# Parents: do you let your kid(s) cycle to school?



## william_just (28 May 2014)

Yes or No?


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## DCLane (28 May 2014)

I'm a "no" because there aren't secure facilities / any bike storage.

Happy to report we're working on it because son no. 2 wants to cycle to school.


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## summerdays (28 May 2014)

I qualify my yes with, I did at primary school, but I rode as well, both of us on the road. Now they are all at secondary school (or beyond), which is closer so there isn't any point getting the bike out to get to the other end of the road.

In fact thinking about it the youngest probably didn't ride to school less than 20 times over the entire 7 years at the school, though did start off on the pavement.


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## 4F (29 May 2014)

Yes, my youngest daughter (10) cycles 1 mile on her own to primary school and my son (14) cycles 3.5 miles to secondary. Eldest daughter (16) insists on taking the free school bus.


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## stuee147 (29 May 2014)

my older 2 both have cycled to school at different times once i knew they were competent on the roads


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## fossyant (29 May 2014)

My lad does, been doing it every day since starting high school. He is the only one in about 1000 that does cycle. Large unused covered bike shed. Oh and he has type 1 diabetes, so has to be careful he doesn't go low on the way home (has been doing recently).

He also has an N+1 for school !


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## John the Monkey (29 May 2014)

The question has never come up, but given the treatment my daughter and I got when we cycled the same route on a Sunday (close passes, tailgating), I'd be tending to "no". Shame, because it's an eminently cyclable distance, on a road on which everyone moans about school run traffic (my two get the school bus).


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## Fab Foodie (29 May 2014)

Yes. The girls did and my 14 year old lad is still. It's quite common in Abingdon


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## cardiac case (29 May 2014)

We have a village primary with 90 pupils and I can't imagine anything more dangerous.
The surrounding roads are no problem but as you near the school the chance of being knocked off your bike
by a child running out from between the 89 parked 4x4's is very high indeed.


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## Beebo (30 May 2014)

cardiac case said:


> We have a village primary with 90 pupils and I can't imagine anything more dangerous.
> The surrounding roads are no problem but as you near the school the chance of being knocked off your bike
> by a child running out from between the 89 parked 4x4's is very high indeed.


 
90 in the whole school! My daughters primary school has 120 pupils in each year group, so you can imagine the chaos on the roads.
My daughter is 7, she does cycle, but with one of us walking behind, so she has to stop every so often for us to catch up. My 2 year old son goes on his scooter. When we get near the school the pavements and roads get so busy that she has to get off and walk.


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## User169 (30 May 2014)

Yes, but that is normal here and I cycle with them as it's on the way to work. The older one (9) could cycle on her own and some of her classmates do. The younger one (6) still shows an alarming lack of road awareness and I wouldn't ride alone. Once they go to secondary school, they'll go on their own since we'll likely be going in different directions.


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## numbnuts (30 May 2014)

My local school lets kids ride, but they have to past the bikeability test first which is good, but then they all cycle on the pavement, why sorry I just don't get it.


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## Sara_H (30 May 2014)

We only live about 3 minute walk or so from school so my Y6 son walks there.

I don't let him ride alone yet. Despite riding with me regularly and having done Bikeability level 2 the roads local to us are too complex and fast moving for him to navigate safely.


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## 4F (30 May 2014)

Sara_H said:


> We only live about 3 minute walk or so from school so my Y6 son walks there.
> 
> I don't let him ride alone yet. Despite riding with me regularly and having done Bikeability level 2 the roads local to us are too complex and fast moving for him to navigate safely.



I think this is the thing, all road conditions have to be taken into account, ours is very rural with a nice wide road and she only has 1 left turn to negotiate. She is still only Y5 but has already done the bikeability course and to be fair she has been riding with me on the road since she was 5 and probably has more road sense than her brother who is 4 yours older...


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## Colin B (30 May 2014)

I'm a no because my youngests school is across the road and the eldests is 2 minutes away and that's without going into the lack of places to store them once there.


