[savszymura]

Please familiarise yourself with the evidence for and against wearing cycle helmets.

http://www.ctc.org.uk/sites/default/files/file_public/cycle-...

Edit:

>mainly ride the bike where there is little traffic anyway

This. Use cycle paths that are off the (car) roads. It more pleasant and safer, and you can usually go faster too, as there are no traffic lights.

[apendleton]

While I understand the safety arguments for encouraging people to ride on separate bike infrastructure, I generally think this is a pretty short-sighted attitude; cycling will never achieve the level of convenience necessary for it to attain a reasonably high transportation modal share if the recommended practice for cyclists is to take circuitous recreational paths through parks instead of the much-more-direct routes available to motorists. Look at any cities in Europe that have reached moderate cycling modal share (Amsterdam, Copenhagen, etc.), and you'll see that while grade-separated cycling infrastructure is common in high-traffic areas, it follows the same routes as cars (complete with traffic lights), and that cycling on same-grade painted lanes is common in lower-traffic areas. Nobody is pushing cyclists in these cities onto inefficient completely-separate bike infrastructure.

[VMG]

Thanks for the link. I was dimly aware of some arguments against wearing helmets but haven't examined the issue in depth.

[apendleton]

I don't think there are too many people arguing against wearing helmets, as an individual choice. It may turn out that helmets don't do much, but you're probably not any worse off for wearing them (except maybe sweatier in the summer, etc.). Lots of cycling advocates do, however, advocate against mandatory helmet laws, which have a whole host of negative effects that don't apply to the individual-cyclist-decision case.