Recreational & Family - Teaching kids that drivers are often idiots

As I ride more on the roads with my 9-year-old son, I'm finding it interesting to see how he reacts to stupid drivers; Case in point:

We were just at the beginning of a long bike ride yesterday ( 36 miles! Yay! ), and going through the business district of our relatively small town, on the sidewalk - no shoulders, extremely busy road, pretty much idiocy to even attempt taking a kid on the road.

We come across a driveway in which the driver is positioned to back herself out. The truck is all the way across the sidewalk, angled towards oncoming traffic. As we approached, I noticed she didn't look our way at *all*. I stop my son, and tell him to wait. He asks why we don't just go around the front of the truck; I tell him, "Because she hasn't looked our way once, and that means she's a bad driver, and bad drivers do really stupid things" - this was after waiting about 30 seconds.

Another 30 seconds pass, and my son says, "Come on, lets just go around the front". Just as he finishes saying that, she sees a break in traffic, guns the truck... and moves *forwards* 5 feet, then throws it into reverse and squeals backwards out into traffic.

I'm not sure who had the biggest "Oh crap!" expression on their face; Her, when she finally looked and saw us there, or my son, when he realized he would have been a bug on the grill of the truck, regardless of how he tried to go around her.

I hope both of them learned something. I know my son did, though I don't have high hopes for the driver. The rest of the day, he was *extremely* careful whenever we got into a situation where he could have gotten doored or right-hooked.

Unfortunately, there is nothing like experience to really teach things. I just hope he and all the other little ones out there survive their experiences.

Kids (and adults) need to be taught to pay attention to their surroundings. The kids on my street are oblivious to the fact that they're rollerblading, riding, etc on a road.

Aristole taught observation in the natural world was the best way to learn. It hasn't changed. Glad you were both safe

It's moments this scares me so much when I am out with my daughter. She's just learned to ride her bike at the start of this summer and is a bit jittery still of course.
This next school year her school will take biking trips pretty often to the woods and around the town. I am worried about her being distracted by the other students when shes out riding and not being aware enough of her environment and the poorly skilled drivers out there. She could get seriously injured. When she is with me she is very good, yet still a little clumsy but when shes with her friends she is only focused on them, showing off and having fun. I can't express the anxiety I feel about not being able to be there to supervise her.

imho, best way to teach em is to actually have them ride and let them know all the rules and safety measures and courtesy as a cyclist

everything else is out of our hands (idiot drivers)

Every single time I am out with my kids I point out idiotic drivers. I drill drill drill in to them that drivers do not see them when they are walking or biking.