Mandatory Bicycle Helmet Laws

[Spike89]

48. Overall societal health benefit discussions always devolve

These discussions always come down to absurd extreme positions, basically, "no one should ever die" and "it is no one's business". Of course, most of us fall into the middle somewhere. I tend to be more on the personal responsibility side of the argument. I'm all for mandatory bicycle helmet laws for children. I can believe that adults should wear them, but not that they be forced to.
I ride a motorcycle and always wear a helmet (it's the law here). If they repealed the helmet laws, I might occassionally ride without one, but probably not. I ride all year long and have a very good full-face helmet I wear in cold/wet weather, and a 1/2 helmet (skid lid style) that I wear in late Spring and Summer. The full-face helmet offers much more protection, but isn't as safe in other ways--it muffles sound considerably, limits vision somewhat, and is hot and heavy.
I've had people tell me it should be illegal to wear shorts when riding a motorcycle. I am acutely aware that at speeds where road rash is a serious danger (25+ MPH), denim may as well be tissue paper. Leather will slide and abraid, but even heavy cotton jeans just rip. I do own full leather riding gear, but getting fully geared and armored up for a ride isn't always practical, and in my opinion isn't always safer.
We are all going to die at some point. We all also make decisions every day about the risks we're willing to take. There needs to be a very good reason to take those decisions away from people--"saving lives" is not a good reason because it isn't true. Encourage, educate, even reward safe behavior--great, I'm all for it. Bundle me in bubble wrap so I can die of old age without living a life--no thanks.