to cycle my toddler to nursery?

[splashymcsplash]

I have recently moved my dd to a new fabulous nursery, but unfortunately it is 2 miles from my home. (The nursery provision near me is woeful to say the least).

Dd loves her new nursery and I am totally happy with my move, but while 2 miles doesn't sound that far, it can take up to an hour in London traffic on the bus. Plus dd hates the bus.

I was thinking of cycling her in, which I think would take around 10-15 minutes. (maybe a cyclist could tell me how long it takes to cycle 2 miles?). This would mean far less of both our days wasted in traffic.

I would cycle almost exclusively through low traffic, residential, back streets. However my mum, and her dad, both think I'm nuts and it's far too dangerous.

What do you think? And if anyone doesn't think I'm nuts could you recommend a bike/child seat? (dd is 19 months)

Do it! Statistically cyclists live much longer than non-cyclists - is a good form of exercise. Anything that teaches your child to take daily exercise or just be active is a Good Thing. Well, almost anything....

I think it depend on the route and your confidence.

If it was something like 2m up the Old Kent Road I would say no (narrow lanes, random parking, lots of buses, crazy drivers) but on a quieter route I would say it is a good idea.

We started dd in a Weeride when she was about eighteen months old. When she turned three we got a trailgator bar which hooks to my seat post and her handlebar stem and picks her front wheel up. We bike on fairly busy roads and she has a helmet and high vis vest. She learnt to pedal without stabilisers when she was four and since then she bikes under her own power and I tow her back. I think she has a much better idea of how traffic works because of this.

DH used to cycle DS to nursery or childminder with a bike trailer.
Now he is bigger , I cycle him to school or childminder by Tandem or his own bike.

Cycling her is fine.

Recycling her is less so.

I used to find the trailer was VERY noticeable and I was given a lot more room by overtaking cars when I had the trailer on than with out it. The Tandem was MUCH worse for being "cut into" to soon by drivers who didn't expect a 10 foot long bike to be going that fast.

Neither DH nor I liked kiddy seats on our bikes. Tried it ( someone elses), didn't like it. Tried a trailer, liked it. I have a cargo trailer now as I missed the load carrying utility of the kiddy trailer once we had passed it on.

The city I live in offers cycling with children classes and had a taster session where you could practice with a seat and a trailer. London prob has something similar.

As a proud Christiania owner, I can confirm we get way more room from other traffic than normal bikes. I like being able to see them in front of me. I have been transporting my 2 DC since they were 4 and 1.5 in it (and take 4 children on a shared school run). It's a trike, so much more stable than a bike with child seat (I couldn't manage to counterbalance weight of DS1 when he was 4). Yes, pricey (but we got rid of my car when getting the bike, so I've saved loads), but occasionally available 2nd hand, and I can see storage might be a problem unless you have a shed/ garage.
There is somewhere in London that lets you try all these types of bike out
maybe these people:
www.londonrecumbents.com/index.php?id=83

Did cycling to my dd's nursery between the age of two and three. The only reason I stopped was I pregnant, I still carried on until six months gone but gave it up when some idiot overtook me on a sharp bend, I just felt I no longer had the centre of balance to cope with that.
I tried one of the trikes when my son was coming up on a year but it felt very different to control and steer, I did not like it and so we did not get one.
Anyway, not a bad idea but as you are in London. Do plan your route carefully.

I live abroad and I think that just about everyone I know who has a small child here gets them about on a bike.

It does help that all the really major roads have cycle lanes which are physically separated from the traffic. I don't know what your route would be like.

It's 3 miles to my work and I do it in twenty minutes, not going particularly fast.

I used to cycle with one on the front (between my seat and the handle bars on their own seat) and one on the back. It's an excellent way to get around. I did find though that I needed to have the seat low enough so I could put both feet on the ground whilst stationary and sitting on the seat to keep from falling over. Just be careful though, cycle safely and assertively and assume all drivers are out to kill you (they're not, but don't take any chances).

It was a relief when the children started riding their own bikes and I could have the seat higher. However, the rear child set wasn't removed for a long time, as it was an excellent place to carry the shopping!

To give you an idea on speed, 15 miles an hour is a comfortable speedy speed, whilst 10 miles an hour is probably a more manageable speed with a child on board, so you should easily manage your trip in 15 minutes.

All you need when it's raining is a good set of waterproofs.

Another point to consider - my neighbour who cycles to school with her 2 preschoolers in a trailer finds it very hard going to do it back and forth effectively 4 times a day. And she's a keen cyclist.

I would definitely say give it a go but you would probably need a back up plan.

I used to use a trailer in London with my 2 preschoolers. It was fine. Bit miserable in the rain.

Those bikes with the seating bit for dc's at the from look amazing. I've seen similar to what worra linked to unthread but with proper seats and seat belts. I definitely had bike envy when I saw one of those.

