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Good to avoid taking risks but helmets seem to be helpful for the (hopefully few) times where you do and things don't work out.
Do you wear a helmet when walking? The stats show that head injuries whilst walking are more prevalent (adjusted for distance) than cycling.
(I'm pro-choice, but just trying to understand the logic behind helmet use.)
Greenbank-
Driving too
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Wonder if stats need to be adjusted for the type of activity? I reckon trucking along at more than 25kph makes the average forumite a lot more likely to come to harm in an accident than most commuters. I consider cycling to be the most high risk activity I am partaking in on a regular basis (though the benefits outweigh the cost), so anything that helps to reduce a chance of injury (why fuck with concussions when you can avoid it fairly painlessly) seems like a good shout. Like buying insurance..? Have had enough happen to me personally where I would have whacked my head a lot worse if not for helmet that it seems a worthwhile investment to make, maybe your reflexes are a lot faster than mine and I should just not go beyond 15mph..
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Logically Helmets for drivers and car passengers makes total sense.
My logic for wearing a helmet is less about the serious injury and more about the pain reduction. I’ve had two big crashes over the years, both resulted in me sliding on my head in a similar way to the breakdance move “the matchstick”. Had I not been wearing a helmet, I would have lost a lot of scalp…possibly losing an ear too.
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Do you have a link for this? I used to get caught up in these arguments and seem to remember this being a total myth.
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Stats may be true (quick google throws up https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/16027/are-you-more-likely-to-suffer-a-head-injury-walking-than-cycling which itself links to helpful UK road accident statistics) for killed while cycling, but injury stats (be it serious or not) seem to be far higher for cycling than for walking.
Also even if you're looking at death statistics, most of the people on this forum are probably traveling longer distances when cycling than when walking so if you adjust for time spent traveling maybe that changes - given that pedal deaths are 2.8/100m km and pedestrian deaths are 3/100m km, but I probably cycle 10 km for every km I walk, probably makes sense to take more precautions when cycling..
PhilDAS
youClown
Alf0nse
danwentskiing
Given narrowness of London roads I'd be surprised if you braked everytime you were overtaking a car stopped momentarily in the middle of the road? Good to avoid taking risks but helmets seem to be helpful for the (hopefully few) times where you do and things don't work out. Also can't really stop other people from behaving like morons - got doored when filtering past a taxi stopped right in front of a traffic light at the point where lights had just changed; turns out they weren't stopped for the light.