>3) Maybe helmet laws encourage casual or impaired cyclists (uncoordinated people, children, people with bad awareness, etc) to get on bikes, and/or repel the confident types who choose to do other exercise rather than wear sweaty and dorky looking helmets. So the bicycling acuity of the bicycler population is reduced.
I was expecting the exact opposite. It's the casual or new cyclists who stop cycling because of a helmet law, this is the most common finding of all the investigations into a possible helmet law I've seen. It then leads into 3.5) the type of people who cycle when a helmet is required take more risks/spend more time among cars and have less fellow cyclists keeping the drivers aware/honest/giving.
I was expecting the exact opposite. It's the casual or new cyclists who stop cycling because of a helmet law, this is the most common finding of all the investigations into a possible helmet law I've seen. It then leads into 3.5) the type of people who cycle when a helmet is required take more risks/spend more time among cars and have less fellow cyclists keeping the drivers aware/honest/giving.