I am a competent rider and I still struggled with a bike seat in the back. The centre of gravity changes so much, it's not easy. A proper bike with seating for the children is a much more stable, although pricy option.

YABU.

I personally know several people who got injured while cycling in London AND I don't even know that many people. So work out the odds for yourself.

Even getting lightly swiped by some van driver in a hurry can be quite serious if you have a kid on board.

I cycle with DD to nursery in London. It's all on back roads and is quiet, but I was still a bit nervous at first. It's fine though, loads of parents do it. The buggy store is half full of bike seats every day.

We've got one of those Hamax Limo bike seats, and for rainy days DD has a poncho thing which covers her completely and attaches to the seat. Also, I find that cars do tend to give us a very wide berth. I've never had a problem with being unbalanced, despite that fact that DD likes to turn around and wave at pedestrians.

While I think that the christiana bikes are great, sadly I need to be able to cycle on to work, mostly uphill, for about 7 miles, and so it wasn't an option.

DH used to bring DD to creche in the city centre in Dublin, which is 6 miles from home, on his bike. (showoff!!). She loved it. You'd see her head bobbing as she talked ALL the way (I'd see them setting off somedays, or pass them on the bus or driving - I did evening collections usually). She even got a bright pink flash jacket in IKEA for it (DH has loads of yellow ones but she found little yellow and pinks ones, picked pink!), her helmet, wet weather trousers for rainy days. Sometimes she would be signalling behind him too (mostly, in fairness, at the right points having learned that he'd be sticking his hand out for a turn coming up). Soo cute.

DH found it FINE, but was a bit more concerned about cycling home with her as traffic tended to move faster in the evenings. But she did come home on the bike often enough at that (if we had to swop "duty" for one reason or another).

DD now goes to school 5 minutes from home, and cycles herself some days, but also has a towbar on DH's bike for weekend spins, and still has a small seat in front of him (too big for rear carrier seat now) so gets the odd spin on his bike into school too.

@Pooshtun. The only data I've ever unearthed on the question (a study dating from about 15 years ago by the branch of the US government that deals with consumer safety) didn't find any cases at all over a 10 year period of a child being killed or very seriously injured in a bike seat. They did find about 50 accidents involving bike seats (they use a sampling of hospitals method) most of which produced no worse than cuts and bruises, thought there were a few broken bones. From memory, only about 10% of accidents involved another vehicle, most involved the bike falling over whilst stationary.

Data on other cyclists is irrelevant because the riding style of parents with toddlers in tow is completely different from that other most cyclists - they're much more careful. There are an awful lots of roads I don't mind taking by myself but would never take with a child on my bike.

I know this isnt really relevant to what you asked, but I just saw this How ace is that?! A childminder could use this for a school run!

I think Kirsty makes a good point. I've done a lot of cycling with and without children. I've fallen off and scraped myself a few times and had a few near misses with cars. However I've never come close to any kind of accident when cycling with a child on the bike. I think you ride very differently and cars respond to you very differently.

That said you do need to be a confident rider to cycle with a child on the road.

Definitely go for it. I never found wet/general cold to be a problem with dd on a child seat (2 mile journey to childminder).

I'd recommend either an all in one waterproof or dungarees + coat in a good big size so you can put warm clothes underneath plus ski mitts. For very cold weather Muddy Puddles do a fleece balaclava which you can put under their helmet & makes a big difference.

Sorry, the waterproof suggestions are obviously for the child, not you - you'd sweat like a pig in that lot while cycling

I used to take dd everywhere in a weeride kangaroo (seat which goes in front of you). She's nearly 5 now and I have an 8 month old ds and dd's school is 4 miles away. They both go in the trailer quite happily, read books, eat snacks, chat (I say chat, ds is 8 months so the conversation is fairly one-sided), play and snooze. While I do all the hard work obviously.

I agree that cars give you a much wider berth with a trailer. Ours is big, bright fluorescent green & has a flag on the back - much more visible than a kidseat on a bike. I find drivers are quite courteous when I have the trailer.

Ours is a Croozer for 2 (can't link, on phone!)

Dh had a childseat on the back for all the time he was bringing DD into the city (he couldn't get the "small child on handlebars" seat at the time, which was what he wanted). The old grey thing that's not that visible. But between HIS lots of yellow flourescents, HER pink flourescent jacket and bright pink helmet, and a big yellow flourescent smilie face sticker on the seat itself, Dh felt they were pretty visible.

Definitely agree about lots of warm outer layers - I just remembered now about DD getting quite cold hands and face some winter days. Ski mitts were the norm but we only had regular hats and a balaclava would have been a good idea. We also had a "round the neck fleece circlet" thing (sooo can't think of the technical term, it's probably a ski wear item) that was great too.

And her bag went into the basket on the front, while DH had his on his own back (both backpacks).

I love seeing all the littlies who are sound asleep against their parents backs on my trip still!! [ahhhh]