OK, since we're into day three let me once again try to make my position clear.
Helmets most likely reduce your chance of injury, regardless of activity. However, helmet compulsion and even helmet promotion reduces the likelihood someone is going to ride.
The goal should be to get as many people riding as possible. Getting as many people as possible cycling is the single biggest thing that will make cycling safer.
That means those who feel safer wearing helmets should be encouraged to do so. Those who don't want to should not be shamed for not doing so.
I'm not saying anyone shouldn't wear a helmet. What I'm saying is people who insist on going around making all the hilarious comments like, 'must have already hit your head' and 'guess you don't mind if we just ignore you if you have an accident' are really not helping to make things safer. The opposite, in fact, as people who might like to cycle but don't want to wear a helmet are less likely to do so.
Yes, it's probably a marginal effect. But then so is the likelihood of a helmet 'saving your life'.
Wear a helmet. Don't wear a helmet. Both are perfectly valid choices and that should be the end of the discussion.
It won't be, but it should be.
It might be off topic for this helmet thread, but apparently Gordon Ramsey had an incident.
Has anyone heard about what happened? Was he hit by a car or etc?
The reports I’ve read are so vague as to what happened that it looks deliberately so which is a bit weird.
Key point there is that I hardly ever see anyone not wearing a helmet so any discussion around their use is pretty much a moot point anyway!
Last time we had a helmet chat on here I did a rough study on cyclists I saw on one of my eight mile commutes back home from central London. The non-helmet wearers were in the majority, iirc it was something like 35-20. Lots of people on hire bikes and normal people (as opposed to people in cycling kit) going bare headed and free from the tyranny of polystyrene!!!!
..is in no way representative of the rest of the country
But that would be a hell of a commute wouldn’t it -cycling from the rest of the country to home every evening, on a fixed gear.
Of course it’s not the same, hence not drawing any great claims about it. Nowhere in the country is going to representative of the rest of the country. Central London isn’t even the same as outer London where I was heading - so what? It’s just more anecdotal bs like everything else on this thread. I saw lots of people riding without helmets one day, more than were wearing them on that day.
I have never done an actual count so maybe I will as my perception is that around 95% of people wear helmets as it is noticeable when they are not. For 'proper' cyclists I see when I am 'proper' cycling I would say it is even higher than that.
I was actually expecting it to be the other way around but there were a few hire bikes (and there’s a lot more of them now), some guys who looked like site workers commuting and just people going about their day.
The sky news article posted by the op must have been amended, as as far as I can see its just a celebrity chef offering his opinion on helmets based on his own exp. Coming to the thread late, I'd assumed he'd enacted some kind of compulsory helmet wearing law
Fortunately it appears I'm still allowed to do whatever I like when it comes to wearing one. I choose to wear one as i see zero reason not to, but I really don't care whether you do or not.
I see the squabbling continues...
My own experience says a helmet might help even just by reducing road rash on ya bonce but never having volunteered for a back to back with/without test, we'll never know.
At the very least, assuming it doesn't get broken, the polystyrene hat can be used as a handy bowl to carry bits back to a loved one expecting the return of their formerly intact significant other...
This is an argument without end. It's opinion, some informed, some disguised as fact. Whilst it's a choice, make your own and try and avoid preaching to the people who choose the opposite. It's a bit like trying to convince someone to take up (or drop) religion... Utterly pointless.