Make helmets mandatory and people choose to take their cars instead of cycle. More cars on the road = more cyclist (and driver and pedestrian) deaths.
Suppose for example that train passengers were required to wear motorbike helmets - would it save lives? Well there has probably been a very rare train accident where somebody died of a head injury. But if all those train passengers decided to drive instead there would be a huge rise in deaths.
Why do you assume they are going to take their cars instead of their bikes ? Public transportation can be as convenient on bike distances.
I am not going to take off my silly hemlet and take more risks so fashionistas can ride their bike.
Did car drivers stop driving cars because seatbelts were made mandatory at some point ?
Anyway, from what I read, I am more at risk with my silly helmet because car drivers think I am safe and more prudent so they take more risks around people like me[1].
So it's a catch-21 or something to me. I'll get back to my car.
Or maybe we should enforce mandatory helmets for car drivers too. Since they _have_ to wear in any case they might stick to bicycle :)
[1] source: those australian articles all around the web
The idea is to persuade car drivers onto bikes - then if they have to wear a helmet they might switch to busses, but it's more likely they would stay in their cars.
I'm not going to take my helmet off either - but if a change in the law converted 10% of the cars passing me to other cycles I would be happier and safer.
>Did car drivers stop driving cars because seatbelts were made mandatory at some point
Unless there was an alternative MORE deadly form of transport they could adopt it doesn't matter. If they said, "I'm not driving with a seatbelt - I will drive my jet fighter to work" it might have had a negative effect on accident rates.
[1] The research was by an ex-collegue of mine at UCL. He also proved that drivers give blonde women more space. Although since he did the field work himself (in a wig) he couldn't discount the chance that car drivers gave more space to very unconvincing transvestites! ;-)
Suppose for example that train passengers were required to wear motorbike helmets - would it save lives? Well there has probably been a very rare train accident where somebody died of a head injury. But if all those train passengers decided to drive instead there would be a huge rise in deaths.