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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to ask if bicycle towing a child carrier looks unbelievably unsafe?

367 replies

longwayoff · 04/03/2019 07:35

I don't spend much time in traffic but noticed one of these the other day which made me feel a bit concerned. Today, the Mail has video of someone crossing 3 lanes of traffic with one attached. They look dangerous on so many levels. How can they be legal?

OP posts:
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6
gubbsywubbsy · 04/03/2019 08:53

My son wears a crash helmet in his .. I would have thought this was sensible .. I don't go on main roads though .

BreadFingers · 04/03/2019 08:56

My DC also wear bike helmets, crazy not too.

Grin Martha. Genuinely curious, what do you find odd about it? They are everywhere in Holland.

NewAccount270219 · 04/03/2019 08:56

All the people who have said this isn't ok because of fumes - do you also think that no one should push a buggy down the pavement of a busy road? Because I don't see the difference.

You see a lot of these in Cambridge. I wouldn't use one, but then I haven't seen a way of putting a DC on a bike that I would be happy with, which is shame because DH and I used to cycle a lot but we're in the car more post-DS.

GregoryPeckingDuck · 04/03/2019 08:56

@blueskieslies really? Well in that case I’m off to cycle down the A1 without a helmet. May walk through some dark alleys on my way home as well.

GregoryPeckingDuck · 04/03/2019 08:58

@breadfungers but Holland has far better cycling provisions than Britain. Comparing cyclongin Holland to cycling in Britain is like comparing London cycling to cycling in Kathmandu. It’s just not the same.

jasjas1973 · 04/03/2019 08:58

Cars are the biggest killers on our roads

Surely that's because of how many are on the road?

Perhaps its because so many car drivers are unfit to drive and consider other road users as "fair game?"
300 children per year are killed as a result of poor driving, another 1500 adults killed.
The penalties for killing/seriously injury someone in a road crash are so pitiful as to make it almost the perfect murder method.

On this thread, we've many posters complaining they can see the cyclist but not the Trailer... which is only 4 feet longer than the bike... These posters obviously don't look ahead and think giving a cyclist less than 4 feet of clearance perfectly ok.

More pollution in a car than outside as car air intakes are down low.

HotpotLawyer · 04/03/2019 09:01

“because of car drivers etc not paying attention, not because they are inherently unsafe”
That’s exactly what makes them unsafe in traffic.

“Some drivers hate cyclists, to the point that they'll think nothing of injuring them and many wouldn't hold back because there's children with them.”
Don’t be ridiculous. I hate SOME cyclists because they go through red lights on pedestrian crossings (at speed), ignore the filtered cycle lane at lights and cut inside the ‘turn left’ car lane instead, weave dangerously in and out, putting themselves at risk while blaming the car driver.

I drive on constant alert to not hit a reckless cyclist.

BreadFingers · 04/03/2019 09:01

@GregoryPeckingDuck Very true. I'm also not in the UK and we have way better roads/paths than the UK. I'm not sure if I'd be comfortable on it in the UK. London, hell no, but then again I get nervous in a car in London. The drivers are crazy.

WineAndTiramisu · 04/03/2019 09:02

They shouldn't be used on the road at all, far too dangerous.

If used on trails etc, the kid should have a helmet on, I'll never forget the patient we had from a holiday village type place who had clipped the kerb, flipped the child carrier into a tree, the child had a skull fracture and bleed on the brain.

If you wouldn't let them ride a bike without a helmet, don't put them in a crappy plastic box attached to a bike without a helmet.

cyclecamper · 04/03/2019 09:02

I used one for my boy. Mostly on quiet residential streets. They are extremely visable - a cyclist does not suddenly materialise in front of a lorry or van - they've generally pulled up behind you from a distance away and if they can's see a fat woman on a bike and a bright yellow trailer they should stop driving now.

Lots of victim blaming, which is often defensive as if you accept that it is safe to cycle and the drivers are the danger, you can stop feeling so righteous in your polluting lump of tin.

If you don't think they should be on the roads, campaign for decent segregated cycle routes that go where people want to go - shops, schools, work - rather than pretty trails in the country that go nowhere.

