Bicycle helmets aren't a panacea for all crashes involving a cyclist, anymore than a hard hat is a replacement for proper safety on a construction site. No article about a car crash contains stuff like "if the driver would have built a roll-cafe for their car..." or "the driver wasn't wearing an F1 helmet and 5-point harness". It's kind of stupid to imply that wearing a styrofoam hat is somehow going to prevent serious injuries when a car hits a cyclist. Stories about car crashes are written with language that goes something like "the car swerved off the road and into the hotel lobby", like cars just sometimes get wild and go off the road on their own. They usually don't blame the driver for their mistake unless charges are actually laid at the scene or it's a drunk driver.
Anyone looking at a bike helmet shouldn't really think it's gonna offer much protection against the impact of a car going 50+km/h. To suggest that not wearing one is "dumb" is itself kind of a dumb position to take considering the kind of impacts that bicycle helmet is designed to take aren't high-speed collisions involving automobiles. Places where they mandate helmet use by law don't seem to show a big decline in head injuries from collisions, these places also see a decrease in the number of cyclists so the "safety in numbers" effect diminishes for all riders. See this site for a lot of studies: http://www.cycle-helmets.com/canada_helmets.html
Helmet use leads to risk compensation increases the numbers of accidents among helmeted cyclists. Motorists also tend to pass helmeted cyclists closer
There's way bigger problems with drivers and cyclists that helmets won't help; many drivers consider cyclists non-human.
Anyone looking at a bike helmet shouldn't really think it's gonna offer much protection against the impact of a car going 50+km/h. To suggest that not wearing one is "dumb" is itself kind of a dumb position to take considering the kind of impacts that bicycle helmet is designed to take aren't high-speed collisions involving automobiles. Places where they mandate helmet use by law don't seem to show a big decline in head injuries from collisions, these places also see a decrease in the number of cyclists so the "safety in numbers" effect diminishes for all riders. See this site for a lot of studies: http://www.cycle-helmets.com/canada_helmets.html
Helmet use leads to risk compensation increases the numbers of accidents among helmeted cyclists. Motorists also tend to pass helmeted cyclists closer
There's way bigger problems with drivers and cyclists that helmets won't help; many drivers consider cyclists non-human.