Originally Posted by
Leisesturm
As I said earlier, there is no such law in Portland, OR. I don't feel like looking up just how many other American states or cities have no law requiring adults to wear bicycle helmets but Portland can't be the only one. I am 60 years old. I came of age in the 1970's. I must have been riding a good 20 years before anything called a helmet came along. Even then no one I knew had actually seen one in real life. I commuted 6 miles each way in NYC traffic between 1988 and 2001 sans helmete. Actually I got my first and only helmet when I moved to Portland in 2008 and only because me and mine wanted to join a tandem club and helmets were mandatory for the group rides. I've had two or three bad falls on a bicycle that never caused impacts to my skull. I had one bad crash on a motorcycle that did involve impact to my skull but I was wearing a helmet. I don't think a law requiring cyclists to wear helmets because it is safer is as easy to justify as it might be for motorcyclists. The push-back you are getting is that you are preaching your helmet adoption as a proven factor in survival outcomes. That may be the case in Australia but it doesn't appear to be the case in the United States.
Oh, I accept countries are different, and also that humans are fallible. I myself don't wear a helmet all the time - 90%, I'm as fallible as any other human - if I judge conditions aren't too bad, e.g. the 1 km to the supermarket. However when in Thailand I always do, you're mad if you don't.
As to your point about falls, that doesn't mean the next you won't do damage to the skull next time you do fall, or the time after, or the time after. Do wear the helmet, it is a basic safety measure.
I'm not a preacher, nor a necessarily a christian. I posted the original because I though it might interest cyclists in general. Australia has had the laws in for a while now, plus all the other adjuncts - cycle paths, bike parking etc. France has a high awareness of cyclists, and most do wear helmets, except in the cities where they often have their own lanes and style counts for rather too much
.