>>I assume the helmets may help in a category of lesser incidents, at lower speeds, where hitting a curb or a pole with one's head may injure it seriously... but then there's this psychological thing: aside from driving through an auditory illusion, they ride through a safety illusion and take more risks. It's disputable how does this move the odds - reckless with helmet vs careful without.
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>This has been documented with SUVs. Drivers have that safety illusion due to the bulk of their vehicles. Another reason they get in more accidents is that SUVs are less nimble, making them less able to avoid an accident when something happens suddenly.

I assume this should be so. They tend to forget that if their vehicles are stronger, their bodies aren't, and inertia works the same, no matter how big is the inside of your vehicle, the force with which you hit it depends only on your speed.

I've noticed one peculiar behavior with the drivers of these armored transportation devices - at the lights, I'm the nimble one, ready on the green, no cell phone surgically attaching the arm to the ear, manual shift, not shy with the pedal... if I'm the first on the line, I'll probably escape these guys by a good 50 or 100 meters. Then I reach the speed limit within seconds, and keep it - but they don't. Inevitably they'll try to make up for being slow at the start by being too fast on a straight stretch.