When I was riding a bike on a daily basis (back in Europe) - I never wore a helmet. In fact, nobody did. I do have one now, even though I rarely bike nowadays, mainly because they are cheap - I can get one for about $20. So it is a small price to pay "just in case". I also noticed that geezers tend to have a very different risk perception than young punks - the latter tend to think they are indestructible and take more risk than it is reasonable, the former tend to think they are more frail and thus tend to take more precaution than it is reasonable.
While we are at that, I was swayed by Vanderbilt's argument that more safety measures sometimes make driving or biking less safe because they create a false sense of safety that often leads to more risk taking. This, however, pertains mainly to motorized transport, which is the main cause for the lack of safety of everyone else - cyclists and pedestrians. I liked his book - he writes rather well, but at the end I was a bit disappointed, since he took driving as a given (as most Americans do) and never explored alternatives to it.
-- Wojtek
"An anarchist is a neoliberal without money."