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Old 11-08-25 | 12:40 PM
  #147  
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Doug64
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From: Oregon
Originally Posted by jamawani
Absolutely.
Although sales of bicycles did jump during the Covid pandemic. When they were in stock.
I suspect that many of those bikes are rusting quietly in garages and storage sheds.

The shocking stat is how few children are cycling.
Many of us "of a certain age" lived on our bikes as kids.
Go by any elementary school today and the bike racks are mostly empty.
Go by at 7:30a and there is a line of cars dropping off kids.
In fact, most schools build in the past 30 years have drop-off and pick-up lanes.

Atlantic article, firewalled
https://www.theatlantic.com/family/a...ecline/683377/
The number of kids who rode 6+ times a year dropped from 20 million in the 1990s to 10 million in 2023,
The kicker - only 5% of kids rode their bike "frequently".

Because I could bike to school in any weather, deliver newspapers,
bike to the drug store, bike to the park, bike where I shouldn't bike to,
(In Puerto Rico, no less.)
I had the ability to imagine biking across the country.
That is no longer a shared experience with younger generations.

You can't have adventures on a bicycle if you can't bike.
Organizations like the League of American Bicyclists addressed this issue.
ACA put its focus elsewhere.
My wife and I are involved in teaching bike safety to the 5th graders in our school district for seven years. It is a one to two week course depending on how the teachers can fit it into their schedules. I usually work with the kids that do not know how to ride a bike. During that short time I have worked with an increasing number of kids that do not know how to ride a bike; starting with 1 kid per class up to 5 per class in the more recent sessions. Covid may have had something to do with it, but it still is worrisome. My perception is that less kids are riding bikes. It is all connected.

Last edited by Doug64; 11-08-25 at 06:36 PM.
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