A cool regular column at Seattle Met (our new corporate overlords!) is called "Would It Work Here?" The concept is to write about smart policy in other cities that we should consider importing. This week, Met writer Anne Larkin wonders if we should join with bike Meccas such as Portland and Denver and get rid of our bike helmet law; go biking without a helmet in Seattle and you'll risk getting $30 fine.

Larkin writes:

Yes, the law significantly increased helmet use, which jumped in the downtown corridor from 82 percent, in 2000, to 93 percent in 2010. But had the city council consulted a widely cited study in Injury Prevention (released the same year the law went into effect) they might have voted differently.

The researchers found that the number of collisions between motorists and cyclists is inversely related to the number of cyclists on the road: More cyclists and pedestrians means fewer collisions; the prevalence of cyclists makes motorists more alert to their presence.

So the key, say bicycle advocates like Tom Fucoloro of Seattle Bike Blog, is to make sure bike helmets don’t deter more bikers from getting out on the road.

He says the helmet law, for example, is why Seattle, unlike other bike enclaves such as Denver and Portland, has yet to adopt a public bike-share system. Let the cyclists make the decision to wear a helmet on their own, he says, and chances are they’ll still wear one: Last year 80 percent of Portland’s riders.

At the last editorial meeting, I pitched the inverse of "Would It Work Here?" as a way to hype original, cool things that our city does.

I'm a little reluctant to give this attention, but have you heard about the Seattle Central Library's piano practice rooms?  Only a couple of other libraries in the country, including Chicago, have practice rooms like this where you can sign out a piano for an hour. The famous Manhattan public library at 5th Ave. and 42nd St., for example, doesn't have piano rooms.

Unfortunately, the downtown library currently closes at 6pm on weekdays, which makes it hard to fit in a practice session after work. (Many branch libraries are closed two days a week, and the entire system shuts down for a week in August.)

Which is why I agree with Erica: Pass the $123 million (.15 per every $1,000 of assessed property value), seven-year library levy this August.