Originally Posted by
tractorlegs
I think 905 hit it on the head. When we discuss helmets, we discuss personal freedom vs. personal responsibility, and everyone has a different line or point of reference. For me, it brings up the same emotions as a political or religious discussion. The moderators maintaining one thread for helmets here is brilliant, or the whole forum would be absorbed in the firestorm.
There is A LOT of posts here, so much so that no one would ever bother reading them all, but most of the respondents have written what you've said and agree with you including myself. Where we're running into a problem is that some of the folk are saying that helmets are ineffective which goes completely against the statistics compiled over the last 30 years or more from the government that shows the direct opposite...we're talking bicycle helmets being worn vs not being worn by all age groups in the USA year by year. And it also goes against what all emergency personal and doctors say as well.
Speaking of problems, there was a study done in Australia, which is where a lot the controversy started, that showed helmets were not effective at all, however in light of all that controversy Sidney University, located in Sidney Australia, released a new study with conclusions that refute the study that showed helmets to be ineffective, see:
Bike helmets: an emergency doctor's perspective And the reason various countries are trying to eliminate folk from wearing helmets is to increase bicycle ridership because they have mandatory helmet laws and so an effort is afoot to repeal the law so cycling will increase. That's a poor reason to for repealing helmet laws; what motivation could there be to say that helmets are useless? Follow the money and you may figure it out.