Trikeathon
In a local newsletter, I read an announcement that there had been a "trike-a-thon" which had included two days of "bike safety" instruction. The lessons were, the newsletter said: 1. Always wear a helmet. 2. Never ride in the street. 3. Be careful near driveways. 4. Always watch where you are going. At first glance, steam started coming out of my ears, but on reflection, if you assume that the lessons were presented in order of increasing importance, so that "watch where you are going" would be the lesson most likely to be taken away with the children, the syllabus is potentially not all that bad. #4. is the most-important aspect of operating any vehicle, and if we catch them young, perhaps there will be fewer instances of people barrelling down the Interstate with their heads under the dashboard. #3. "Be careful near driveways" can be seen as preliminary to learning how to deal with intersections. One presumes that these students aren't allowed to cross streets without adult supervision, but they do have to learn how to deal with driveways. #2. was the chief cause of the steam, but a child too young to cross a street really ought not to be allowed to play in the street. Pedestrians reasonably *can* be expected to walk around three-year-olds playing on the sidewalk. Once, when a child chided me for riding my bike in the street, I explained "I took lessons and got a certificate. When you are twelve, you can take lessons too." That incident alone was worth all the time I spent in Effective Cycling class. I wonder whether the class included any children from this neighborhood. The street *is* the sidewalk here, and I see children on trikes on Boys' City Drive all summer long; they mostly get out of the way of the joggers and the walkers. A substantial number of parents let the kid tag along on a tricycle instead of pushing him in a carriage. #1. urrgh. A child on a trike is actually less likely to bump his head than one running around the way small children do. But you have to put helmets on the kids or the superstitious will go ape. The only harm helmets do is distracting people from actually-useful safety techniques*, and a couple of minutes spent complying with the superstition minimizes the distraction. And if the kids are going to be required to wear helmets, you have to teach them how to wear them as the first lesson. I *do* hope they taught them how to wear them; I see all too many children with dangling chin straps and helmets that you can see from twenty feet away don't fit. And one sees rakishly-tilted helmets in the illustrations on "safety" literature! ------------- * Helmets are also a waste of money that could be spent on education or brakes, but America is filthy, rolling-in-it *rich* compared to what we had when I was that age, and we can waste a few bucks on hats and still have enough to pay a teacher and overhaul the bike. -- Joy Beeson joy beeson at comcast dot net http://roughsewing.home.comcast.net/ The above message is a Usenet post. I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site. |
Trikeathon
On 4/1/2011 12:18 AM, Joy Beeson wrote:
In a local newsletter, I read an announcement that there had been a "trike-a-thon" which had included two days of "bike safety" instruction. The lessons were, the newsletter said: 1. Always wear a helmet. 2. Never ride in the street. 3. Be careful near driveways. 4. Always watch where you are going. At first glance, steam started coming out of my ears, but on reflection, if you assume that the lessons were presented in order of increasing importance, so that "watch where you are going" would be the lesson most likely to be taken away with the children, the syllabus is potentially not all that bad. #4. is the most-important aspect of operating any vehicle, and if we catch them young, perhaps there will be fewer instances of people barrelling down the Interstate with their heads under the dashboard. #3. "Be careful near driveways" can be seen as preliminary to learning how to deal with intersections. One presumes that these students aren't allowed to cross streets without adult supervision, but they do have to learn how to deal with driveways. #2. was the chief cause of the steam, but a child too young to cross a street really ought not to be allowed to play in the street. Pedestrians reasonably *can* be expected to walk around three-year-olds playing on the sidewalk. Once, when a child chided me for riding my bike in the street, I explained "I took lessons and got a certificate. When you are twelve, you can take lessons too." That incident alone was worth all the time I spent in Effective Cycling class. I wonder whether the class included any children from this neighborhood. The street *is* the sidewalk here, and I see children on trikes on Boys' City Drive all summer long; they mostly get out of the way of the joggers and the walkers. A substantial number of parents let the kid tag along on a tricycle instead of pushing him in a carriage. May I ride my recumbent trike in the street? #1. urrgh. A child on a trike is actually less likely to bump his head than one running around the way small children do. But you have to put helmets on the kids or the superstitious will go ape. The only harm helmets do is distracting people from actually-useful safety techniques*, and a couple of minutes spent complying with the superstition minimizes the distraction. And if the kids are going to be required to wear helmets, you have to teach them how to wear them as the first lesson. The promotion of bicycle foam hats promotes the false notion that cycling is an unusually dangerous activity, and therefore is anti-cycling. Use of bicycle foam hats also appears to grant cagers the idea that they do not have to be careful around cyclists, since the Magic Foam Hat will not only reduce head injuries up to 85%, but also leg and other non-head injuries up to 70%. I *do* hope they taught them how to wear them; I see all too many children with dangling chin straps and helmets that you can see from twenty feet away don't fit. And one sees rakishly-tilted helmets in the illustrations on "safety" literature! ------------- * Helmets are also a waste of money that could be spent on education or brakes, but America is filthy, rolling-in-it *rich* compared to what we had when I was that age, and we can waste a few bucks on hats and still have enough to pay a teacher and overhaul the bike. Mandating foam hat use for children is a form of corporate welfare. -- Tēm ShermĒn - 42.435731,-83.985007 I am a vehicular cyclist. |
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