>>I agree those laws should be left up to the state. However I do NOT agree that a child wearing a helmet means an overprotective parent. Do you really think kids should go back to not wearing helmets and the parent is being overprotective by requiring their child to wear one?
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>Above a fairly young age, like about 8, yes.

Yep. Whoever drives a bicycle should know how to fall without getting hurt too much - unless it's about acrobatics, forest driving and such shenanigans. Mind you, I learned to drive on one of the main streets, three blocks from the industrial zone, where several times a day there'd be a flood of traffic to the factories or from them, plus trucks etc all day. We all had bicycles (in various stages of disrepair :) and nothing ever happened. Well nothing worse than a few serious scratches... and that's when we were age 8 to 11. Then the bikes sort of went out of fashion (because you wanted to stay after dark and your lights never worked right). The first broken bones happened around graduation from high school - from motorbikes.