There have been various studies done regarding bicycle helmets. My conclusion on those: helmets make biking more annoying. You need a helmet, you need to put it on and off. It is a minor annoyance, but huge problem in making biking popular and easy/thoughtless.
Secondly on the safety: there are studies where they compared the average distance between people on bikes with helmets and without. Cars gave bikes less distance to people wearing helmets. The likely explanation is that because they seem more safe, you need to pay less attention to their safety (decreasing distance is a result).
Lastly: There is a TED talk about making bikes more stable using electronics. Apparently the most common bike accident is a one-sided accident by "old people", IIRC.
Secondly on the safety: there are studies where they compared the average distance between people on bikes with helmets and without. Cars gave bikes less distance to people wearing helmets. The likely explanation is that because they seem more safe, you need to pay less attention to their safety (decreasing distance is a result).
Lastly: There is a TED talk about making bikes more stable using electronics. Apparently the most common bike accident is a one-sided accident by "old people", IIRC.