Originally Posted by genec
I did read that and probably it is true for a lot of people. But that was not my experience, nor was it the experience of anybody I grew up with. We learned to ride at 5 years old and then we were free to go wherever we wanted (within reason, the circle getting larger as we got older). Even as a 5 year old girl I was free to go wherever I wanted unsupervised. The only message about cars was beware the drivers that slow down and offer you candy.
Times have changed I guess. It's not that it was less dangerous back then, believe me because I have stories. I think people are just more fearful.
Fear of bicycling was never my experience ever. Heck, I would get MAD when cars would drive a wide circle around me when I was a kid because I felt it said something about them not having faith in my abilities.
As for HH's comment about debunking the man vs. the words, I guess he never wrote any papers in college. We always referred to the man's work by his name.