Maybe people should be required to wear a helmet in their car too? A UK study on the effects of cycle helmets found that if pedestrians and motorists wore helmets it would save 12 times more lives than if cyclists wore them.
From the paper: "CONCLUSIONS: There is no justification for compelling cyclists to wear helmets without taking steps to improve the safety of all road users."
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8799597?dopt=Abstract
From the paper: "CONCLUSIONS: There is no justification for compelling cyclists to wear helmets without taking steps to improve the safety of all road users."