helmet cars give you more room they have proved this many times and cycle helmets are only designed to withstand a 15 mph impact. One other possible explanation has been missed. Which is that a helmet restricts one's ability to act or react, and it takes time to get used to this. So Bradley Wiggins, spending a lot of time riding, will get used to the helmet andis no longer a hindrance. To someone cycling for a few minutes a day on average, they don't get used to the encumbrance. Just as I was always bumping the hard hat on things when I had to wear one as building site safety kit, but would not have hit my head since I knew wher it was. I have had enough hits or near misses from drivers who seem totally blind to cyclists, even wearing high-visibility jackets. (One in Acton derided me as "canary" and drove onto the pavement to chase me after a near miss when he pulled away without due care.) What we do need is radical education to teach drivers how to respect cyclists, and to teach cyclists basic rules of the road. We also need to design roads to encourage cyclists - just about every recent road change in Birmingham and SAndwell works against cyclists. And the one thing we could make compulsory is the high-vis jacket, which need not cost more than A1 to A5 in various forms. The problem lies in a barely visible bike navigating