Should I Wear a Bike Helmet?

Summary: We are helmet advocates, so you know our bias, but here is some food for thought about those who attempt to disparage bike helmets.

In 2010 we saw an increase in blog posts from cyclists who did not believe you should wear a helmet. They challenged the conventional wisdom that helmets are necessary to reduce brain injures. That has continued now for the intervening years. The positive experience with shared bicycle programs has raised basic questions about the need for helmets, and some riders are reconsidering.

First, for views opposing ours

The Bicycle Helmet Research Foundation. Their Policy Statement page explains where they are coming from, although they say it is an archive page and "not much has been added since 2016."
Mikael Colville Andersen's presentation to TEDx, disparaging helmets and helmet promoters. He says car manufacturers are pushing helmets because they fear that bicycles will take over the cities. We have a response to his presentation, pointing many erros of fact.

And our view

Bicycle riders have crashed since bikes were invented. That could be minimized if we redesigned our facilities using a safe system approach, but there is no serious effort to do that. Thousands of medical studies show that riders need head protection when they crash to reduce brain injuries. Our whole website supports that with evidence-based science. But you have to make your own decision, since there are few laws requiring helmets.

Questions you may want to ask

Is there evidence that helmets protect brains and heads? Yes. We have a statistics page that may help you research that. Don't miss the recent New York City data showing that 97% of their dead cyclists had no helmet.
Do cyclists crash? Do bare-headed cyclists injure their brains more often? Again our stats page may help, and the medical studies support that.
What is your general level of risk-avoidance? Do you:
- adjust your brakes when they get worn
- use active lights at night
- wear visible colors when you ride
- ride comfortable routes if they are available
- have a working battery in your home smoke detector
- exercise regularly
- watch your weight
- wear seatbelts in a car
or do you:
- swim or golf in thunderstorms
- pinch grounding prongs off electrical plugs
- shred railings on your skateboard
- ride a fixie with no front brake
- ignore sunburns
- drink water from plastic bottles or non-organic milk
- drive or ride while intoxicated
- text while driving a car
Maybe the conventional wisdom comes from people who have different ideas about taking risks.
How important to you is thinking clearly?

Only you can answer that one. Do you have a lot invested in training your brain? Is anyone else depending on you to function?
Who should you listen to?

On all sides you hear "studies have shown" followed by a mix of information, misinformation, fabrication and outright prevarication. Studies have indeed shown things, but some are much better than others, and sorting it all out is not easy.

Given that most of us have a bias, your best source of information is probably the real world. You can go to a meeting of a local cycling group who ride the way you do: recreational clubs, commuter organizations, urban riders, touring riders. Ask the people who ride a lot in your own area. Don't let anyone sneer at that "anecdotal" evidence. It's the real world, not somebody's take on what happens somewhere else with a different road culture or even a nationwide generalization using bingo numbers gathered on the telephone. The answers could be different for the riding you do, and might not agree with what "studies have shown" or what somebody in Copenhagen thinks.
Why does the injury prevention community advocate helmets? Why are emergency room doctors among the strongest advocates?

The doctors see the injuries, close up and personal. The injury prevention community believes helmets are the best short-term intervention for reducing cyclists' brain injuries while we are improving the safety of roads and other facilities.
Why are we not screaming at you to "just wear a helmet"?

Cyclists think for themselves (or they would not be cyclists!) and always debate things that seem settled. Over the years they have gone to the mat on both sides of elliptical chainwheels, solid tires, 26/27/700C/29" wheels and whether or not wheels stand on the lower spokes or hang from the upper ones. We think most of the anti-helmet arguments stem from either resentment about being told how to ride, the libertarian ethic or just the urge to oppose anything that the majority seems to be mindlessly going along with. The one valid concern would be if helmets discouraged cycling, but we have no indication of that in any US city or state where actual rider counts have been done. The success of shared bicycle programs, and their low rate of reported head injuries, may challenge that. Those programs will not attract as many casual users if helmets are required. And more recently there have been those who feel we are just not taking enough risks in our lives.

Re-examining views on safety is always appropriate, even though the level of discussion on this topic brings more heat than light, and that is not likely to produce progress. We are surprised that after examining the evidence people would consider riding without a helmet because somebody posting on a blog thinks it's not necessary, or somehow detrimental to cycling. But every rider is of course entitled to their opinion, so here we try to offer some food for thought, never pretending that we are not biased.

For studies

Harborview Injury Prevention Center's helmet effectiveness studies.

Other pages on our site

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Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute

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