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

[longwayoff]

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?

We had one. It was one of the best things we ever bought.

It took both my boys and they were both in 5 point harnesses. It had a roll cage and was very sturdy. It also had a flag pole to alert other road users that it was there. Now I wouldn't have taken it on a very busy dual carriageway or anything but on a normal road it was great. Cars would always slow down and pass safely.

When I was towing it once I fell off, we were on a track though not a road. I hit a patch of black ice and the bike went sideways out from underneath me. I hurt myself and frantically looked back at the trailer but it was upright with a small voice saying "what doing mummy?" Now if that had been a bike seat...

I miss it now. It was a heavy tow though...very good for the thighs.

They aren’t commonly used in the Netherlands whoever said that. Child seats on the front and back of the bike or a bakfiets, where the children sit in an integrated space at the front of the bike are. I have only seen a trailer used once, and the user wasn’t Dutch.

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

Given you blame motorists 100% for all accidents on the road involving a cyclist, I'm surprised you can't work this out for yourself given there are nomotorisfs on a cycle path.

Better to build safe cycle lanes than remove individuals off the road.

Not even sure about all cycle lanes TBH. The cycle lanes around our town run along to the of inside bus lanes. So you have great big buses with cyclists on a narrow lanes inside them and little room to manoeuvre. There are accidents all the time. I also dread to think about the fumes the cyclists are breathing in.

If the children are strapped in properly with helmets on then they're fine. I wouldn't use it in central London.. but in a regular town they're okay. They're pretty fun to use in the snow with the ski attachment on!

That said, the cargo bikes with the carrier for the kids at the front is safer, you can see the kids etc. Not to mention easier on the cyclist to push the extra weight rather than pulling.

I’d never use one on a busy road (certainly not three lanes of traffic busy either!) but I think they’re fine for parks and quiet lanes etc. I guess they’re no less protected than if they were on a bike mounted seat or on their own bike.

Don't spoil it for them.

I'm just genuinely baffled that it can be used as an argument.

Of course cars kill more people, it's statistics. There are more cars on the road, so naturally more people will be killed by them.

I could say there are more accidents on cycle paths from bikes than cars. A daft comparison, but it would be statistically true, as there are obviously more bicycles on cycle paths than there are cars.

@ChariotsofFish You misread my post, I said that bakfiets are common in Holland.

And a fumed filled metal box is a better alternative? We should be embracing alternative forms of transport.

These are everywhere in Germany, where both cyclists and car drivers know how to share the roads, and there is plenty of cycle path provision.

I briefly considered getting one here but swiftly decided not to, as I've seen too much go badly from both 'sides'. It doesn't have to be like this, but it is. So I agree they are unsafe in the UK.

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

People that stupid aren't going to be persuaded by calm logic either. Might as well talk to them in language they may be able to understand.

@Damntheman You can get electric options too. Even easier with DC going up hills

It's a shame the UK doesn't have cycle paths like we do here. I can get all over the city on wide safe cycle paths.

Those worrying about car fumes - you do know car fumes are 9-12 times higher inside a car than they are outside?

"Ben Barratt, from King’s College London, measured the exposure of people travelling by car, bus, bicycle and walking in London in 2014. “The car driver, by a very long way, was exposed to the highest level of pollution,” he said. “The fumes from the vehicles in front and behind were coming into the car and getting trapped there. It is not true that you can escape pollution by sitting inside a vehicle.”

www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jun/12/children-risk-air-pollution-cars-former-uk-chief-scientist-warns

Things that are dangerous:

• cars hitting people
• cars slowly choking people with pollution
• cars leading to health problems and obesity through reduced activity

Maybe we should rethink the problem so cycling is safer. The onus should be on selfish car drivers, not cyclists.

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.

Lies lie lies

The child isn’t thrown out under car wheels, given the child should be strapped in using the supplied harness.

Wow @TedAndLola re your thick cunt comment... the phrase ‘people in glass houses’ springs to mind

The worries about pot holes make me smile a bit...our trailer had better tyres than my mountain bike!

As for fumes, we walk the same roads, I pushed buggies along them, it seems the same to me.

The child isn’t thrown out under car wheels, given the child should be strapped in using the supplied harness

The whole trailer can be flipped into the traffic.

The decent ones (I haven't road tested them all) really aren't flimsy, ours would never have flipped on a kerb or stone...you would have struggled to push it over.

Unfortnately we live in a car obsessed culture wherever anyone doing anything different is seen as dangerous and fundamentally wrong. It's victim blaming. Given the high levels of obesity and pollution in this country, we should be welcoming them with open arms.

wherever anyone doing anything different is seen as dangerous and fundamentally wrong. It's victim blaming.

Does that apply to the cyclist with a trailer on the M62 motorway?

Surely the cyclist shouldn't have been on the motorway full stop. Trailer or otherwise. There are idiots everywhere.

I'm not convinced that a little roll cage, a bit of tarp and a nylon harness is going to be much cop in the face of a family car, van or bloody great lorry thundering along with no idea you are there because you're so low down and your flag is smaller than a hanky and is nothing like as visible as you imagine. And that's without the cavernous potholes everywhere that judder a car let alone a bicycle, some of them are 8 inches deep, of course there's a risk of flipping the trailer over.

Would you let your kids sit in a tent at the side of a busy road?

I think they're great for the suburbs. Around here people use them on the 20mph roads, cycle roads, and canal and marsh paths. I've only seen them crossing the main roads, not going along them - I agree that would be risky.

I could probably safely replace 50% of my car journeys with one of those things, if I weren't bone idle.

It's not because it's "different" that it's "seen as dangerous", it's because it's horrendously risky, and it IS dangerous.