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.



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