Response to Colin McKenzie:

The bit on helmets is quite good, IF the danger issue has been
addressed first. Otherwise it is just adding 'and helmets won't make
you any safer' to the general idea that cycling is too dangerous.

Which may be quite a psychological shock, IMO. It seems to me that a
major motive for wearing a helmet, and forcing a child to wear a helmet,
is the need to feel that one is exercising *some* control over an
innately and randomly dangerous activity [just as e.g. many bomber
pilots during WWII became very superstitious]. This of course is wrong,
on three counts: cycling isn't particularly dangerous, helmets won't
provide much if any protection, and the dangers are mostly not random
and *can* be reduced by training.


As you say, I'd stress the non-danger of cycling, and I'd also stress
the usefulness of training in making it even safer [not an easy task, I
know]. This may not only help to overcome parental fears by allowing
them to feel they're doing something to increase the safety of their
child, but has the incidental advantage over helmet-promoting rubbish of
being true.

--
Mark, UK
"If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of
fighting a foreign enemy."