About ten years ago, my (then) 5 year old son had his bike stolen from the school from the school playground while pupils and staff were all inside during lessons. Whilst we expect to get bikes stolen periodically, I was surprised that anyone would steal a child’s bike from a playground, particularly as it involved walking in from the street and presumably spending some time cutting through the lock. However the bigger surprise was the school’s response when we reported it - that he shouldn’t be cycling to school at that age anyway. This view was also supported by our local cycling campaign group.
Roll forward to 2016, and the school run in our area at least has become much more cycle friendly. Whilst it remains illegal to ride on pavements, it is a rule not enforeced by Police, as most people see small children on a bicycle as friendlier than parking a car across a pavement. Like most schools, children are encouraged to walk, cycle (and scoot) to school with parents supervising until they have completed some form of on-road training like Bikeability, sometimes still nostalgically referred to as Cycling Proficiency. After this, children should be able to cycle independently. In our area, the vast majority of children live within a mile of their primary school - there is a school every couple of miles or so, not a good distance for a car journey. Even so, only 1% of British children travel to school by bike.
Kids love bikes. They are fast. They can look cool. They have bells that make noises and lights that flash. They can potter along together with relatively little effort. A mile is a fairly long daily walk for very small children, but is a breeze on a bicycle, and the thrill of it takes away the boredom of walking that brings on the “I’m too tired….” phrase that we don’t all love. The thrill doesn’t really wear off with age - my children aged from 10 - 15 still get as much pleasure from riding to school as they did when they giggled away in their bike-mounted toddler seats. Perhaps most importantly, it prepares them for life as older children and young adults when a bicycle is inevitably their main means of transport, particularly to friends, clubs, and parks a couple of miles away. More practically for me personally, it means that after drop-off, I carry on to work on my bike, breezing past other parents sitting in traffic jams having dropped their children at pre-school clubs.
Safety is a worry, but a really irrational one. My picture taken as I dropped off my youngest daughter at primary school yesterday illustrates the difficulties of combining almost 400 children arriving at the same site each morning by a combination of car, feet, and bikes. This will always be the case. Many drivers would like to see bikes banned from the road, other parents want to restrict car journeys to school gates. Cars are big, they are hard to see round, they move quickly and doors open unexpectedly. Whilst the occasional graze from flying over handlebars or skidding round a corner is crucial part of growing up, the potential impact by a vehicle travelling 5 times the speed of a bike is never far away from a parent’s mind. However, it is important to get some perspective on this. According to Government stats collected over the last 5 years, the general risk of injury of any severity whilst cycling is 0.05 per 1,000 hours of cycling. Cycle deaths, whilst horrific to contemplate, only occur on average once per 29 million miles of cycle travel in Britain, less risky on an hourly basis than gardening (although that may be partly to do with my children’s Ninja approach to spring pruning). Seriously - its scary - but not dangerous.
There is something of a fashion parade in children’s bikes. Children whose parents really love them normally have Isla Bikes. Ranging in price from around £300 up to £750, these are so good, so very very good that they are rarely brought out of the house. However they do hold their second-hand value, so you get your money back. They are properly designed to children rather than being adult bikes cut down to smaller proportions. Consequently they are much more comfortable and lighter. Time will be when the phrase “this is the Rolls Royce of…..” will become “This is the IslaBike of….”
Sadly for my offspring, my meanness stretches to whatever is available on eBay or Gumtree as they grow out of their previous bikes, usually every 2 or 3 years. Our price range has varied from £6 (ironically one of the best bikes we ever bought) up to £40. Children’s bikes get scratched against fences, left outside, ridden through rivers, woods and over rocks, skidded across anything remotely slippery; and are generally not worth being prissy or generous with. Love for a bike comes from regular use and adventures together rather than looking really nice all the time. I see no need for starter bikes without pedals, just take off the pedals for a normal bike, re-fixing them once they have the hang of it.
The five-year old is now 15 and rides off with his posse to secondary school a couple of miles away each morning. The school provides plenty of bike racks away from the road and with a separate access from the main car entrance. The school makes clear that at secondary school age they cannot ride on pavements, enforcing fixed term exclusions on any kids caught doing so. Whilst I think the school could be more encouraging towards cyclists, I am convinced that getting used to cycling as a means of transport at this age is a welcome set-up for adult life. Its quicker, cleaner, healthier, and crucially - pleasurable!
