Advocacy & Safety - Teaching My Kids to Ride on the Sidewalk

I'm not trolling. Just thought the thread title would get attention.

I wanted to have a discussion about having younger kids, who are learning to ride, start on the sidewalk. I made the following (edited) post:

"When I ride with my 6 and 4 year old around our suburban neighborhood, I have them ride on the sidewalk. I don't think a 4 year old on training wheels has any business riding in traffic. To be able to ride safely, we ride on the sidewalk. We dismount for all road crossings and my kids know that adults are supposed to be riding in the street because it is much safer for adults to ride there.

The street in front of our house gets virtually no traffic and we encourage our kids to ride there with supervision. They already know about keeping right, sightlines, and how to watch for traffic. My desire is to have my kids be confident, able, and responsible riders on their own." [End Quote]

For these reasons, I was saying I am not a fan of trail-along attachments for kids. Having them ride on their own limits our distance and I wind up pushing our 4 year old up some hills, but I'd still rather have him get experience on his own bike.

Thoughts?

When my children learnt to ride, they went around the sidewalk and in the next door school yard, when they were riding by themselves or with thier friends. When they were with me they went in front of me in the road, where I could watch them and teach them to handle the traffic. There werent any tag-along bikes in those days, but I would have loved to have riden with them on occasion at a slightly faster pace.

I'm not trolling. Just thought the thread title would get attention.

I wanted to have a discussion about having younger kids, who are learning to ride, start on the sidewalk. I made the following (edited) post:

"When I ride with my 6 and 4 year old around our suburban neighborhood, I have them ride on the sidewalk. I don't think a 4 year old on training wheels has any business riding in traffic. To be able to ride safely, we ride on the sidewalk. We dismount for all road crossings and my kids know that adults are supposed to be riding in the street because it is much safer for adults to ride there.

The street in front of our house gets virtually no traffic and we encourage our kids to ride there with supervision. They already know about keeping right, sightlines, and how to watch for traffic. My desire is to have my kids be confident, able, and responsible riders on their own." [End Quote]

For these reasons, I was saying I am not a fan of trail-along attachments for kids. Having them ride on their own limits our distance and I wind up pushing our 4 year old up some hills, but I'd still rather have him get experience on his own bike.

Thoughts?
I tend to agree with your strategy. You are teaching them traffic skills and keeping them out of harms way while they learn AND develop the cognitive strategies to be able to ride traffic! I don't think this is a troll, I think it's a reasonable position!

You are doing what I am doing basically. My wee one (almost 5 now) is on the road with me (there are almost no sidewalks here anyways) and is being taught to think like a "driver" of a road vehicle when on her bike. She loves it and sees nothing abnormal about it (afterall, daddy rides on the street, right?) :)

I wanted to have a discussion about having younger kids, who are learning to ride, start on the sidewalk. I made the following (edited) post:
"When I ride with my 6 and 4 year old around our suburban neighborhood, I have them ride on the sidewalk. I don't think a 4 year old on training wheels has any business riding in traffic. To be able to ride safely, we ride on the sidewalk. We dismount for all road crossings..."

For these reasons, I was saying I am not a fan of trail-along attachments for kids. Having them ride on their own limits our distance and I wind up pushing our 4 year old up some hills, but I'd still rather have him get experience on his own bike.

Thoughts?


With or without training wheels doesn't make any difference. But traffic and the width of your local streets make a difference. The 4 year old is rather slow, low and unsteady. So riding on the sidewalk makes sense most of the time.

One aspect where I don't follow you and many other people is when you ask your kid to stop and dismount before crossing a street. He should stop since he is on the sidewalk; but once the coast is clear, he is much safer riding his bike across the street instead of trying to push it. Asking someone to push a bike is as if we told drivers approaching a dangerous intersection to stop their engine and push their car through. Equally silly, equally ineffective and needlessly more hazardous than necessary.

My oldest daughter did some sidewalk riding at the very beginning, but a lot more in a few back lanes. Very early I put in her mind that she had to yield to pedestrians because it's their territory. Don't say "excuse me" when you come to a pedestrian, but rather pedal slowly behind him! Basically, as soon as she was steady, she wanted to ride in the street.

As for the trailercycle, I'm a fan of it. It has allowed my children to ride longer distances sooner than they would have been able otherwise. I think they are enjoying riding with daddy, including the long tours that we could not have done otherwise. And they have learned many aspects of riding in traffic much sooner than they could have done otherwise. Still, you don't ask the average 4-year old to ride 150 km in a single day, even with a trailercycle.

Your doing it right. Age 8 to 10 is suppose to be the proper age for bringing them onto the street.

