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I'm riding on the Stanley Park Seawall on Sunday, around dinnertime. Come up behind a couple riding slowly on rented bikes. I wait for an appropriate place to pass them, as they are a bit swervy.
As I come around them I see that each of them has a toddler, sitting sideways on the top tube between their arms. The kids are moving around to look at things, hence the swerving around. The dad even had to squeeze the kid between his elbows when the kid lurched around to look at me going by. Not a single helmet in the bunch.
They had bikes from one of the half-dozen bike rental places at the entrance to the park, who also rent those kiddie trailer half-bike deals, as well as child seats, and helmets. Couldn't believe my eyes.
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Perhaps they were short on cash for the additional rental items? But yes, bad judgement.
A rental shop was my 5-year-old's incentive to learn to ride without training wheels a few months ago! It didn't have any small bikes prepared with the training wheels on, so we had him try one without, and he found he could do it! (We suspected it all along.)
I'm riding on the Stanley Park Seawall on Sunday, around dinnertime. Come up behind a couple riding slowly on rented bikes. I wait for an appropriate place to pass them, as they are a bit swervy.
As I come around them I see that each of them has a toddler, sitting sideways on the top tube between their arms. The kids are moving around to look at things, hence the swerving around. The dad even had to squeeze the kid between his elbows when the kid lurched around to look at me going by. Not a single helmet in the bunch.
They had bikes from one of the half-dozen bike rental places at the entrance to the park, who also rent those kiddie trailer half-bike deals, as well as child seats, and helmets. Couldn't believe my eyes.
In many places of the world, it wouldn't get a second glance.
In many places of the world, it wouldn't get a second glance.
I agree... and 20 years ago it would have been unheard of here. Americans are ridiculous when it comes to sue happy liability type issues.
They were on a seawall... not a major street, they were moving slow and the parents had the kids in their close control. I venture to say that if there were any "emergency" the parent could have just dropped the bike and grabbed the kid.
Relax, enjoy and take a deep breath. (oops wait, don't do that, I don't want to be responsible for telling you to actually breath the air... who knows it may contain substances that are bad for you and are not properly labeled.)
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They were on a seawall... not a major street, they were moving slow and the parents had the kids in their close control. I venture to say that if there were any "emergency" the parent could have just dropped the bike and grabbed the kid. Relax, enjoy and take a deep breath.
Yeah, I'm not going to go nuts or anything. I daresay that if you could have seen the precarious nature of these kids' positions, you might not be willing to concede "close control." The thought that the parent could drop the bike and grab the kid is a hope, at best. These people were working at it. But hey. This was 3/4 of the way around the seawall. They made it that far. I suppose it's likely that they got all the way back to the shop okay.
(to John Brooking) The helmets, at least, are free when you rent the bikes.
I have seen more kids fall on their heads out of shopping carts than off of bicycles....
Not directly applicable to the poster's question... but perhaps a question to consider.
Most laws generally deal with bicycles as part of the vehicle code. Most states seem to have a law that there can not be more people on the bicycle than there are seats. Do laws like this tend to cover recreational trails as well?
I suspect that it is a gray area... does anyone know of any general guidance?
Another example, in PA riders under 12 are supposed to wear helmets. Does the law apply only on the road, anywhere they ride, or only on public property?
I dare say I grew up before anyone even thought about helmets on cyclists... in fact several generations of kids did. And we carried each other on handlebars, on top tubes and in any other conceivable way. No we were not traveling at 22 MPH+ on busy roads on carbon plastic flyers...
Are helmets really needed all the time by everyone, everywhere?
I know I never wear on when I cruise the beach boardwalk on my fat tire single speed curved top tube cruiser.
In many places of the world, it wouldn't get a second glance.
Yepp. My dad isn't from North America and when I was younger he never had a bike seat or trailer for me. He used to carry me on the crossbar, just like the people on the seawall. He also never wore a helmet, neither did I. We both started wearing helments recently.
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