In the United States the notion that bike helmets promote health and safety by preventing head injuries is taken as pretty near God’s truth. Un-helmeted cyclists are regarded as irresponsible, like people who smoke. Cities are aggressive in helmet promotion.

But many European health experts have taken a very different view: Yes, there are studies that show that if you fall off a bicycle at a certain speed and hit your head, a helmet can reduce your risk of serious head injury. But such falls off bikes are rare — exceedingly so in mature urban cycling systems.

On the other hand, many researchers say, if you force or pressure people to wear helmets, you discourage them from riding bicycles. That means more obesity, heart disease and diabetes. And — Catch-22 — a result is fewer ordinary cyclists on the road, which makes it harder to develop a safe bicycling network. The safest biking cities are places like Amsterdam and Copenhagen, where middle-aged commuters are mainstay riders and the fraction of adults in helmets is minuscule.

nytimes, 30.09.12.

the other day i posted on fb that i nearly got doored, and a friend mentioned wearing a helmet, and two other friends seconded/thirded that post. -____-;;; (i have one, but only use it on rare, long rides [like 70 miles a day, not just in one city sort of ride]). it’s not like wearing a helmet would have alerted drivers to not open their doors before looking.

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   cut this out of the NYT and glad to see it again. might be titled the sad anxiety of americans,

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