> Maybe temporarily until people realize that under most circumstances, helmet use is no more troubling
You might think so, especially if you are someone who is comfortable wearing a bicycle helmet; but in practice, sensible or not, helmet mandates do have a long-term impact on ridership rates.
In Seattle, where I live, the county board of health recently repealed the helmet law, because thirty years of experience showed that it did more harm than good.
As an individual, you should of course choose to improve your safety by wearing a helmet; as a society, however, safety in numbers has much more of an effect than helmet-wearing behavior, and the safest policy choices are therefore those which eliminate barriers and encourage the greatest number of people to ride bicycles, as often as possible.
You might think so, especially if you are someone who is comfortable wearing a bicycle helmet; but in practice, sensible or not, helmet mandates do have a long-term impact on ridership rates.
In Seattle, where I live, the county board of health recently repealed the helmet law, because thirty years of experience showed that it did more harm than good.
As an individual, you should of course choose to improve your safety by wearing a helmet; as a society, however, safety in numbers has much more of an effect than helmet-wearing behavior, and the safest policy choices are therefore those which eliminate barriers and encourage the greatest number of people to ride bicycles, as often as possible.