Originally Posted by
Monster Pete
I think the main issue is all the energy spent in promoting helmet use, that would be much better spent on supporting safe cycling. You can be a safe cyclist or an unsafe one, helmet or not. If all the effort that was put into pushing for greater helmet use was redirected towards good road sense, using lights at night etc, it would probably have a much greater effect on cycling fatalities than any helmet.
The advantage of promoting helmet use is that it's "simple" and "obvious" and "non-controversial". The recommendation is
binary and easy to detect: use a helmet (versus not using one).
There are also PSA type things for "safe cycling" and there's not reason one can't easily do both (which is commonly done anyway).
A real effect might result in requiring people to take cycling classes but that's expensive and hard (and won't be well liked).