Michel Gagnon brings up an interesting point and I can see both sides of it. On one hand, the child crossing a street on a bicycle is more visable, but on the other the child is slower in reaction time.
I'll pose a synapsis.
1.) The child pedals on the sidewalk, stops at the intersection, the coast seems clear, she then continues to pedal across the crosswalk. At that moment a motorist coming up behind her does not notice her, makes the right hand turn, suddenly sees the kid and slams on the brakes. The child sees this starting to happen and tries to pedal harder to get out of the way but is unable to get a quick increase in speed and an accident occures.
2.) The child pedals on the sidewalk, stops at the intersection, the coast seems clear, she dismounts her bicycle and begins to walk across the crosswalk. At that moment a motorist coming up behind her does not notice her, makes the right hand turn, suddenly sees the kid and slams on the brakes. The child sees this starting to happen and quickly drops the bike and jumps backwards to avoid the collision. since she is not on the bicycle her reaction is quicker and an accident is avoided.

In scenario 1 the child is more visable but slower to react. In scenario 2 the child is less visable (maybe?) but is quicker to react.
We all know this sort of thing (inattentive drivers making right turns) does happen, and quite frequently.

OP, I see what you are doing as the right thing to do. You are keeping your child safe while "teaching" them. Just because I showed my son how to change the oil in my car doesn't mean I'm going to hand him the jack, stands, wrenches, and bucket and let him at it. When he is old enough to handle the reponsibility I'll relinquish the reigns.

attn spelling/grammar nazis: my lack of proofreading my post is apathy, not lack of intelligence, so save your flames for the next shimano/campy debate

With or without training wheels doesn't make any difference. But traffic and the width of your local streets make a difference. The 4 year old is rather slow, low and unsteady. So riding on the sidewalk makes sense most of the time.

One aspect where I don't follow you and many other people is when you ask your kid to stop and dismount before crossing a street. He should stop since he is on the sidewalk; but once the coast is clear, he is much safer riding his bike across the street instead of trying to push it. Asking someone to push a bike is as if we told drivers approaching a dangerous intersection to stop their engine and push their car through. Equally silly, equally ineffective and needlessly more hazardous than necessary.

My oldest daughter did some sidewalk riding at the very beginning, but a lot more in a few back lanes. Very early I put in her mind that she had to yield to pedestrians because it's their territory. Don't say "excuse me" when you come to a pedestrian, but rather pedal slowly behind him! Basically, as soon as she was steady, she wanted to ride in the street.

As for the trailercycle, I'm a fan of it. It has allowed my children to ride longer distances sooner than they would have been able otherwise. I think they are enjoying riding with daddy, including the long tours that we could not have done otherwise. And they have learned many aspects of riding in traffic much sooner than they could have done otherwise. Still, you don't ask the average 4-year old to ride 150 km in a single day, even with a trailercycle.

I'd actually say that dismounting would be safer. It will give you child a much better chance of being able to look along the street to see approaching traffic.

My boys are 8 and 6, same age difference as the OP's but a few years along. I'm taking basically the same strategy. We started out on the sidewalks when they first learned to ride. Now I have begun teaching them about riding in the street and following car rules, but if they'd rather ride on the sidewalk, that's okay too for now, especially the younger one. But when they are out with me, they tend to want to do what Dad does. I watch them and praise them when they do well, such as looking over their shoulder before moving laterally, and when they signal. I definitely stress staying on the right side of the road, but tend to be less strict about which sidewalk. This is all on quiet residential streets.

For busy arterials (which we need to cross once in a while), we're still definitely on the sidewalk, and walking across crosswalks. We make them walk these because I have heard it said here that you are safer walking it than riding (more escape options), which may or may not be true. But also, I don't feel comfortable teaching them to treat riding like walking. Enough other people (drivers and riders alike) confuse riding a bike with being a pedestrian; I'd rather maintain the strict separation between the behaviors.

One reason is that we have a law here that cars have to stop for pedestrians in crosswalks, which is reinforced on many arterials by painting the crosswalks a solid bright yellow and posting signs. I feel if we are waiting to walk our bikes across, we are clearly pedestrians and the rule applies. If we are waiting to ride, it will give the drivers and any other cyclists observing us the impression that cyclists are to be treated as pedestrians, with which I disagree on principle. When I'm by myself, in the road, waiting on a side street to cross an arterial, I don't want everyone on the arterial to stop for me just because I'm on a bike. However, that has been known to happen (even though I've not dismounted and am not in the crosswalk), and it always bothers me!

