1) paceline riding contains a leap of faith because you can be a competent cyclist and still be taken out by the rider in front of you. I was in a pile-up several years ago as a result of a rider panic-braking (2 riders in front of me, 4 of us ended up on the ground).

There are more paceline crashes in Orlando that bike-v-car crashes, but few of them make official reports.

2) speed. For the same reason that motorcycling is more dangerous — they experience the same crossing crash types as bicyclists, but a bicyclist typically operates at a speed which allows for better perception and reaction to situations as they develop. High-speed bicycling requires extra vigilance as well as assertive lane positioning and knowledge of emergency maneuvers.

The few times I’ve had to react abruptly, I was riding fast.

But sport cyclists know everything so they won’t seek traffic cycling education. We had 5 of them get clobbered by common crossing/turning conflicts in one year. No fatalities, fortunately, just broken hips and collarbones. Of course, all were riding on the edge of the road or the shoulder.

…

The one time I landed on my head, it was a result of speed and insufficient understanding of bike lane risks.

Exactly.

Sometimes people tell me their “how my helmet saved my life” stories. And nearly all of them have two things in common: 1) speed, and 2) sport cycling. Is sport cycling more dangerous than utility cycling? Hmmmm… how could that be determined?

I haven’t given up on my helmet. What I’ve decided to do is wear it selectively based on the conditions I expect to encounter.

Since that suggests I’m thinking about helmet use with each ride, perhaps I ought to develop some criteria

But there are times when I want to toss it out of pure exasperation for the constant harping of the helmet nannies.

It’s such a minor aspect of bicycling safety, but it gets unwarranted excess attention to the exclusion of important stuff… like teaching people how not to crash in the first place.

Think of a helmet as “insurance”, a very modest “hedge bet” against an “unlikely” event, a serious crash. A lawyer asked me once when do you need a helmet? Answer: Before your head smacks the road, but you’ll never totally know when.

To make that “hedge bet” very, very, very unlikely or a true accident build in four layers of safety before putting the helmet on. Here is short summary: http://www.floridabicycle.org/rules/driveyourbike.html

Cyclist wear gloves for comfort and grip, but if you take a spill the palm of you hand will be protected. Helmets do have benefits: keeping you head warmer or cooler depending on the weather, distinct road profile, surface for reflective materials or lights (i.e. head or rear lights). Positive role model to others?

Bicycle helmet promote “car culture”? You are kidding? Helmets are misplaced popular answer to cyclist safety, which is 99% behavioral.

Consider: “Judgments about whether safety can be promoted by means of vehicle and road engineering, or by altering road user behaviour, depend on the views taken about the possibilities for making roads and vehicles more “foolproof” on the one hand, and for making human beings less “foolish” on the other.” John Adams, “Risk and freedom”, page 10

When I implement the one-mile solution, on the other hand, I rarely wear a helmet, though I ride exactly the same way, albeit slower. And, this time of year, keeping one’s head a little warmer is a good thing even for those town bicycling at modest speeds.