Originally Posted by
mconlonx
This is the assertion of the study I posted -- those who wear helmets experienced higher risk and rode slower without helmets, meaning they ride faster and "riskier/less safe" when they do wear helmets. Bareheaders, however, did not ride riskier when they wore helmets.
So it appears that this study confirms that helmeteers ride less safe than do bareheaders...
No, that doesn't follow, neither of the bolded fragments.
First, the people putting on helmets did not experience higher risk. They did not ride slower. They did not "perceive" any difference in risk levels. The study acknowledged this explicitly.
Second, the people who "routinely wore helmets" also did not experience higher risk when wearing a helmet. They "perceived" a higher risk when taking it off, which does
not mean that there was an actual higher risk experienced. Just a feeling. They did pedal down the 1/4 mile hill more slowly, immediately after taking the helmet off. If anything, it confirms that "feeling" of higher risk but nothing more could be concluded. It does
not follow that they would ride faster when they put the helmet back on, other than on the immediate 1/4 mile hill.