Bicycle Helmets are BAD

Most people associate bicycle helmets with safety.

I hate them and think that they should NOT be compulsory.
Why you may ask.  And so you should.

My first reason is that when we were in Europe, especially Germany, many many people rode bicycles.  In the down town area and around suburban railway stations, every light pole and fence had dozens of bicycles chaied up.  The roads were teaming with people on bicycles.

Over here only the real enthusiasts ride bicycles.
I wonder how many of Campbel Newma's rent a bikes ever get used?

I wonder if we had gazillions of people riding bicycles whether the long term health benefits for many people, fewer heart attacks, lower stress levels, less fatness would out weigh the short term issues - deaths from being run down and of course the increases in head injuries because they would not be wearing helmets?

I wonder if there is any research to support this.  I bet no government sponsored research.

So I typed "whats wrong with bicycle helmets" in to google.
http://bicyclesafe.com/helmets.html

"Helmet use among U.S. cyclists was nearly non-existent before the 1990's.  Nobody wore helmets in the 80's and before.  So what happened when helmet use skyrocketed in the 1990's? Head injuries went down, right?
No, head injuries went up.
Let me repeat that:  
When helmet use went up, so did head injuries. 
There's a big article about this in the New York Times, showing that head injuries among cyclists went up 51% in the 1990's as more and more cyclists started wearing helmets.
I'm not suggesting that helmets caused the head injuries; there are other plausible explanations for why head injuries increased (more attention to helmets and less attention to safe riding skills being one of them).  But what I am saying is that the protective value of helmets is so small it's hard to measure."

http://bicycleuniverse.info/eqp/helmets-nyt.html
Still, with fewer people riding bicycles, experts are mystified as to why injuries are on the rise. "It's puzzling to me that we can't find the benefit of bike helmets here," said Ronald L. someoneorother.

But what about in Australia
http://www.marcuswestbury.net/2010/12/08/australias-arts-and-culture-scene-has-a-bike-helmet-problem/
According to Mikael Colville Anderson, a Danish cycling advocate who was on Radio National last week, the main reason Europe doesn’t have compulsory helmets is . . . Australia. Every time it comes up in any European city or country the response according to Anderson is: “Let’s not do what they did in Australia, they killed off the urban cycling culture.”
What you gain is not worth what you lose.
Killing a culture through well-meaning rules and regulations? Where have I heard that one before? Australia’s cycling culture isn’t the only one we’ve smothered with rules and regulations. We live in one of the most micro-regulated societies in the world

you can say that again

We live in one of the most micro-regulated societies in the world

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/lifestyle/wellbeing/bicycle-helmet-dos-and-donts-20100915-15cs8.html?comments=87
""I don't know if [helmets] do much to protect the inner part of the brain," he says. "That's where people might be saying, 'Well, if you're going to get a serious head injury, it's going to happen whether you're wearing a helmet or not.' Well, there's some truth in that, but...."

So what shuld be done:-
1.  Get rid of compulsory helmet laws.
2.  Let people make the decison them selves and
3.  Accept that there will be more serious head injuries and death.
The government should not try to protect us from ourselves.
4.  Find out what the laws in Germany and the Neatherlands are regarding cars and bikes.

Crikey
http://blogs.crikey.com.au/croakey/2010/12/08/cycling-helmet-laws-what-does-the-evidence-really-say/