I could also have an undiagnosed birth defect that causes my heart to explode tonight. But it is what it is. The chances of me getting hit by a car while walking are low and easily mitigable. The chances of me hitting my head in a bicycle crash are still low but high enough to be on my "radar" as something I should do something about. Risk management is all about taking what is real in our lives and figuring out the best ways to deal with that. There's a point in each of our lives where the risk level of an activity exceeds our comfort zone. So when a risk exceeds our comfort zones we mitigate, ignore, or abstain. Meaning in this context we wear a helmet (mitigate); feel the risk of cycling is outside our comfort zone but do it anyway. (ignore); or just don't ride (abstain). You see the same thing with motorcycles. "That looks fun but it's too dangerous" (abstain). "This is fun and I always wear X" (where X is anything from a simple helmet to a high-end full face with armored gear.) (mitigate); or "I could get hit by a bus so I'm just gonna enjoy myself and the wind in my hair" (ignore). Obviously; there are also those for whom cycling helmet-less and it's inherent risks are within their comfort zone. There's nothing inherently wrong with any of those approaches to risk management; because depending on the 'risk', we treat all of them differently. From overtly risky activities like driving to simple stuff like watching TV (I know people who position their couch so that they could spot an intruder and not get snuck up on. Hey; it's a risk out of their comfort zone, however insignificant, so they are mitigating it!). Our comfort zone is different for everyone. Every activity carries a level of risk. And risk is fascinating. Obesity is as dangerous as smoking and yet smoking is on a sharp decline where obesity is going the other direction. We humans are fascinating in how we evaluate, assign, and mitigate (or ignore, or abstain) risks. Like not flying (abstaining) because the news scared us; even though it's significantly safer than many other forms of travel. Or parents pulling their kids out of public schools because of shootings; when their kid is an order of magnitude more likely to die in a car accident in the family car than they are to be a victim of deadly violence in schools.

It's a funny world we live in. Which is why I do what makes the most sense to me and encourage others to do the same.