To further to my European travelogue of cycle helmets I've just come back from Bruges in Belgium and as excepted, very few helmets. Those that did (maybe <10%) were either children or MAMILS. What did strike me was the near arrogance of the cyclists. The centre of Bruges has a fair percentage of shared roadspace. Very few cars, probably allowed deliveries only, lots of pedestrians (mainly tourists) and plenty of cyclists. Most bikes were very upright ridden quite slowly and where they chose. My problem is that they didn't have much respect for pedestrians. For example, quite often in areas of shared space they would ride quite fast between me and my 5yo daughter which freaked her out. They would not be at walking pace but what would be on foot running pace and as close as nearly brushing her as the passed. They'd happily weave around all pedestrians whether young or old in places were pedestrians should be.
Maybe it is infuriation with tourists wandering but same could be said for motorists infuriated with 'slow' cyclists in London and whizzing passed them - it's still inexcusable. I'm not sure what accident rates are but we didn't like the mix and there were enough cyclists to make it quite an issue of safety with my 2 young children walking about. It's hard as we're on a path, wandering between shops and I'd have to tell my kids to watch of for cyclists and stay close.
I'm unsure whether the dominance of cycling has created a culture of cyclists come first of whether this is something cultural of the Belgiums and nothing to do with cycling but I was impressed and annoyed at the same time with the system (more impressed than annoyed as it looked great for cyclists and the danger was probably minimal).