Originally Posted by
Indie
In general I would say that any helmet is better than no helmet. But if you're buying a helmet at all you might as well get one that was designed to protect against the types of impacts you'll be likely to face in your chosen activity.
If you're not convinced that helmets improve safety, then don't try to argue the finer points. Let people who want to wear them discuss them. If the original poster has already decided on wearing a helmet, I think it would be a good idea to encourage wearing the safest kind of helmet instead of one that's not suited to the job.
Are bicycle helmets designed to better protect against the types of impacts you're likely to face in cycling? My impression is that they are not designed to better protect against such impacts but to better fit the economics of such impacts. As I said, I thought the most striking characteristic of bicycle helmets was that they are disposable and light weight.
Although I personally wear a helmet, I would say if you are unequivocally convinced about anything regarding the safety of bicycle helmets (for or against) then don't try to argue the finer points because if you've thus far been unable to discern the great deal of uncertainty there is on the topic then how will you possibly handle the even more delicate aspects?
Neurosurgeon Dr. Michael Schwartz said the following in his expert testimony which led to the passing of a mandatory helmet law in Ontario:
"I have no concrete suggestions for improving helmets. It is always a compromise. You could make a helmet that would be far more efficient or far more likely to cushion the impact, but it would be bigger and heavier, and if you made it big enough and heavy enough nobody would wear it. There is always a tradeoff between size and convenience and effectiveness. Right now we are at some sort of level of convenience that still provides protection."
"There is excellent evidence in the medical literature that shows helmets will mitigate the effects of falling off your bicycle and striking your head. They are designed to reduce the G-force administered to the brain when the head strikes the ground and they are likely effective if the person falls from the height the head is at when a person is cycling. If a cyclist is accelerated by a car, swept up on the hood of the vehicle, to a speed of, say, 40 or 50 kilometres per hour, then the helmet will not work and will not prevent a severe or even fatal head injury. So I think everybody should wear helmets but should have a realistic expectation about what they can or cannot do."
I have no idea what the safest kind of helmet to wear when cycling would be, but I'm fairly certain that it isn't a cycling specific helmet. So I don't necessarily think that cyclists should always prefer cycling helmets when there could be other helmets out there offering a better compromise of safety, comfort, and convenience for a given user.