• American state laws concerning bicycle helmets.Girl Staing on Road Inside Park With Bicycle and Helmet image by Andrei Merkulov from Fotolia.com
  
  According to the Highway Loss Data Institute of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, there are a total of 29 states in America that have no laws pertaining to wearing a helmet while riding a bike. The rest have varying laws that can best be grouped together by age.
  
  

Eleven and younger

• Louisiana and Pennsylvania require bicycle riders below the age of 12 to wear a helmet.
  
  New York has enacted a law that requires children between the ages of one and 13 to wear a helmet and children under the age of one are prohibited from riding a bike altogether.
  
  

Fourteen/fifteen and younger

• In West Virginia it is against the law for anyone 14 years of age and younger to ride a bicycle without wearing a protective helmet.
  
  The following states require bicycle riders below the age of 16 to wear a helmet: Alabama, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Maine, Maryland, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island and Tennessee. The District of Columbia also has an ordinance permitting children 15 and younger from riding without a helmet.
  
  

Seventeen and younger

• It is against the law in both New Jersey and Massachusetts for a bicycle rider under the age of 17 to ride without a helmet. Additionally, Massachusetts prohibits any child under the age of one to ride a bicycle at all.
  
  The following states require bicycle riders below the age of 18 to wear a helmet: Delaware, California and New Mexico.