[propter_hoc]

The kind of extreme sports you list having participated in have absolutely nothing in common with low speed urban bicycle commuting.

It certainly makes sense to wear a helmet while doing mountain biking, BMX tricks or road racing.

[jamal-kumar]

People opening doors onto bike lanes without checking, impaired drivers, trucks with blind spots, all of these things are definitely stuff I'd rather have a helmet upon encountering the worst side of than not while riding on a modern road on a vehicle which doesn't have a huge case around it already.

I think if you're maybe in one of those exceptionally bike-friendly places like Amsterdam that these hazards may be mitigated enough, but at least in the Americas people are actively hostile towards bike riders on the road and I think it's just a matter of civil infrastructure planning more than anything in terms of that sentiment.

[im_down_w_otp]

I've been "doored" four times. On the same stretch of road. In front of the same hotel. Fortunately, in every case I managed to hang into their door well enough as I was endo'ing to keep my head from hitting the pavement, and I also thankfully wasn't swiped by traffic in the lane next to me either.

Had I gone fully over the door head first, I suspect a helmet would have been a welcome companion for both the impact and the road rash. In all those above cases I was wearing one precisely because of that suspicion.

[WkndTriathlete]

> I think if you're maybe in one of those exceptionally bike-friendly places like Amsterdam that these hazards may be mitigated enough

As a lifelong cyclist, I can assure you there is no way to mitigate hazards enough on a bike, even in as cyclist-friendly place as Amsterdam, to justify not wearing a helmet. Even something as simple as an awkward fall can result in a head bouncing off the pavement.

[Kim_Bruning]

That's pretty cool that you are a lifelong cyclist! Amsterdammers tend to be lifelong cyclists too, they start very young [1]. However, they don't tend to wear helmets.[2]

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVhYcJH_m5o 100s of Kids & Parents Bicycle to one Amsterdam School

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8h_DalTjV0 Amsterdam Bicycle Rush Hour.

[pdx6]

I'm still around from wearing a helmet biking in San Francisco. I got my wheel stuck in the old street car tracks on Castro and Market while going 15 mph and went over the handles. My helmet cracked when my head hit the pavement, I was skinned up and shaken, but no serious injuries.

I think there are plenty of low speed urban bicycle accidents a helmet is good for based on this.

[2muchcoffeeman]

Are you just ignoring the speed of the vehicles that hit you?