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## PpPete (30 May 2014)

We're a yes.
It's about a mile, so they usualy walk with their friends but sometimes ride.

School has a policy that they must use the subway under the busy "main" road, rather than what can be a rather fraught right turn into the school.


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## ACS (30 May 2014)

Yes he's a teacher.


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## mickle (30 May 2014)

Yes. it's a mile and it's pavement, quiet road and cyclepath all the way. The middle one has been doing on her own since she was eight.


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## william_just (17 Jun 2014)

Well, so far, that's a comfortable Yes majority in response to the question, which is very heartening – and surprising when put into a national context – but everyone on this forum is a cyclist, of course, which obviously makes a difference!

I'm very much all for kids cycling to school – so much so, in fact, that I've even written and illustrated a kids' picture book all about it. Please take a look here:

http://yngbkrz.tumblr.com

Of course, the lack of decent cycling infrastructure, and the incredible amount of 'school run' traffic on the roads, are often determining factors. Two issues that MUST be tackled, sooner rather than later. Schools really should start taking this seriously, on behalf of their kids, and parents who care should be insisting that something is done about it.

Does anyone have any thoughts on the matter?


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## shouldbeinbed (17 Jun 2014)

Happy for mine to but they choose not to, not as easy to meet up with their friends and wander in. Also the storage is exposed to the elements & I don't trust its security when I ride in.


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## I like Skol (17 Jun 2014)

william_just said:


> Does anyone have any thoughts on the matter?


Yes! My oldest son is now 11 and in year 6 at junior school. We have been occasionally cycling to school for around 3 years with younger son who is currently 8. Some weeks we do all 5 days then some weeks only 1 day or none at all depending on weather and my shift pattern. It is 2.5 miles each way along a mix of roads, pedestrianized town centre and old railway cycle track. Since last autumn when oldest son was just 10 and starting his final year at junior school he has been allowed to do the trip alone, with me and younger son following in his tracks or doing the parallel journey by car.
Oldest son's road sense far exceeds many adult bike riders I know. He is doing the annual Manchester - Blackpool charity ride in a few weeks with my work colleagues and on a recent social/training pre-event ride he demonstrated his superior road sense very clearly and I actually spent very little time riding with him and supervising him during the 40 mile ride.
IMO there is not a lot wrong with the current cycling infrastructure. If an 11yr old can be taught to safely use a multiple lane roundabout (I'm talking about the 2/3/4 lane stuff around the Trafford Centre) then the problem is clearly an issue of training for the cyclist and awareness on the part of the car drivers.
Younger son doesn't seem quite as savvy as his older brother but then again, he is 3 yrs behind his brother and is busy copying his older sibling, so may well be even more advanced by the time he reaches 11?


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## MarkF (17 Jun 2014)

Yes, my daughter cycles to school, on a major A road, she is the only girl that does. Out of 1000 pupils I'd say maybe 10 cycle in, probably less. My son has stopped cycling in as he is 15 and thinks it's uncool but he uses the same road to cycle on his paper round earlier.


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## Arjimlad (23 Jun 2014)

When my sons had done their stage 2 cycle training at school we let them ride to school. Y6 and upwards.

There are swarms of schoolkids on bikes at these times, on quiet residential streets and most drivers know to keep a good distance from them and drive slowly. Sometimes the Mummies even put their mobile phones down !


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## summerdays (23 Jun 2014)

[QUOTE 3145218, member: 259"]

My kids ride to school, but most here do, until they get to about 12 or 13, perhaps older for boys. A surprising number use scooters and inline skates. [/QUOTE]
Are you saying that the teenagers over with you don't?


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## Mummy3monkeys (8 Sep 2014)

Five yr old not yet, I'm not brave enough to. 8 yr old has ridden a couple of times in the last year, always with an adult. I don't trust the idiot drivers down there to let her go alone. I have taught her rd safety, but she has been cut up by said idiot drivers with me and hubby. Not sure when I'll be happy to let her. Shame as its only a 10 minute ride.


