"Chris" wrote in message
...
Colin Blackburn wrote:
As I walked into work today I walked behind a pavement cyclist. I'd seen
him coming up the hill, and it was a fairly steep hill for the bike he
was on. He still made fast enough progress that he didn't inconvenience
me at all despite a few wobbles.

He was, of course, only 5 years old and on his way to school. His mum
was walking behind him and she occasionally put a re-assuring (for her!)
hand on his back when he wobbled. His bike had one gear and plastic
platform pedals---it was raining fairly heavily---yet he went up that
hill faster than many of the adult cyclists I see. His feet only came of
the pedals once and that was when he hit the flat bit after the hill.
His mum then had to run to keep tabs on him he was going that fast.

A few minutes later I passed another child, who by way of contrast had
just got out of a car and complained to his mum that he was getting wet!

Colin

Excellent! Now I think about it, I wonder at what point Pavement Cycling
becomes a Bad Thing? If we lived in a part of the world that had
pavements, we probably would have done the same with our kids.

I guess the next stage is to ride with them on the road as an escort,
and gradually wean them off any guidance until you are happy they can
manage the road for themselves. After that point, pavement cycling is a
no no.

That's pretty much what we did, but without the pavement bit.

--
Chris

Whilst reading something on a local authority road safety website I noticed
that they do not offer cycle training to under 10s as they consider that
they are too young to safely ride on the road and understand the dangers or
training.

I guess that this means they either do not ride at all other than off road
or have to ride on pavements.

Personally, I have no problems with riders using pavements providing they
are courteous. It is no different to to sharing in remote areas where the
cycle path is also a footpath, or the canal bank or even sharing with
electric wheelchairs and the buggy type things that pensioners and disabled
people drive some of them like lunatics.

Dave
UK