I have also always found helmets to be dangerous as they obscure peripheral vision, induce sweat to trickle into your eyes, and create a wind tunnel effect that further degrades your hearing.

It also creates fear about standards. Bicycling is supposed to be about freedom, not having to fear cops busting your chops for not having reflectors or a helmet or any other aspect of “safety” dreamed up by sanctimoniously security obsessed. It discourages free riding, the greatest pleasure that one can have as a cyclist. It also encourages the further escalation of our fear-based social policy, that has cocooned our children in bubblewrapped, while robbing them of precious freedoms of childhood.

As commuters or even casual cyclists who ride on the streets, we rarely mention or think about the times we spend just cycling on our merry way on a perfectly safe, uneventful, trip. The vast majority of the time. Uneventful being the key word. By a huge, huge margin, the overwhelming majority of rides on the street are uneventful, because we don’t consider an everyday, mundane, safe ride to be eventful. Therefore, we rarely mention it.

But on the relatively rare occasion the ride is seen as “eventful” due to some perceived dangerous “event”, we tend to talk about it a lot to anyone who will listen – even writing letters to the papers, etc. Sometimes we do it to brag, by giving the impression we’re somehow brave to be cycling on these dangerous streets. And on the extremely rare occasion when there is a serious “accident”, especially one fatal to the cyclist, it’s all over the news.

The exception can, ironically, be seen to be the rule.

The fact remains – cycling, and commuting by bike, is extremely safe. Usually mundane, though still very enjoyable, for me at least. And it has many benefits, especially healthy ones. That’s what we need to concentrate on.