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> /Some/ protection is better than nothing at all.

As a regular bike rider of 20 years, a helmet has protected me on exactly 2 occasions: once when I was training for racing and once actually in a race. So technical/fast conditions that most riders don't encounter.

The biggest danger to a leisure or commuter rider are car drivers running them over. Helmets do nothing to stop a multiple ton steel object hitting your body at 30+mph and don't protect the parts that get hit.

> In the meantime, we need to implement better traffic calming and separation of automobile and cycling/pedestrian traffic. Kids die every year because in many areas, they have no choice but to bike on the side of a road that has cars whizzing past 60+ mph with less than 12 inches of separation in between.

100% this is the answer. The only thing helmet laws and discussions do is let people feel good about themselves while doing literally nothing to prevent vulnerable users.



> As a regular bike rider of 20 years, a helmet has protected me on exactly 2 occasions: once when I was training for racing and once actually in a race

That's their purpose, protect you when you need it, which is on average a couple of times in a lifetime.

If the helmet had protected you hundreds of times, probably you should have stopped riding a bike (or your friends and family should have stopped you).

If you heard someone say "the seat belt saved my life at least 30 times" would you or would you not think that that person is dangerous and should not drive?


You completely missed my point.

Helmets protected me in bike racing where they're already mandatory.

They do not protect most riders at all.


> Helmets protected me in bike racing where they're already mandatory.

> They do not protect most riders at all.

This is a textbook example of non sequitur.

I would also add that it's so obvious that it hurts, because, simply, most bikers have never raced and never will, so to them what is cruise speed for a professional biker is where the risks are.

I too have been a professional car driver in (very) minor leagues, that doesn't mean that what protected me while racing cannot protect my dad that never like driving and has always been very bad at it.




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