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)

I cycle quite a bit to pre-school with my 3 year old on the bike. I think it's a great idea. 2 miles should take no more than 10 minutes (even at my speed!). I can't remember teh make of the seat I have, but it fits on the crossbar between the saddle and the handlebars. I found that having her in a seat behind me was difficult to talk to her, she hated not being able to see anything except my back and I found it incredibly hard to get on/ off the bike (if you have a mans bike, with a horizontal crossbar especailly) and the bike never seemed to be balanced right. Now I don't have a problem with any of those things. She loves being sat at the front, she pretends to steer the bike and I can point things out to her as we go along. Far easier to get on and off and the balance is far better. The ONLY downside, for me,is that your arms need to reach around her and so it's better to have a bike that would normally be slightly too short for you and you also must have a horizontal crossbar for it to fit on.

Oh yes, of course your child should always have a helmet on and I really don't like the trailers.

splashymcsplash - Would be interested to know what you ended up with. If you've not decided yet, check out www.cyclesprog.co.uk - my DH and I have just launched this information site, to try and provide more details on cycling with little ones. We've been moving our DS's around by front and rear seat, trailer, tagalong and trailgator for the past 5 years!!