Bicycle helmets are known to be effective in preventing injuries but still are not in widespread use. Three recent articles explore various aspects of barriers to effectiveness:

“A comparison of the effect of different bicycle helmet laws in 3 New York City suburbs” by Puder et al (

) describes nearly 1000 cyclists of various ages who were observed in three contiguous counties, each with a different bicycle helmet law. One had a universal law, one conformed to the state law requiring only children younger than 14 to wear helmets, and the third, in a neighboring state, required cyclists younger than 12 to wear helmets when riding on highways. Not too surprisingly, the universal county had the highest rate of helmet use (35%), followed by the others (24% and 14%). In all counties, teenagers wore helmets least often, but were twice as likely to wear them in county with a universal law.

“Exploration of the barriers to bicycle helmet use among 12 and 13 year …