On Sat, May 22, 2010 at 11:30:57AM +1000, Rob Studdert wrote: > On 22/05/2010, John Francis <jo...@panix.com> wrote: > > > It's tempting to point to statistics that show a (slightly) lower > > rate of injury amongst helmet wearers. But this is a self-selecting > > population; it's quite plausible that the sort of person who elects > > to wear a helmet is less likely to engage in risky activities, and > > thus would have a lower chance of an accident even without the helmet. > > The stats would probably be more meaningful from jurisdictions such as > mine where it's illegal to ride sans helmet (though of course many do, > one the spot fines are regularly dispensed).
Such studies have been done, of course. But all they can measure is the accident rate in the jurisdiction; they can't compare the accident rate with helmets to the rate for the same area without helmet use. The statistics strongly suggest that helmet use itself has at best a negligible contribution to rider safety. By far the most significant contribution is the average number of miles cycled per road user; the more general awareness of cyclists there is, the safer it is to cycle. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.