It doesn’t matter if you’re going fast or slow, on a side road or major boulevard. One pothole, train track or distracted texting driver and your skull could be hitting the hard cold ground. That’s not likely to happen as a pedestrian or a driver…

And to the Lord Upminster’s comment below about gun ownership and the death penalty … please don’t lump us all into the same damn category. This is a widely contentious issue which MANY Americans do not support. I am pro-helmet, anti-death penalty, thankyouverymuch.

Here are some of the delights of cycling instead of driving.

People contact — Since I am not that fast, there is time for a quick hello to pedestrians and sometimes other cyclists. There’s something about this that humanizes the trip and raises my spirits. In a car, I am isolated from others. People appear smaller and far away, I certainly don’t hear their footsteps above the roar of the engine.
Exercise high- Getting someplace four miles away on my own steam requires a level of exertion that speeds up my breathing and gets my heart pumping. After a day at the computer and on the phone it’s a great break.
Independence – Related to the above, but a little different. I feel more powerful as I muscle my way up hills. It’s just me and my rather primitive machine, churning up this breeze, moving toward my goal.
Awareness of geography – As you drive, you don’t really notice the changes in elevation. The only requirement is pushing a little harder on the pedal of your car. On a bike, every downhill is a breather. Every up hill, no matter how slight, requires your concentration as you down shift and regain the rhythm of your strokes. Sometimes I imagine how this land might have looked before roads were carved through it. Literally, in the neighborhood I traveled through last night, I am moving through terrain where people fought and died in the 1860?s. They crawled up these hills, perhaps drank from the streams that we have covered with asphalt.
Awareness of the weather – Would I have noticed how nicely it cooled down Monday night in my car? I don’t think so. Would I have felt the slight moistness in the atmosphere, a left over from the weekend’s rain? I am not isolated from the planet in a tin box, I am right there, on top of this spinning globe.
Relaxed concentration – Listening for traffic, watching out for obstacles in front of my wheel, staying aware of my surroundings, I am tuned in but not tense.

It’s not always easy to get on the bike. I have to overcome a sort of inherent laziness. But it’s almost always worth it.

Many aspects of life in the USA strike also strike us as rather bizarre and alarming; such as your nonchalant attitude to gun ownership and your fondness for the death penalty. Both of these sit rather ill, we feel, with your old-maidish obsession with protecting your heads while cycling.