[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.