Mandatory Bicycle Helmet Laws

[Kennah]

90. A Recent Dutch Study

I happened upon this.

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1368064

Reading through one of the sources cited, there are demonstrably false statements--the 2002 DeMarco paper. Cycling is on the rise in the U.S. and both injuries and fatalities in the U.S. are falling. More people riding bikes, fewer injuries, fewer fatalities, at least a few mandatory helmet laws enacted over the last two decades, and argument that helmets make us unsafe and unhealthy appear to be a failed argument, at least for the U.S.

One completely absurd assertion is that some people who now ride bikes, either for fun or commuting, would give us cycling if a mandatory helmet law were passed. I suppose in a third world country, where the price of a bike helmet were 4 months pay, and the punishment was Death by Mumbah if one biked without a helmet, yeah those folks might give up cycling under a mandatory helmet law. But in the U.S., U.K., Sweden, or the Netherlands? I suppose there are a couple of wingnuts out there, but c'mon. Rational folks? Even center right to very conservative folks? I smell bullshit in that statement. And yet I talked to a guy in the UK who claims to be a daily cyclist who would give it up if a mandatory helmet law were passed.