WIBU to tell biking parents that their kid isn't safe behind them?

[matildamatilda]

When did this become a thing? Whenever I see parents riding bicycles along the road with their kids, the kids are behind.

Most of the time the kids seem to be handling things fine. However a couple of times in the past few months I've seen kids who were really struggling. Standing up to pedal up a hill, weaving about dangerously close to traffic.

I very nearly stopped to tell off a parent today. He was blithely biking along a country road whilst his kid (maybe 10yo) was struggling along behind, pretty much in the middle of the road. Other cars squeezed by the kid but I held back until the road got wider. We reached a bend and I thought, okay surely the father will turn around now and realise what's happening. But no, father goes coasting down a hill, oblivious.

The more I think of it, the more I should have flagged down the father and pointed out what was happening. Would you have?

I'm guessing you would have got short shrift if you had done! I wouldn't have said anything, but I agree its not safe, cyclists are very vulnerable regardless of age. I hate those trailer things with a passion too.

An ex boyfriend of mine cycled with his 8 year old daughter down an A road into the city centre. (on her own bike, him on his) I mentioned that I thought this was dangerous and he was very defensive and told me she had to become road aware.

Yes and I should let my 8 year old lay the fire and light it as he needs to learn fire safety!!

My mum used to insist we rode in front of her so she could guide/correct/help as needed. Thought that was the done thing not leave the poor child to fend for themselves behind you?

In what way was the child struggling? Riding in a position that made him hard to over take isn't necessarily a problem.

It sounds more like the drivers need to become more aware of the children using the road, tbh. If there isn't enough room to overtake you don't 'squeeze past', you wait!

For all you know the parents and children have agreed that the child will call out if they need help. I don't really see that it's that much of a problem, honestly, a 10yo is hardly a baby! I would think nothing of having a 10yo biking by themselves on the road.

I think yabu. Whether they are in front or behind you will always get impatient drivers. Kudos to parents who teach their kids to ride bikes.

Pretty much in the middle of the road is safer than riding by the kerb/road edge. Been in primary makes cars really have to slowdown to overtake and ideally wait until there's no oncoming traffic.

It says what viva saysin highway code.

I can understand your concern but I'm not sure there is much of a point in commenting as likely the father would most likely get defensive. Unless the child was in imminent danger I'd probably leave it as I wouldn't want to start an argument.

I think children are safer in front of the parent - children can't judge traffic very well till they're 14 on average.

If I'm cycling on a narrow, single lane country road I ride in the middle of the road. It stops cars squeezing past my elbow 3" away at 40mph.

Likewise if its a normal two lane road (one lane in either direction) I ride in the middle of my side of the road. Stops cars trying to squeeze past me when there's an oncoming road.

I only stick to the side of the road if its a really wide road where two cars and a bike can pass with plenty of room.

At the age of 10yo I was happily biking about on fairly major roads on my own.

Cyclists aren't the problem and cyclists aren't dangerous. Car drivers (some of them) are the problem. A car driver really should be able to see a kid on a bike in the road and not hit them. If they can't manage that then they shouldn't be driving.

Someone stopped me last week and said they thought my bike was dangerous. I've got a recumbent trike, so low down and quite wide. I have a six foot high fluorescent flag on it, I'm in high vis clothes, the trike is over 2 ft wide and six foot long. If drivers can't see something six foot high, six foot long and nearly three foot wide a bit piss poor.

It would be a cold day in hell before I let my children cycle on a road.

If the child is in front they could overshoot a junction which is why I choose to ride in front of my nine year old. A car speeding around a corner is more likely to hi t methan my son. Cars behind should learn to be less fucking impatient, People who are commenting what parents should do, I wonder if they ever actually cycle with their kids anywhere.

Its such a shame when parents don't want their kids cycling on roads. Sadly it means they don't get used to cycling in traffic and instead just see cycling as something you do a few times a year when you put the bikes in the car and drive somewhere to ride them off road.

Rather than seeing cycling as more of a day to day normal activity. I commute 16 miles a day on my bike. Good for me and good for the environment. If more people did that there'd be less obesity and safer roads.

It's safer for the parent to be in front - drivers see a cyclist, overtake, but don't always anticipate a second cyclist immediately ahead. It's this cyclist in front that is at most risk, if the driver has overtaken when there isn't enough of a gap in oncoming traffic, so they pull back in too early.

Generally speaking it's better for the parent to be in front as Fay says, as long as the parent is looking round and checking on the kid on a regular basis. Some degree of caution is obviously required when it comes to route planning.

We absolutely should be encouraging children to cycle on the road. In fact, not just children. Personally I think there should be far more emphasis on how to drive around vunerable road users (cyclists, bikers, horses) etc in the driving test. The vast, vast number of problems involving such road users are caused by drivers.

Yanbu

Yes car drivers should be more aware/careful etc but the fact is they are not.

It's a really mixed bag. When you're on a main city road with lots of cross roads, I prefer to be in front so I can ensure that no idiot will do a rolling stop into my kid.

My dd, her dh and ds1aged7 and ds2 aged4 cycle regularly. Dsil goes first with dgs2 on a tailgater then their ds1 and dd at the back. It seems to work well. Sometimes dgs1 goes ahead of the others but they never have a child cycling alone at the back. How would you know if they were in trouble?

We cycle a lot and whenever we are on a road with traffic, the adults sort of coral the kids into the edge by the kerb and we ride on the outside of them,...it's because we ride to school in a gang...and we figure that the short part of the journey which has a bit of traffic is safer if we make ourselves into "one vehicle".

We'd never let a child cycle behind us...we have an adult in front and one behind on lanes...if there are three adults then two go in front and one behind.

Meant to add YANBU at all.

You know if they are in trouble because you can look round and because you hear what's going on.

Kid you can't look round when you're navigating a tricky corner or when you're concentrating on crossing or something. I cycle with children all the time.

In such cases then you may want to let the child go ahead or get off and push if its that tricky. It depends on the situation and indeed the age of the child, but often it's better for the child to be able to follow the adult, and then you don't have the issue of drivers cutting in too soon when overtaking, and you don't have the child going first into any potentially dangerous situation and having to make decisions about which line to take. Ride slowly and have them follow closely is often safer.

Access the situation and decide which is best. Don't just assume that in front = safer.

My instinct was to make my kids cycle in front but, actually, they prefer to cycle behind as then they can follow my line, as it were, so we end up doing that. I have a wing mirror so keep a close eye on what they are doing anyway.

Not a "wing" mirror, you know what I mean! Cycle mirror, straps onto handlebars!