I've never bothered with a trailer or tag-along. No ideological reason, just never got around to it! We did use training wheels for a short time.

Thanks for all of the replies.

I'll agree with JohnBrooking that my reason for dismounting is probably more for my kids and me than for drivers.
- Less risk of rolling into the street.
- My 6 year old (already a very good rider) will always stop and wait for me and his little brother to catch up. He won't go riding off into the street on his own.
- It creates a mental "break" at intersections. We have to stop, look around and I have to give the OK to cross.
- Serves as a reminder that we are not in exclusively bike riding space and that bikes don't really belong on the sidewalk.
- Finally, it makes riding on the sidewalk a bit of a drag. All the more incentive to learn to ride the "right" way.

My son is only three but I plan on taking the same approach as newbojeff. Not sure about dismounting as of yet. I am more inclined to have him do it.
Right now were are still at the stage where I am pulling him along with a trailer on residential streets. On busy streets we are on the sidewalk.

One aspect where I don't follow you and many other people is when you ask your kid to stop and dismount before crossing a street. He should stop since he is on the sidewalk; but once the coast is clear, he is much safer riding his bike across the street instead of trying to push it. Asking someone to push a bike is as if we told drivers approaching a dangerous intersection to stop their engine and push their car through. Equally silly, equally ineffective and needlessly more hazardous than necessary..

While this sounds reasonable I disagree. You are dealing with 4 year olds. This idea is a slippery slope. They should get off and walk across. Getting off and riding across means they are in a position to start cutting the stop shorter and shorter. Also if something does happen if they are riding in the crosswalk it will be , quite reasonably, assumed that they were riding and that they came off the sidewalk riding.



As for the trailercycle, I'm a fan of it. It has allowed my children to ride longer distances sooner than they would have been able otherwise. I think they are enjoying riding with daddy, including the long tours that we could not have done otherwise. And they have learned many aspects of riding in traffic much sooner than they could have done otherwise. Still, you don't ask the average 4-year old to ride 150 km in a single day, even with a trailercycle.

I agree totally. One thing the OP seemed to forget is that it is not either trailercycle or kid on his own bike. It can be some of each. I also think that kids are far smarter and perceptive than most adults think. What the kid wants is to have fun with mom and dad. That means kid has fun, mom hass fun and dad has fun. And kids can tell the difference. Riding with the kids each on their own bike is fun for a while, but only for a while. Once the kid gets it the thrill of the kid doing something new is gone and not too much longer and it is a chore to ride so slow. The trailerbike lets everyoen have fun, as long as mom and dad are smart enough to be sure the kid is pedaling and not just baggage.

You are safer to dismount at crosswalks and walk across the street. It may also be the law.

When I was a kid we'd ride up at our school after hours. Do they still let you do that? Just riding around aimlessly is a good way to build up your balance and strength.

...One thing the OP seemed to forget is that it is not either trailercycle or kid on his own bike. It can be some of each...

Of course. My experience with my kids has been that they couldn't wait to get out of the bike seat and onto their own bikes. YMMV.

When I was a kid we'd ride up at our school after hours. Do they still let you do that? Just riding around aimlessly is a good way to build up your balance and strength.
Sure. We like to ride over to their school and play at the playground for a while. When they were younger, we'd ride around and around a parking lot down the street that was empty in the evenings. I could amuse myself by seeing how slowly I could ride, or in how small a circle, or practicing my evasive maneuvers. (Or even jumping the curb with the kids.) But I have a feeling that parking lot is so "last year" now... :rolleyes:

It's a good move. Sidewalks are much safer than streets. I hear about far too many bikers getting killed because they were riding on the road, it's WAY too dangerous out there to do that.

It's a good move. Sidewalks are much safer than streets. I hear about far too many bikers getting killed because they were riding on the road, it's WAY too dangerous out there to do that.
http://www.dontfeedthetroll.de/images/dftt.gif

Of course children this age and skill level should be riding on the sidewalk.

I think an adult with children has to make the call for his/her own children. We don't have any sidewalks in my neighborhood, so I rode slowly behind my daughter while she learned to balance her bike riding in the street. Almost no traffic. Before that, we took her to a local park.

It's a good move. Sidewalks are much safer than streets for very small children, yet certainly safe for adults. I hear about far too many sensational stories of bikers getting killed while they were riding on the road, but I am too smart to believe that it's WAY too dangerous out there to do that for those over a certain age or maturity level.


Here you go. I think you accidentally left out a few words.

I agree. Kids are slow on bikes and thus are at pedestrian speeds. Now all you need to do to be übersafe is to dismount and walk them through crosswalks...don't let 'em ride through them. :)