners are now poring over the idea of a bicycle helmet ordinance.

In North Kitsap, Poulsbo has one but when was the last time you saw a kid getting a ticket from one of the city’s finest? Most folks who ride bikes around town probably couldn’t even tell you what the penalty is for riding a bike without a helmet.

Enforcement is definitely a problem with this one and is the primary reason why the commissioners haven’t endorsed this to the fullest. What’s the point of having a law if it has no teeth?

We’d like to make a humble suggestion on this one that might just make it stick.

Most adults have come to grips that driving without a seatbelt or riding a motorcycle without a helmet can result in a dip into their pocket books. We feel the same principle — to a lessened degree — should hold true for our kids.

A sliding scale would help. Poulsbo already rewards kids for wearing their helmets with free ice cream but no one seems to be fining those who don’t. After a warning or two, a minor fine of $5-$10 might not be a bad idea for anyone under the age of 18.

Those older could be fined $30 or so.

Seems tough but it’s a lot more giving than asphalt or a fender. It’s easy to pass laws for the sake of doing so and we applaud the commissioners for realizing this. But at the same time, we urge them to get tougher and urge our law enforcement officers to do the same in terms of this safety precaution.

A helmet law for bikes does make sense, not just for kids but for everyone.