When I was in 1st or 2nd grade the school would set up a mini road course with all the different traffic signs, road markings, pedestrian crossings and so on. Then us kids would take a driving test on our bicycles. It had to be the cutest thing ever but it also did help in getting the rules of the road when one is biking across at an early age.

I'm curious did anyone else have this experience and do they do something like this anywhere now? Here they have"safety town" which doesn't focus on biking at all.

https://www.hbl.org/be-bike-ed-v1/

Was Germany ever not capitalist?


I take it you were raised in FRG (West)?

Yes indeed, the East was not capitalist when I was a child in the West. Walk on the left side of the street and bike on the right.

Yes, I remember it well because it was quite absurd. I was raised in the Netherlands and at this point in time, 1982, the return to cycling was already national policy and safety was a big concern after all the traffic deaths of the early 70's. These cycling lessons in schools where introduced that year that I was in 5th or 6th grade of elementary school so I must have been 10 or 11 years old. So we didn't have our usual lesson in the afternoon, but we had to get our own bikes out of the bike parking into the school yard were a police officer and some municipal civil servant had placed some traffic cones to make a course and we should ride around it and stick a hand out before every turn.

But our bikes were there because we all biked to school for more than a year. Every morning, wind, rain, snow or ice, I biked 3 miles to school, partly on bike lanes, partly on the open road, we negotiated dangerous crossings, we handled cars, trucks and busses, lots of other kids on bikes and then at this tiny school yard they're going to learn us how to ride a bike and judge whether we are good enough to get a certificate? Basically we revolted, we were insulted, there's no better way to get kids mad than treating them like they're younger than they are. So we started showing off our skills and made a competition out of it, the most fun was when the civil servant yelled to stick your hand out for the turn to stick the only one out that was on the handle bar and take the turn hands off. The police officer was cool about it but the civil servant got really frustrated and called in the help of the headmaster who restored a bit of the order, but handing out the certificates wasn't the celebration moment she had in mind because it was met with indifference.

We were really serious about our bikes, our bike meant freedom and independence and there was pride in knowing how to handle it well, go fast and in special skills like wheelies, handsfree riding and jumping. But we were very well aware that a car, truck or bus could kill us. If we weren't our parents would have us take the bus the school, and that would be really humiliating and you would get laughed at by the other kids.

Now I believe cycling lessons in school are a good idea, but you have to start very early and take kids seriously when it comes to cycling. And don't disturb the motivation to ride safely that comes from within. The main reason me and thousands of other kids in that town survived wasn't these lessons and not even what our parents learned us, but the fact that is was 'cool' to be good at handling traffic situations, to be trusted by your parents at a younger age than the others was a matter of pride and had a lot of rewards.

Yes, we did something like this in the second grade, CA 1970. This was back in the days of recess and when kids walked or rode bikes to and from school. Now, they sit in the car while parents line up in the car pool lane and never see the outside again until they turn 50 or so and take up cycling.

I was born in (West)Berlin. I was only there until I was 3yrs.-old. But I do remember things like that.

There was a brief period, back around the middle of the last century ...

And it was very safe to ride a bicycle at that time......unfortunately just about everything else was fatal......

44yrs.(1945-1989), Twenty-eight(1961-1989) of those being with the Berlin Wall. Is not a brief period.

I suppose it depends upon your frame of reference.

When my girls were growing up, school called it Bike Rodeo, and it was like a holiday for the kids - bring a bike to school

I recall something like that in 1969 at a school in San Angelo Texas. They had a little course mapped out and went over basic skills and traffic awareness. Being in the 4th or 5th grade I didn't participate but I thought it was pretty awesome for the younger kids.

I think they still do something like that, or else they did one day a couple years ago here at my kids' school. They passed out helmets to all the kids, however I think my son is the only one who ever wears one.