[sustran] Re: Will you let your children cycle to school ? I won't

Zvi Leve zvi at inro.ca
Sat Mar 10 03:34:21 JST 2007


I think that different cities/regions face different problems. 
Generalizing from one place to another is a problem.... There are 
cultural factors as well.

I grew up in the 1970's riding a bicycle everywhere in upstate NY (and I 
certainly caused my parents quite a few gray hairs at the time), but I 
doubt that this is a common practice anymore. I still commute to work on 
bicycle (weather permitting), and I drop my children off on the way. 
They are not yet old enough to ride their own bicycles, but I imagine 
that we will encourage them to ride (or walk) to school when they are a 
bit older (and assuming that they go to a close-by school). I agree that 
it is important to 'empower' children to be independent and responsible, 
but this requires a certain level of trust (and faith perhaps), both 
within the family, and within the community.

There are many reasons for this decline in child bicycle commuting, not 
all of which are related to the road environment:

    * increase in two-worker (and two-car) households  -> more stress on
      family travel time budgets, plus parents don't want their children
      home alone!
    * more flexibility in school choices and fewer extra-curricular
      activities -> fewer children attend their 'neigbourhood' school
      and are in the school's "care" less time.
    * greater traffic congestion -> more safety concerns (both perceived
      and real). Todd mentioned that parents dropping off their own
      children seem to be particularly dangerous (presumably to other
      children) near schools, and from anecdotal experience I tend to agree.


One of the things which struck me in China was how few /children/ I saw 
on bicycles! I asked a colleague about this (were there special bicycle 
driving licenses required?), and he told me that basically they will 
ride with the other bicycles when they feel comfortable. Given the speed 
at which things are changing there, I could imagine China having a 
significantly reduced bicycle rider population within a generation!

Cheers,

Zvi

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       Whenever I see an adult on a bicycle, 
       I no longer despair for the future of the human race. - H.G. Wells



chuwa wrote:
> - primary school pupils want to cycle to school on their own but 
> parents' concerns are stopping them.
>
> - 90% of youngsters have bikes and more than 30% of them would like to 
> cycle to school, only 1% actually do
>
> - parents who drive their children to school risk creating a habit of 
> dependency that undermines children's confidence and self-reliance
>
> - It's a great shame children are being denied the opportunity to 
> experience this (cyling) independence because parents are worried 
> about their safety on the roads
>
> All above remarks from THE HERALD (UK) can be applied to Singapore 
> directly. I am just wondering how many cities (developing or not) are 
> facing similar problems?
>
> Chu Wa
> Commuter cyclist
> Father of two
>
>
>
> The full news: 
> http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/news/display.var.1247222.0.0.php
>
>
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