You just don't get it do you?

gpelpel lives in a town where the city council took away bike lanes and gave it to cars. Already the town of Lafayette is a pretty dangerous place with smart assed drivers with SUV's and BMW sports coupes vying for supremacy of the narrow two lane roads which have a large amount of recreational cyclists on them.

Let's recall that Lafayette installed a "bike trail" and then advised local clubs not to use it because it was too dangerous.

ruvelo: "As he's done before, he swears by the often industry sponsored self-serving, non-research he finds on the internet!"

Explain what industry sponsors this and how it is "self serving". And tell me how you believe it to be "non-research" since all of the referenced studies use their respective government statistics on the numbers of bicyclists killed?

You know, I don't care that you stick your fingers in your ears, close your eyes tightly and hum the Star Spangled Banner. Your advice to depend on 9 ounces of foam to protect your life is your business.

But intelligent people already know that the surest method of preventing head injuries is to prevent accidents in which you are likely to hit your head. And every research from John Forester's books onwards has shown that experienced cyclists are an order of magnitude or more less likely to be involved in ANY kind of accident.

Those statistics demonstrate that learning how to ride is a chief protection factor in bicycling.

http://www.tfhrc.gov/safety/pedbike/pedbike.htm demonstrates that both traffic safety and teaching safe bicycling add to bicycle safety while helmets have NOT.

Wear a helmet if you believe you should but don't pretend that it will protect you from anything. Learn how to ride and what to watch for. And learn that anyone that tells you to wear a helmet probably doesn't know how to ride himself.