Do cyclists need helmets? So asks Stuart Jeffries in today's G2. Well I've been cycling regularly in London - and several other big cities - for about 20 years now, and for a good 19 of them I've worn protective headgear.
Why? To be honest, after the first few months it became sheer habit as much as anything else. These days, pedalling anywhere without that familiar polystyrene shield clamped in place - even a two-minute spin to the shops - makes me feel dangerously exposed.
It's been a process made all the simpler by the fact that as I replaced a helmet every few years its successor was progressively lighter, better ventilated and more comfortable. Whereas once my headgear was a shiny, outsized half mushroom, it is now (almost) cool.
As Jeffries mentions, in London's often depressingly macho bike culture, helmets are ubiquitous. The same was true when I lived in Sydney, where they had just become compulsory, an experiment which brought mixed results - fewer head injuries but also fewer cyclists.
I have remained helmeted even when many of those around me were bare headed and carefree, for example when living in Paris. The one place I sometimes risked it was Beijing, but that was principally to avoid standing out even more than I did anyway as I joined the cycling masses.
So if I survived there - and modern Beijing is dominated more by reckless car traffic than cyclists - why bother with the helmet, bearing in mind the inconclusive evidence for it efficacy?
Firstly, there have been a couple of occasions when wearing a helmet turned a nasty fall which could easily have left me concussed into a far less serious spill. Admittedly, one accident happened while mountain biking and the other when I was cycling home drunk (though luckily still sober enough to fasten the helmet properly).
Most of all I think this: a bike helmet only has to save me once. I would probably walked away from the two other crashes, but something more serious could await me any day.
Am I being gloomy and over-cautious or just sensible?
