Originally Posted by
CrankyOne
The differences in infrastructure and overall danger is the reason to use the rate rather than any other number. You are roughly 9 times as likely to be involved in an injury/fatality crash riding a bicycle in the U.S. as in The Netherlands. But the types and percent of injuries are fairly consistent. Regardless of how many total crashes there are you'll have a relatively certain percent of broken collarbones, broken wrists, broken femurs, etc. The larger the sample the more consistent these become country to country. So for every 1,000 crashes you'll have about 70 broken collarbones and this will be consistent in the U.S. and NL and DM and DE and wherever. So while the infrastructure in The Netherlands reduces the total number of severe or fatal crashes it doesn't have much impact on the types of injuries sustained in those crashes.
The same happens with head trauma. For every 1,000 fatalities about 320 will involve TBI or Traumatic Brain Injury. It's actually a bit higher in the U.S., about 36% I believe, but this is not a significant difference. If helmets were effective then the number of TBI's per crash, the rate, would be significantly lower.
Your statistical support for your statements about "rate" above are so chimerical as to be useless when discussing helmet effectiveness. Save the stats, if they can actually be supported, for arguing for infrastructure, but use better arguments for arguing about the ineffectiveness of helmets. I'm the last person to consider as a cheerleader for bicycle helmets as a credible tool for significant reduction of bicycling risk, BUT:
What "rate" are you addressing?
Regardless of how many total crashes there are the relative pattern of injuries are the same? - Only if you assume, as so many biased, self appointed bicycling risk experts do, that
all bicycling crashes are considered
equal, and that their injury severity results are also equal.
What percentage of NL's injury producing bicycle "crashes" involve collisions with motor vehicles vice those in the U.S.?
"Crashes" on relatively motor vehicle free bike paths, or sidewalks, or on splendid bicycle facilities will not likely produce the same patterns, percentages or severities of head injuries, broken collarbones, broken wrists, broken femurs, etc. as so-called bicycle "crashes" involving a motor vehicle. Unless your "rate" has been adjusted for involvement of motor vehicles in bicycle "crashes" both in the U.S. and NL it means nothing for evaluating helmet effectiveness.