A visiting US colleague recently asked if anyone in Amsterdam wore cycle helmets. Simply put, no. OK, you occasionally see some small children wearing them, but the attitude in the photo above is far more common. Does this mean, then, that people get killed or injured left, right, and center, she asked? Again, no. Much of the time, bikes are carefully separated from cars and pedestrians; for the rest of it, cars drive far too slowly (thanks to tortuous one-way systems and speed bumps) to do much damage even if they hit you. And, I guess, nearly all drivers are probably also cyclists -- or their parents/siblings/spouses/children/friends are. And, if a car hits a bike, it's automatically the car's fault -- regardless of how stupidly the cyclist was cycling. A great incentive to drive carefully, and one that should be adopted elsewhere.
