Brian McNicoll

So now we’re down to safe v. healthy. The “safe” approach to riding a bike is to wear a helmet, according to the Nanny Statists in cities from coast to coast. But it turns out a lot of people won’t ride bikes if it means buying and wearing a helmet. It also turns out helmets don’t actually prevent a lot of injuries. As this story from The New York Times reveals, these days, officials in cities that want to promote bike riding have realized it might be better to accept a little more risk from letting riders go helmet-less than insisting on the helmet and forcing many riders to the sidelines.