First Published in the Fort Collins Coloradoan, March 1, 2010
by Rick Price
Children
five to ten should learn the rules of the road as pedestrians before they begin
bicycling: teach them how to walk through parking lots, crosswalks, driveways,
and sidewalks. The rules they learn
walking (“look left, look right, look left again . . ,” stop at the edge, and
so on) will serve them well when they begin bicycling.
Smaller
children should not ride alone on the street (your cul-de-sac excepted,
perhaps). They don’t have the cognitive
ability to judge distance and speed. Encourage them to ride behind you until
they learn the concepts of keeping right, watching for hazards, and making way
for those passing. While they ride
behind you they imprint on you as goslings do on their parents. So follow the rules of the road: signal, keep
to the right, use two hands, and wear a helmet.
How many parents do you see without a helmet? They are, effectively, teaching their kids
that it’s ok for adults to not wear a helmet.
By
the time children are 10 (4th grade) they are ready to ride on
neighborhood streets with parked cars and light traffic. They’ve developed their peripheral vision and
have the judgement necessary to be allowed freedom to discover the world. But now they need real instruction in bike
handling, hazard avoidance and they are able to understand that bicycles are
vehicles and must follow the rules of the road.
Those
of us concerned about bicycle policies in the community advocate that the education
of a cyclist should be focused on 4th and 5th graders
where we should set a goal of training every single one of them in PE classes
over a ten-week period. If they can get
pedestrian rules of the road earlier and apply them in 4th grade
we’d have a much safer bicycle community.
Continue that teaching on the bike into middle school and we’d also have
safer young drivers of motor vehicles.
About
that bicycle. Get out to the garage
right now and check: “A,” air in the
tires; “B,” the brakes; and “C,” the crank, chain and cassette if it has more
than one gear. If the ABC Quick Check
shows that the bike is ready, you’re good to go. We do this regularly in
elementary school bike parking lots, though, and find that 60% of the bikes
need air AND a brake adjustment. This
last one is serious. Your child needs to
learn how to ride his or her bike but he or she needs to learn how to stop it
effectively. Most brakes on kids’ bikes
won’t stop the bike because they are not properly adjusted. If the bike didn’t pass the ABC test and you
can’t fix the brakes, please take it down to the bike shop today.
If
you are buying a child’s first bike please go to the bike shop, not a
department store, and get professional help with proper sizing.
_____________
Rick
Price, Ph.D., LCI #2347 lives and pedals in Fort Collins where he is the Safe
Cycling Coordinator for the Bike Co-op.
If your school or group would like a safe cycling presentation
contact
Rick@ExperiencePlus.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment