If you tolerate this, then your children......2

[ComedyPilot]

I live 2.5 miles from work, and regularly cycle in. My 5 year old daughter's school is in the same street as my work, so 2.5 miles away.

Do I regularly cycle my daughter to/from school? Not normally, as Mrs CP drops her off on her way to work (mum's hours)

I got the opportunity to collect Miss CP from school a few days last week, but was our ride home 2.5 (easily managable) miles?

No.

Eagle-eyed readers will be aware I have been forced off the same road every day of the week by dangerous drivers, and as the road has ZERO infrastructure for pedestrians or cyclists, then one has to find another way home. The next shortest routes are either 3 or 4 miles - and again are mainly on national speed limit single carriageways with ZERO infrastructure for pedestrians or cyclists.

Last option, the 'quiet' or should I say 'safe' route home was the one we took.

8 miles.

Yep, read that again.

8 miles.

To cycle home in safety with my daughter, we have to multiply the shortest route by over 3 times just in order to get home safe/alive.

And we scratch our heads and wonder why cycling isn't taken up and embraced by newbies?

 

[Hip Priest]

That's why we need a cultural shift.

At the moment, the roads are reasonably safe for fit and confident adult cyclists, but they should be safe for anyone to ride on.

 

[GrasB]

The safe infrastructure is already there... it's called the road network, what we need to fix the unsafe users of the infrastructure.

 

[ComedyPilot]

The safe infrastructure is already there... it's called the road network, what we need to fix the unsafe users of the infrastructure.

The infrastructure as you call it may be safe for a confident adult cyclist, but would you send your child to school on their bike on a single carriageway country A road?

 

[Boris Bajic]

This is interesting. For some years I was a keen secretary of our local Cyclists' Forum and these topics were munched regularly and written up regularly in my minutes.

I've raised three cyclists (still raising two of them). All cycled to their primary school (1 mile) and two occasionally ride or rode to their 6th-Form College (14 miles).

I am on the front foot in terms of getting children onto the public highway, but five is very young. At that age, mine only rode on quiet residential streets, with me as an outrider. None of my children rode on NSL roads under the age of seven. One was eight before he did it.

I think there is a reasonable minimum infrastructure one might expect, but if we are going to put in place systems that allow five-year-old children to ride on NSL roads, we need to dig deep into our tax-pound pockets and we need to make some very serious cost-benefit decisions.

I am 110% with the OP for wanting a five-year-old to cycle to school. Most would not bother and I applaud him for being there and encouraging it. Even so, I doubt whether most 5-year-olds would be able to ride 5 miles a day (there and back) every day of the school week.

So really... I'd get your young 'un's riding done elsewhere and at another time. Chapeau (with bells on) for being on the case and being a positive example, but I'm in favour of picking one's battles - and this is one I wouldn't pick.

Your daughter is very lucky to have a positive cycling example as a parent. That is priceless. My (adult) daughter is working in student holdays about 6 miles from here and we rode from different directions this morning to a cafe for a chat and for me to sign tenancy papers for her for next year. That is the fruit you and she will harvest in years to come. I smile so wide when I see my kids on bikes that I'll have to have my ears moved.

You will be the same when she's older... But let this one go. You are right to be frustrated, but let it go.

 

[I like Skol]

I think Boris has a point. I cycle to school with my kids whenever I can (probably only once a week on average) and while the 10yr old has reached the stage of being sent off alone the 7yr old is still a bit of a daydreamer and there is no way I would let him loose near a fast trunk road or busy city centre.

This isn't particularly because the roads are unsafe, more to do with the childrens awareness and concentration (or lack of it).

CP, keep at it and in a few years it will come good. IMO at the moment you should maybe consider using the pavement if the roads are too busy (I know I did when starting them off on road awareness)..... *Dons flameproof suit!*

 

[jarlrmai]

With 8 miles for a 5 year old I thought it was probably a tag along bike? It's so frustrating when somewhere is easily cycleable in terms of distance but completely impractical because of the route you have to take or the lack of safe places to put your bike etc etc.

 

[ComedyPilot]

I should have been clearer....I collected her from school with her trailer, and rode the 8 mile route home dragging her along behind.

 

[subaqua]

The infrastructure as you call it may be safe for a confident adult cyclist, but would you send your child to school on their bike on a single carriageway country A road?

yes - if a large proportion of other road users were not so mental. the road itself is not dangerous it is how it is used that makes it dangerous. a plastic bag on its own is not dangerous, the act of putting it over your head is what makes it dangerous .

as HipPriest and GrasB allude to- cultural shift to make roads safe spaces for all road users is what is required.

 

[ComedyPilot]

So, how do we go about stopping the large proportion of road users from killing themselves and us at a rate of 2000+ PA?

Education?

I for one am all in favour of much higher fines for speeding and careless driving. Dangerous driving should face a 5 year minimum ban. Death by dangerous you don't get to drive again.

A cultural shift is all very well, but who politically will back this?

Road safety initiatives can be political suicide if votes are currency, and 'hard-done-to' motorists feel they're being 'picked on'.....

 

[subaqua]

So, how do we go about stopping the large proportion of road users from killing themselves and us at a rate of 2000+ PA?

Education?

I for one am all in favour of much higher fines for speeding and careless driving. Dangerous driving should face a 5 year minimum ban. Death by dangerous you don't get to drive again.

A cultural shift is all very well, but who politically will back this?

Road safety initiatives can be political suicide if votes are currency, and 'hard-done-to' motorists feel they're being 'picked on'.....

Education, followed by punishment for repeat offending , the tools for which are already in the cupboard albeit a bit rusty and dusty. instead of a fine etc then proper punishment. Bans do not work as highlighted by Ray Wilkins this week. Prison may be a solution but there will be those who say prison doesn't work. it might if everybody who committed a crime and was caught tried and found guilty went inside.

 

[Glow worm]

It's not just the actual killing and maiming that drivers continue to do though is it. It's often the low level stuff that puts people off cycling - the bullying, the not so subtle intimidation through close passes, the jaw droppingly dumb stuff the morons yell at us, the impatient revving and pathetic use of the horn and the like. Hardly a day goes by when I don't encounter some of this to some degree, and I've been cycling 5000 miles a year or so for 20 odd years. I often think of jacking it all in after some of the worst encounters. So if a relatively experienced cyclist finds it difficult, to say the least, what chance a novice or kids such as CP refers to?

It's all very well banging on about punishment, but a lot of the intimidatory stuff idiot drivers do that puts folk off cycling, is not technically an offence, so how can you punish it? (Assuming of course plod could be arsed to pursue).

 

[GrasB]

The infrastructure as you call it may be safe for a confident adult cyclist, but would you send your child to school on their bike on a single carriageway country A road?

"Send"? I'd accompany them up to the age of 11 or so.

 

[BentMikey]

Just MTFU and get some confidence like the anti-cycle path brigade on here say. Maybe get some cycle training then you can ride that just fine with your daughter. Or maybe not.