In the Netherlands and Belgium, where I am from, helmets are still very much optional. We have very strong cycling cultures and lots of people are opposed to it. They never used them and have cycled everywhere for decades.

However. There are a lot more helmets riding around than ten years ago. Especially kids wear them a lot. Their parents less so, but their numbers are increasing. Older people are coming around very slowly. They get one when they buy a fast ebike. Not so much for a normal bike.

For myself, I go cycling most weekends and always wear a helmet for that. Purely because it’s an appropriate thing to do. It’s part of the culture. I didn’t wear one for commuting or for getting groceries or going out, while those trips are A LOT more dangerous. So at one point I just realised how weird that was. And that there are no good objective arguments to not always wear a helmet. I’d absolutely hate to see it become mandatory, but I’d love to see more people make a positive choice to wear one.

I have literally never hear of “helm sceptics” and this sounds like a made up controversy to me to be frank.

Then you threw in a source list longer then my attention span which I’m very grateful for!

Would you mind giving a bit of context for where you’re from? The worst thing I’ve heard in Germany is “everyone should be free to choose and it’s my head I risk” which, while not agreeing with, I can understand.

Thanks in advance!

Wow, welp even wearing a helmet won’t help the people who don’t want to since they already have brain damage, let nature take its course then and i’l keep wearing mine.

So many kids were such assholes growing up because I always always wore a helmet. Sorry but I was a safety child. Had to do the safest option and very super upset when other kids didn’t.

Back in November 2020 I was in a car accident and suffered a TBI followed by 2 weeks in an induced coma, 10 hour surgery for facial reconstruction and a month in rehabilitation.

Whilst in rehab, I meet many people from varying ages and genders that appeared on the surface to be completely normal functional people. What couldn’t be seen or recognised unless made aware was the impact of their TBI, symptoms that I have dealt with for over 20 years; tangential behaviours, fluctuating emotions, intolerance for the smallest inconveniences, and deep fatigue that comes on way too early after a mental and/or physically difficult day.

These are the easy side effects.

For the obvious effects of a TBI, these were clearly seen in Matt; a 19 year old boy that was, for the rest of his short life, stapped to a special wheelchair so he could be mechanically stood upright to look people in the eye. He couldn’t talk, he made sounds that seemed to be communicating but weren’t however, you got the sense he was being a smart ass when he followed up his incoherent noises with his beautiful smile. Matt couldnt fully understand you, or feed himself, or go toilet without the aid of nurses, tell his parents he loved them or ever do anything remotely "normal"ever again.

All this because he wasn’t wearing a cycle helmet.