Originally Posted by bwileyr
The education needs to begin at the same time the cycling begins. Attempting to teach someone pedal vehicle driving after they've already been taught to cycle in the gutter (or even further to the outside) is remarkably ineffective.
I was not saying that traffic education could not start earlier, but that full traffic education should be at the high school level. In the same way that we do not allow a grade 6 student to drive a car, I don't think young kids should be allowed to cycle on major roads. They do not need to know the ins-and-outs of the local traffic laws (parking, freeways, demerit point system, DUI...) I also do not think this would have to be part of the
curriculum in grade school, although it can still be taught. The distinction here is that a student must pass ALL parts of the curriculum to graduate... so my feeling is that you should not be able to graduate from high school without basic traffic skills (cycling and motor vehicle).
Having said all that, most kids can't read or write anyway, so I have no reason to think they would learn traffic skills if they were taught in school. (I taught college courses part-time for two years, the lack of basic language skills from recent high school grads was frightening).