i understand both sides of the argument. when you look and see that a bike helmet is just styrofoam, it's hard to believe it does much. but i went over my bars at 25mph 6 weeks after getting my bike last year, landed on my shoulder but then smacked my head REALLY HARD. My first thought was "that didn't hurt at all" if I didn't have my helmet on, I would have been in big trouble. I do think there are some types of bike accidents where a helmet wont do a damn thing because they don't cover the whole head the way a motorcycle helmet does. At the end of the day unless the anti helmet people can show some evidence that wearing a helmet is actually MORE of a risk than not wearing one, I'd rather wear one with the understanding that it may not actually help at all.

When I got my bike last year I wasn't going to get a helmet "we never wore them as kids, they weren't mandated back then, I turned out alright" but then I decided that as a kid I didn't live in NYC either. I lived on a quiet, dead end side street in a town of less than 10,000 people. There was a lot less risk there.