Occasional or regular non-bike helmet cyclist?

[shootingstar]

lph: *PS. I have the feeling that the most avid helmetwearers probably overestimate the risk, and the most avid non-wearers underestimate it. So how many people have I annoyed now?

This is probably true on the over-estimation and under-estimation scale. However, I just continue to wear my helmet. Once you get into a habit, it's like brushing teeth or putting on a pair of shoes. I don't think about it.

On the rare occasion, I have forgotten to wear my helmet and cycled 3 kms. down the road. My head felt naked and unprotected. To me, it wasn't a great feeling. I'm not interested in someone else convincing me hard and long about feeling safer without the helmet.

So it makes me a nerd among some helmetless folks.
This isn't new to me..and extremely pale and minor: being judged on superficial reasons...for how I look, how I appear or what I wear. There have been WAY more serious barriers/misunderstandings in my life for being wrongly judged who I am. Wearing a helmet is such an easy thing for me and shrug, if it puts me in a minority over time to wear a helmet: so what?

I value my life and its quality over a long period of time. Not for a short period of time to feel breeze in my hair.

Would I be impeding movement to encourage more cycling, by wearing helmet? If I am, I have been all along doing the countermeasures in the past few years: I write about cycling to promote cycling for transport, health and tourism..... plus just ride the bike often and volunteered for various cycling advocacy organizations. And not have a car for decades.

Also we shouldn't waste our energy to de-regulate bike helmet wearing legislation in various jurisidictions that have such laws. Instead teach people yea, ok wear street clothing, build communities that allows use of more alternative transportations, yaddydada, etc.

It would be nice North America find its own strengths and benefits in cycling culture that is and will be different from Europe. We should learn from Europe where it's practical and where it fits our culture and our huge expanses of land mass with roads crossing for hundreds of kms...with less dense population spread across the continent. It's different terrain, extreme climates, more inhospitable because of less amenities for food, shelter in between (I really noticed this when cycling in Germany, etc.). Get real and hence, cycling culture and practices must be geared to fit with this continent, but also fit within North American society, where cars still will be around because we have longer distances to traverse between cities, towns, states/provinces ...unless we start builidng more rail lines, etc.

Over time, we have to get over the feeling that North American cycling culture/infrastructure is a shadow of Europe.

We have to also remember not all parts of Europe are cycling intensive. It's like North America. Being in Prague, Czech. I certainly felt that way, despite being surrounded by medieval and rennaissance architecture.