If you want to increase bicycling safety, forget the helmet laws and get more people out there riding. That according to a new study by researchers at the University of British Columbia evaluating safety outcomes for cyclists across Canadianprovinces and territories.
Study author Kay Teschke and a team of researchers found that areas with helmet laws didn’t have less cases of hospitalization for bicycle accidents. But communities where more people bike, whether there is a helmet law or not, DID have less bike accident hospitalizations. The thought process is that these communities have less- or maybe less severe- accidents because they have more bicycling infrastructure.