DrWhy · 04/03/2019 09:03

We have one, it has an internal roll cage and the child is harnessed in, so much safer than having them in one of those open trailers at the front or on a bike seat if you come off the bike / it tips.
However, I agree fumes and dangerous traffic are a problem. We’ve ended up hardly using ours as we can get down through our housing estate and on to a cycle path, that takes us to a park in town which we’ve done a couple of times but not anywhere much else. The cycle path gets us to within less than half a mile of nursery so we’d planned to do the nursery / commute with it when the weather was nice. However the last half a mile is an industrial estate with badly parked cars, lorries, impatient rush hour drivers and totally unsafe. The council have been dithering about a cycle path or mixed use footpath for about 5 years. By the time they actually build it I suspect both DCs will be at school.

TedAndLola · 04/03/2019 09:07

What is this shite about victim blaming? Nobody is blaming the victim - the child. I and others are blaming the thick cunts of parents who put their child at risk. Is it going to console you that it was the driver's fault when your child is in hospital?

BreadFingers · 04/03/2019 09:08

@DrWhy My Babboe has solid seats and harnesses for the DC in. They aren't just loose in a box. As it's a tricycle it doesn't tip, I tried (without the DC in) when I first got it to test it. It doesn't and is super stable.

AliceAforethought · 04/03/2019 09:08

I used to live a two mile cycle path along the seafront from our town, and had one of those. It was great, as it converted into a pushchair when I got there, so I left my bike and went shopping. Fab.

Would never, ever in a month of Sundays have used it on the road. So dangerous!

Marcipex · 04/03/2019 09:10

We used to have a child brought to nursery along a very busy road, in a wooden box on wheels towed by a bike.
Just a wooden box , homemade. No protection at all , no nothing.
I could see that child flinching and gripping the sides as she was bumped down the kerb.

Many other parents said they were concerned and had seen several near misses with this parent , as they travelled the same route.
I reported my concerns to the police. Describing the set up of a box on wheels . I was told it was fine and to mind my own business.
I tried again with a different police officer, and was told the same, only more politely the second time.

ivykaty44 · 04/03/2019 09:10

So why are these trailers unsafe? No one has actually given a reason for the trailer on a bike being unsafe - just that they are bonkers on the road but fine on a cycle path. So how does the trailer suddenly become safe on a cycle path and yet dangerous on the road?

Anique105 · 04/03/2019 09:11

They look so unsafe and I honestly think people who do this are just so unbelievably stupid. If they had to jump in a car they would insist on a car seat but then cruise around with no protection for their children.

AliceAforethought · 04/03/2019 09:12

Is it going to console you that it was the driver's fault when your child is in hospital?

^This x100.

Yes, motorists shouldn't drive like loons, but even if it's their fault your child is injured/dead, your child is still injured/dead!

Snog · 04/03/2019 09:12

There are kids in my town.
I wasn't worried until I saw one overturn on a crossing and the baby fell out.

AliceAforethought · 04/03/2019 09:14

So how does the trailer suddenly become safe on a cycle path and yet dangerous on the road?

You don't see a difference between a cycle path with no cars and a busy road?Confused

SoupDragon · 04/03/2019 09:14

Cars are the biggest killers on our roads

Surely that's because of how many are on the road?

Don't spoil it for them.

OnlineAlienator · 04/03/2019 09:14

Ivy - because a child in a tent is up against cars and lorries in the event of a collision, regardless of the fault in said collision.

ScrollPastBadStuff · 04/03/2019 09:15

Ivy because they can easily flip on a kerb or a stone and launch the DC into the path of the traffic.
They are dangerous in any environment.

tellmewhenthespaceshiplandscoz · 04/03/2019 09:15

Actually gone that's a crap comparison. The reason I wouldn't walk down a dark street on my own is because of the chance I could be attacked b a predatory man looking for a woman to harm.

It's very helpful unlikely a motorist gets in their car and actively looks for a cyclist to deliberately run over.

F all to do with victim blaming.

MaggieAndHopey · 04/03/2019 09:16

"I and others are blaming the thick cunts of parents who put their child at risk. Is it going to console you that it was the driver's fault when your child is in hospital?"

I agree with your overall point. However calling people 'thick cunts' is perhaps not the smartest way to persuade them of your argument.