dunno - but I think there's a paper in Accident, Analysis and Prevention there for the taking.

Nope. Not Sarcasm. I was in California from 2/9-2/17, riding my guts out.

Exactly. You can prove whatever point you want with statistics; statisticians adhere to the idea that "correlation implies causation".

Based on this study, do you guys still wonder why I have this platinum wig?

Remember, this is the same guy that brought us other breakthrough discoveries, like the fact that white vans overtake cyclists by 4 more miles per hour. (Or something to that effect.)

3 inches is hardly anything, and rather insignificant when looking at cars passing you.

Few times I didn't wear a helmet one thing I noticed in the first 10 minutes was that cars were not passing as fast / close compared to everytime I do the same commute wearing my helmet. You can admit cars DO pass closer while wearing a helmet but that you should still wear a helmet because its overall safer.

For whatever reason helmets don't seem to work...
https://www.cyclehelmets.org/

I didn't think so when my head hit the van then the concrete.
I was glad I had chosen to start wearing it. (that very day)

It amazes me the lengths people will go to in order not to wear a helmet, or try to convince those of us who do that we are insane or buying into some mad scheme. Something between your head and the pavement, a car, a tree branch, pretty much anything solid, seems better than nothing. Why anyone would choose to be an experiment is beyond me.

Uh... dude... it is a fact that they are ineffective. You can just take it on faith that they "work" if you wish.

I'm amazed at the lengths people will go to... to make claims with zero research or thought into the matter.

Thank you for providing a good example of precisely how denial is employed in this argument.

Oh, and great use of the word 'dude' to solidify your point.

HAAAA!

I would be interested to see the in depth research that supports this claim of helmets being ineffective, dude.

As always, look at the death and serious head injury statistics before and after helmet use increases dramatically (like when helmet laws are introduced). Try doing some homework.

Saved my life. Twice. I don't need more statistics than that.

Hitting your head on things hurts. Helmets make it hurt less. Easy decision for me.

Wrong.

And, please, for the love of God, don't start again. I provided a link to the thread with your "arguments" against helmets already. Isn't that enough?

I have about 6 helmets that I've broken. I've saved them all so that anyone that visits can see the value of wearing a helmet (they used to be in the shop). I've crashed on them from just over walking pace (but going down a 15 foot drop off) to 45+ mph. I landed mostly on my head in two crashes and spent a few hours in an emergency room after one of them.

I've also fallen a few times without a helmet (this was in the era of "a hairnet is a helmet") or with a ridiculous excuse for a helmet (similar to the head fairings used in earlier Tours - plastic shell with some foam strips for fit). Once I got knocked unconscious in the middle of a road, became aware of my surroundings when I realized a lady was screaming in my ear, "Don't you think you should get up and sit on the side of the road? I almost hit you." I looked down and saw I was sitting on the double yellow line. I had been doing sprint repeats on a TT bike (I know, dumb) and looked up to see a car parked on a blind corner in the middle of the road. I couldn't brake so I just put my hand out and slammed my head into my hand. Rear window of the car had a nice 5 finger print on the rear. I lost a minute or two as when I "woke up" there were a lot of stopped cars and a cop running towards me.

I asked my mom to buy me a helmet and I promised I'd always wear a helmet if she did. She did and I did for the next 22 years, except twice.

Having said that, many riders who wear helmets are more conscientious riders. They may ride a straighter line, be more predictable. So drivers classify ("stereotype") them as being a certain type of rider, one that rides the bike predictably. This means they can pay less attention to the rider.

As an parallel example, if I'm riding along and see a runner dressed up in running gear, flouro yellow top, hat, gloves, correct side of road, and they're trucking along at a good pace, I figure that the runner knows what they're doing. I give them room as a courtesy, signal where I'm going. But if there are cars next to me, I move whatever I can, confident that the runner won't barge into me.

However, if I see what I perceive to be a "derelict person" (not sure of the correct term here) I have no idea what they're going to do. Ditto kids (not college, like 6 year olds), people with shopping bags, animals, or anything weird (guy with a shopping cart in the middle of the road, or a woman in a wheelchair in the same spot). Then I slow down because anything can happen.

So...

When I ride and traffic gets a bit close, i.e. they are not waiting just a bit to pass and are starting to take some what I consider to be unnecessary risks, I start riding a little unpredictably. I stand up, rock the bike, weave a bit too much, and generally make myself less predictable in a predictable way.

Almost immediately the drivers give me more room. It's one of those "I thought he was a good rider but I realize now that he sucks".

The study would be more revealing if you plopped a helmet on an otherwise identical person, i.e. kids or derelicts or whatever. I think a beat up helmet on a derelict would ellicit the same reaction from a driver as no helmet on a derelict. They still ride unpredictably etc etc.

cdr

here we go....

Whenever I want to sound like a pretentious ass clown I start my sentences with "Uh, dude."

It should be obvious, but I guess it isn't. I'm 99% sure that the helmet didn't "save your life" or even have much of an effect at all. Take a look at the *huge* number of people on this forum and elsewhere who claim that their helmet "saved their life"... if that were true, then *unhelmeted* cyclists must have a very low survival rate... or at least have a horrendously high rate of serious head injury. Oddly they don't. Oddly, it is no higher than it is for cyclists who *do* wear helmets.

Denial of what?

https://www.cyclehelmets.org/
https://www.kenkifer.com/bikepages/advocacy/mhls.htm

I don't think it's necessary for you, Kid...

The studies have proven helmetsd do help in a fall. Even with adults. However, impact studies also prove that a helmet in a hard colision with a 3000lbs+ automobile provides little to no protection due to the nature of such a severe impact.

I wear my helmet on my road bike during long fast rides, as I know it provides protection in a hard crash, but almost never wear it when riding plain clothes around my neighborhood on my flatbar MTB. My chances of severe injury when falling at 8-10mph is not any greater than when jogging. I don't wear a helmet when I go jogging either. Maybe I should?

So, you finally start wearing a helmet and on the day that you do, you get hit by a van? It sounds like you're the poster child for the article's author.

Uh, dude, the number of cyclists who wear helmets in USA, Canada and Britain far outnumber the ones who don't. Please don't come back to this argument with accident numbers from mountainous Swedish cycling communities - urban/suburban America with its tons of vehicles and narrow, crowded bike paths is very different.

Brace yourselves BikeForums... Rruff is about to start talking about how he can safely roll out of any crash, and anyone else can with the proper training, and helmets stop you from tucking and rolling into a proper dive... while moving at 25 mph over asphalt. *eye roll*

Helmets may be limited in their functionality but in the right situation they can save lives. They certainly cannot hurt - if absolutely nothing else they make a rider more visible. End of story. Whether they should be legislated is one thing but I absolutely recommend you all wear one.

I personally know of a 56 year old man who fell sideways off his bike while standing still... he hit his head perfectly on the raised curb of the pavement, cracked his skull and died from complications. The truth is you can die from forgetting to unclip and falling sideways if you really hit your head wrong. Of course helmets don't help if a semi plows into you going 80, but nothing else will either.