Originally Posted by
License2Ill
It is a matter of leadership for kids too. Kids are generally not only more likely to be riding, but also more likely to crash and crash poorly. I hope any kids seeing me riding take note of the helmet rather than the cigarette, even though their parents may be telling them to wear one already. Nobody is calling a helmet a replacement for any broad term of common sense or anything else. People are just calling it a good and worthy idea to wear one, and to take due care as well. Some folks may also be in to seeing more dedicated bike lanes on roads, trails, and other advocacy as well. It's not an all or nothing proposition.
While nobody here is calling for helmets to be a replacement for other safety measures, it often is treated that way in practice. A helmet, at its best, is a last line of defense. It stands to reason that you shouldn't be
relying on your last line of defense, and yet people do this all the time: they pressure and push kids and adults alike to "always always always wear a helmet", but we see no such pressure for something much more important, like actually learning riding skills (emergency stops, defensive riding, importance of lighting, etc). There should be a much more pervasive pressure to "never ride a bike until you've had some training" than there should be pressure to "never ride a bike unless you have a helmet", which is a pervasive idea. I can't help but feel this is due, in part, to people overestimating the abilities of their safety equipment.
You may not be arguing for this, but in practice, it's fast-food safety for many.
The only all or nothing proposition is when you need a helmet and are not wearing one.
This is true when you fall, regardless of how you fell (from a bike, from tripping, etc).