>Also: "emboldened to cycle in from the eastern edge of the city without a helmet" - I'm not sure, but are cars a massively dominating factor in bicycle safety? I'd imagine there's still risks, like hitting someone, or a curb, where a helmet might come in life-saving.
There are still risks, but serious cycling injuries and deaths are massively dominated by bycycle-car interactions. Theory being that on a bike... I'm usually going under 20mph, So the force involved in a single-vehicle crash is whatever energy that 20mph imparts to my 200lbs of flesh, rubber, carbon and aluminum. Yeah, it can kill you, but usually doesn't.
If you are hit by a car, first, the thing is quite often going faster than 20mph, and the mass involved is at least one order of magnitude greater. That's a lot more energy to dissipate into the soft and crunchy cyclist.
cars make the roads very dangerous for anyone not in a car.
All that said, I personally wear a full-face helmet on my commute, even though nearly all of it is on a nearly empty mixed-use path that prohibits cars. Yes, without cars, helmet or no, I'm a lot less likely to die. But even if the energy involved is all my own, I'd much rather crash while wering a serious helmet than with a bare head.
I use a bell super 2r mips, and I keep the chinbar on. I've already had one accident (as a child, colliding with another bicycle) where I landed on my helmet and my front teeth. Fortunately for me, I kind of had a bugs bunny thing going, and so the Dentist just evened out the jagged bits of my front teeth, and my mouth probably ended up looking better for it, but yeah, I'd rather not repeat that.
I don't think the chinbar is likely to save my life; the jaw provides a reasonable crumple-zone to protect the brain if the jaw hits first, but the chinbar will save me, in case of a crash where I land on my chin, a whole lot of pain, medical expense, and possibly missed work.
My general attitude is that a helmet isn't that big of a deal to wear, and it significantly decreases the seriousness of injuries I might receive while cycling. Further, if I am going to bother to wear the helmet (most of the cost is in the inconvenience of carrying it, for me. For most people, there's a cost in terms of style, but I'm wearing cargo shorts already.) I don't see any reason to buy any but the most protective helmet that I can get that doesn't interfere with my cycling (for example, it needs adequate ventilation; thus you don't see me busting out my arai) - You can get a real top-end bicycle helmet for two hundred bucks; Considering what medical care costs, one crash is gonna pay for a lifetime of really nice helmets.
To be clear, this is what I do to protect my head, (and my face) - I don't mean to tell other people what they should do with their head.
Regarding the speed at which cars hit cyclists, a lot of accident happen when a driver is exiting a connecting road, or making a turn, they are generally going less than 20mph in those situations.
There are a lot of low-speed minor accidents with minimal injuries, sure. There are probably more of those than serious accidents with serious injuries.
However, I don't see how that challenges my assertion that cars make roads more dangerous for everyone who is not in a car. Am I missing something?
There are still risks, but serious cycling injuries and deaths are massively dominated by bycycle-car interactions. Theory being that on a bike... I'm usually going under 20mph, So the force involved in a single-vehicle crash is whatever energy that 20mph imparts to my 200lbs of flesh, rubber, carbon and aluminum. Yeah, it can kill you, but usually doesn't.
If you are hit by a car, first, the thing is quite often going faster than 20mph, and the mass involved is at least one order of magnitude greater. That's a lot more energy to dissipate into the soft and crunchy cyclist.
cars make the roads very dangerous for anyone not in a car.
All that said, I personally wear a full-face helmet on my commute, even though nearly all of it is on a nearly empty mixed-use path that prohibits cars. Yes, without cars, helmet or no, I'm a lot less likely to die. But even if the energy involved is all my own, I'd much rather crash while wering a serious helmet than with a bare head.
I use a bell super 2r mips, and I keep the chinbar on. I've already had one accident (as a child, colliding with another bicycle) where I landed on my helmet and my front teeth. Fortunately for me, I kind of had a bugs bunny thing going, and so the Dentist just evened out the jagged bits of my front teeth, and my mouth probably ended up looking better for it, but yeah, I'd rather not repeat that.
I don't think the chinbar is likely to save my life; the jaw provides a reasonable crumple-zone to protect the brain if the jaw hits first, but the chinbar will save me, in case of a crash where I land on my chin, a whole lot of pain, medical expense, and possibly missed work.
My general attitude is that a helmet isn't that big of a deal to wear, and it significantly decreases the seriousness of injuries I might receive while cycling. Further, if I am going to bother to wear the helmet (most of the cost is in the inconvenience of carrying it, for me. For most people, there's a cost in terms of style, but I'm wearing cargo shorts already.) I don't see any reason to buy any but the most protective helmet that I can get that doesn't interfere with my cycling (for example, it needs adequate ventilation; thus you don't see me busting out my arai) - You can get a real top-end bicycle helmet for two hundred bucks; Considering what medical care costs, one crash is gonna pay for a lifetime of really nice helmets.
To be clear, this is what I do to protect my head, (and my face) - I don't mean to tell other people what they should do with their head.