To me, that seems like a clear difference in infrastructure. If a biker shares a stretch of asphalt with a car, that's a risk for the biker and they need a helmet. In the Netherlands, this is widely understood and bikes get their own infrastructure everywhere. Only then you don't need helmets anymore at all.
while there is a lot, bikes do not get their own infrastructure everywhere. most likely the street you live on has no bike path. many city streets have bike lanes but not separated from the road
i bet the more useful metrics are length of trip, average speed of the cars around you, and if you need to cross stop signs/intersections. dutch bike trips are often very short and the speed limits are low. you do not share the road with 35mph+ traffic as is common in america. intersections are the place where people get hurt on bikes the most and it’s more likely in american biking you will cross them. this one is where the separate infrastructure really comes in to play
Yes, riding a bike in New York City traffic is generally dangerous. I fixed it by moving out of New York City.
Except for the time on a quiet suburban street when my drivetrain inexplicably locked up (never figured out what actually happened) and threw me over the handlebars, or the time when there wasn't much traffic around but there was some slippery garbage truck sludge exudate that I didn't see, which I wiped out on. My helmet saved me in both of those situations too.
It turns out that shit happens in general no matter who or where you are, and that dressing for safety actually does keep you safe. An inflated sense of ability to protect oneself does not amount to protection in the event of a crash.
It is still oddly too much and each time on head. Most bike falls don't end up hitting head either. You seem to be crashing more often then ordinary and the amount of times you hit the head is higher then ordinary.
And yes I use bike fairly often. I know multiple people who use bike fairly often. The only people actually hitting protective gear that often are the ones doing mountain biking. (Which seems to be genuinly dangerous even with the gear.)
They don't protect from the part where the car directly hits the rest of your body straight on, or the bike itself. Every single part that happens immediately after that - such as the fall, flying through the air, or what have you, the parts that always come afterwards - is where the helmet can provide life-saving protection.
