Remember kids... always wear a helmet. (The almighty bikeradar helmet thread)

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(4) "The other crime of helmet promotion is that it tends to put people off cycling to such an extent..." Have you any evidence for this? I would have thought that the vast majority of people who don't cycle for safety reasons do so because they are fully aware that most drivers drive too fast and too close to cyclists and don't look when they pull out or open doors. I just can't imagine that there are many people sitting there thinking 'the roads look really safe to me, but the pro-bike helmet agenda makes me realise that they aren't - I'd better not cycle'
You are right, a great many people say that they don't cycle because they are worried about the danger. Few of them realise that the risk of death per mile while cycling is only a little bit higher than the risk of being a pedestrian. If you are a male aged 18-24, or a passenger of such a person, your risk of death in a car crash is far higher.
Cycle helmet promotion always over states the risk of cycling compared to other daily activities or other modes of transport. It usually overstates the protective effect of helmets to a massive extent. This mis-representation of the risks leads to your observation that the vast majority of people who don't cycle for safety reasons think the risks are higher than they actually are.
There are masses of evidence that cycle helmet compulsion reduces the amount of cycling. There is also a lot of evidence that cycle helmet promotion also reduces cycling although it is not generally the main focus of studies into cycle helmet promotion research. I am not aware of any study showing that cycle use increased as a result of cycle helmet promotion.
There is also a lot of evidence on the comparative benefits of promoting cycling and active travel to give massive health benefits as opposed to discouraging cycling due to safety fears. Harry Rutter was very good on this at the Hackney Cycling Conference this year (Hackney's website seems to be down just now). Piet de Jong has built a very strong comparative analysis http://www.cyclehelmets.org/1249.html and there is more info here http://www.cyclehelmets.org/1015.html
My use of the word 'crime' with respect to cycle helmet promotion was a figure of speech. I don't think anyone here is at risk of prosecution, although Federal Law in the USA prevents government agencies using the type of statistics most commonly seen in press and 'road safety' commentaries in the UK.