My physics professor in college would wear a bicycle helmet when driving around in his minivan. The rumor spread in class pretty quickly the first time a studen

My physics professor in college would wear a bicycle helmet when driving around in his minivan. The rumor spread in class pretty quickly the first time a student saw him doing that. The general sense of the rumor was, "Our prof is some kind of a freak." His wife also left him in the middle of the semester. Another rumor was that she just couldn't stand his eccentricities any longer. Personally, as a cyclist, I have had my helmeted noggin slam against the pavement on more than one occasion. I have come to greatly respect the potential injury that you could get from a collision at high speed. In hindsight, I can fully respect my physics professor's decision to wear a bicycle helmet when driving his minivan around town. In fact in the future if I find myself needing to drive in inclement weather, I may very well start wearing my bicycle helmet in my car. Hope my wife doesn't leave me.