Father and child on a bike

[piprabbit]

Saw a father and his beautiful little DD (probably about 18 months old) riding along a busy road today.

The father was holding the child on his right hip and neither were wearing any form of helmet or protective gear.

He was whizzing along and decided to turn right across a mini roundabout just in front of me (I was driving). Of course he couldn't indicate his intention to turn right (what with having to hold his DD), nor did he look over his shoulder to see who was behind him, he just pedalled even harder and swooped across my lane and straight across the junction.

AIBU to think that he should have walked, carrying the toddler and pushing the bike instead of riding like a loon.

Have you been to India:

this is very common

But I suspect there are many accidents!

piprabbit the only bit of your post that made me "hmm?" at all was the mention of "neither were wearing any form of helmet or protective gear." Other than downhill racers and very little kids I don't think I've ever seen cyclists with any "protective gear" other than helmets and maybe some gloves if it's cold!

I fully join in with the judging of this particular twatish individual and his toddler juggling; it's just that someone else had already chimed in with "ooh aren't those tag alongs dangerous too" so I wanted to contribute my thoughts on a child + a bike not being an automatic sign of their parents having a deathwish.

givemushypeas - the thread wasn't a general "kids shouldn't ride on bikes" bashing though so not sure why you made the comments you did?

I think it was the fact that the little girl didn't even have sleeves or legs covered. Having had a friend who came off his motorbike at a fairly slow speed while wearing shorts, I couldn't help thinking about the damage if she hit the tarmac. Not saying she should have been wearing leathers or anything , just that there seemed to be zero effort to mitigate any of the risks related to riding around with her on his hip.

Iggly - two posters had already mentioned cycling with a baby in a sling and skiing with kids, then someone else mentioned tag-along trailers. Threads like this rarely stick to only discussing the exact circumstances seen in an OP! I commented on the OP and then offered in my 2p on the general topic of bikes and children as well.

Piprabbit - I cycle around in shorts and a t-shirt and do sometimes picture what might happen if I skid over when coming down a hill, and it's not pretty. But I don't think lightweight summer clothing would do much to help. The one actual coming-off-my-bike experience I've had as an adult I was wearing jeans and still ended up with gravel embedded in my leg! But to be fair I had worse injuries trying to walk to work when the roads were icy last winter and I was bundled up like a snowman!

You should have just stopped and given him a jolly good telling off. Silly silly man.