Re: Helmet efficacy test

On 3/31/2025 9:39 AM, Radey Shouman wrote:
<snip>

On every topic I can remember, save bike helmets and infrastructure,
Mr. Krygowski tells us to believe the annointed experts.  On bike
helmets, the experts are shills, charlatans, and fashion victims.
Perhaps he is right, and bike helmets really are a unique blind spot in
our expertariat.

LOL, yet the data on the benefits of both bicycle helmets and bicycle infrastructure overwhelmingly support both. Frank doesn't like the data because they don't support his own actions, or what he wishes were true, yet the reality is that he almost certainly really does understand the benefits of both.
For bicycle infrastructure, it's not just the increase in safety, however beneficial that is, it's that the infrastructure results in higher levels of cycling.
Frank can begin his education on the matter of infrastructure here:
"Research demonstrates that the presence of a well-connected bike network encourages more people—especially women and people with low incomes—to bike." <https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/why-us-cities-are-investing-safer-more-connected-cycling-infrastructure>.
"Findings from this study suggest that streets with new painted bicycle lanes and cycle tracks will attract riders, that streets, even those without facilities, are seeing increased rates of bicycling if they connect to desired destinations, and that new facilities, particularly cycle tracks, will encourage increased cycling rates for commuting by regular cyclists." <https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1361920921002145>.
Frank can begin his education on the subject of bicycle helmet effectiveness here: "The empirical evidence based on the real-world hospital and police data as well as biomechanical studies confirms that wearing a helmet while cycling is beneficial, regardless of age and crash severity, in collisions with others or not. The relative benefit is higher in high-risk situations and when cycling on shared roads. The findings from the meta-analyses studies that have been reviewed in this paper are remarkably consistent." <https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-35728-x>.
This quote nicely summarizes the issue with Frank constantly ignoring the mountains of data on the subject, simply because he doesn't like the conclusions:
“If you are not an expert on a subject, then your opinions about it really do matter less than the opinions of experts. It's not indoctrination nor elitism. It's just that you don't know as much as they do about the subject.”—Tin Foil Awards