> I agree with you very much, there are many other important safety factors. The most important safety factor is to ride in a way that minimizes the risk of g

> I agree with you very much, there are many other important safety factors. The most important safety factor is to ride in a way that minimizes the risk of getting into a crash in the first place, but a lot of articles and accompanying discussions I've come across over the years either concentrate on helmet use or segregated infrastructure rather than how to best ride in the current situation. > you could link to some of the safety evidence related to bike maintenance & lights & mirrors I don't have links to any studies for those things, but being able to see approaching traffic from behind, being seen in low light conditions, and being able to trust the equipment to not fail when you need it is something that reassures me when riding. I certainly would not drive a car that didn't have mirrors, lights, or wasn't properly maintained. > It might also be worth looking into the effectiveness and recommendations of helmets when doing anything else besides bicycling. Helmets are used for many other sports and activities. Maybe ask yourself which other activities besides biking would it make sense to argue that helmets aren't effective. There has been mention about the fact that helmets in American football haven't prevented concussions and examination of brain tissue of former NFL players have revealed that about 85% (177 out of 202) of them showed signs of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. Bike helmets themselves appear to not do much to mitigate the risk of a concussion in a collision either. > That web site has been updated much more recently than 1999, so why does the page you linked to not discuss Thompsons's more recent study, or even link to a new critique? Because I specifically linked to the page referring to the 1989 study. There are other pages on that website that address more recent studies [2] (which has links to numerous pages discussing other, more recent, studies). [1] http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2645104 http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2645104 [2] http://www.cyclehelmets.org/1052.html http://www.cyclehelmets.org/1052.html