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## User10119 (8 Sep 2014)

Eldest rode to and from school fairly regularly, under adult supervision, for most of primary school, although it's less than a mile. When me and their dad split (and he got a flat a bit further away) for a while they all rode in when the boys stayed there, with the littly in a seat on the back of his dad's bike until I acquired a taglong for them.

The big'un rides to secondary (and around town, to the shops/friends etc) on his own these days - I got him a 'pub bike' bmx that I was prepared to have left in school bike sheds and the littly, now 7, generally stokes the tandem for me on the way there and I then ride the tandem stokerless round my various work site. The stoker seat is often quite hotly contested on the way home as there's a few other kids from the same school who live nearby who like a turn. I've been known to go through 3 stokers in one journey!


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## I like Skol (16 Sep 2014)

Oldest son has been at secondary school for nearly 2 weeks now and today has asked to ride his bike to school. It's only 0.8 miles so hardly worth the trouble but I feel it helps his opinion of cycling as transport rather than just for fun. A quick pedal change from SPDs to flats and he was off.... "Dad, it feels really weird not being clipped in!"

It's only a bitsa MTB but it has some decent bits on it so I have instructed him in making sure he locks up properly and not to draw attention to the fact he has cycled as that will encourage the 'pranksters' and he doesn't want to come back to his bike tonight to find flat tyres or stolen Q/Rs.

Good luck son 

Oh, and I let him go without a helmet


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## Drago (16 Sep 2014)

My 17 year old drives herself to school because the bus prices are extortionate, and the local country roads full of loons that thinkt speed limit is a minimum target so cycling is dicey.

My 3 year old walks to pre school with me, but that's in the same village.


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## summerdays (16 Sep 2014)

I was opening the blinds this morning and noticed a girl cycling to primary school judging by the uniform. They were unaccompanied, and cycling on the road, and probably year 5 or year 6.


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## benb (16 Sep 2014)

My son has cycled with me on the one day a week when I take him since he was 5½. He is now 6. There is a one way section, so he can go in front of me and I can protect him from the back. There is a roundabout that we have been over when it's mostly clear, but if not we hop onto the pavement.

His road sense needs some work, but he understands the door zone!


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## I like Skol (16 Sep 2014)

[QUOTE 3281963, member: 45"]When we were kids we were out and about much earlier. So children these days are more behind in terms of learning.[/QUOTE]
This^^^^^

IMO kids today seem to have more independence but less of the ability or common sense that should go hand in hand with independence, or maybe I am just an old fashioned git looking back to 'the good old days' through my rose tinted specs?


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## ianrauk (16 Sep 2014)

My 4½yo is cycling to school but with either Mrs Ian or myself walking with him. (It's only ½ mile walk) He has a cable combination lock of which he has learnt how to lock and unlock.
Looking in the bike shed, out of a school of 210 there are only 2 other (bigger) bikes. The shed is chock full of scooters.


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## ianrauk (16 Sep 2014)

[QUOTE 3281979, member: 45"]No. When I was 7 my mom used to cross us over the busy road at the bottom of ours and I'd walk the rest of the way to school.

Mind you, where you live makes a difference. Now we live in a small, quieter and more accountable town the boys are a lot more independent. When we lived in Birmingham they wouldn't have been safe going to the park a few houses down the street on their own.[/QUOTE]


We will have a similar problem with a busy road.
Unfortunately to get to Jnr's school we have to cross a very busy A Road. So can't see any time in the near future jnr crossing it on his own.


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## User169 (17 Sep 2014)

Oldest daughter (9) completed her first solo ride home from school today. It's not very far and there's only one difficult junction, but it does feel like a bit of a watershed moment.


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## noodle (17 Sep 2014)

little boy of 6 sort of does its only a half mile and he is on the pavement with his stabilisers still on. he is proud to wear a helmet and makes me put mine on when i deliberatly forget. 
i am refusing his other wish though he found my old mint sauce mbuk top and wants me to wear it on the ride from school


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