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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think this is so unsafe…

381 replies

MyBadHabitsLeadToYou · 30/08/2021 18:51

Parents with toddlers on the back of the bike, cycling on busy city roads with the buses and the crazy drivers.

Howwww is this legal?! When the rules on car seats are so strict.

And don’t even start me on those flimsy trailer things that are so low down they couldn’t be seen from a large car.

Am I missing something??

OP posts:
liveforsummer · 31/08/2021 07:14

I felt really sick when I realised that it was a child in a trailer. I'd never seen one before and thought how stupid it was to have a child in a trailer that is below the level of a car's door mirrors. I think the things that go on the front of a bike are safer, no-one's going to turn left a few feet in front of a bike. Well, not unless they're really bad driver.

This is in it's self yet another example of poor cycling and a reason people dislike many cyclists on the road. Cramming up the inside of cars in traffic is dangerous. Doing so with a low trailer even more so. Doesn't sound like they were being careful at all. Bikes should behave as cars in traffic where there are no cycle lanes and queue prominently in the road, not be slipping up the inside around junctions.

Cbtb · 31/08/2021 07:19
  1. Trailers that are designed to be used without helmets have roll cages
  2. Bike seats for kids and helmets are designed to protect against injury from a bike falling over (and do so well)
  3. They are not designed to protect from impact from a car crash but then neither is walking.
  4. You can most definitely have bike seats for bigger kids - my bike takes a passenger up to 50kg
  5. Our route to school is not on a bus route and has no pavements on the nsl bits and I don’t have a car so DD and I either walk in the road, push her in a buggy in the road or cycle in the road. I cycle as it’s the quickest and then I go onto work by bike
Cbtb · 31/08/2021 07:21

And also I have a mirror on my handlebars so I can see dd and also cars behind us (just like car mirrors)

user1487194234 · 31/08/2021 07:30

I can still remember the astonishment I felt when I first saw a cyclist with a baby in a trailer on a busy city road
I could never understand putting children at risk like that

HangingChads · 31/08/2021 07:38

I'm so surprised at some of the responses here - presumably none of you who are against children on bikes actually cycle anywhere?

Lots of good responses already stating this in more detail but it's fine as long as you're a proficient and confident cyclist.

plantastic · 31/08/2021 07:50

It is really sad. In London we don't have a car. I used to cycle about 150 miles a week before kids. The only off I had was when a pedestrian launched themselves from between 2 parked cars (very much her fault, she admitted it, luckily I was going pretty slowly). Our London Borough is awful- the council openly say that someone has to die on various stretches of road before they will implement traffic calming. The new system of segregated lanes in central London is awesome though and I would have no issue using a trailer there.

We've moved to a country where we need to drive. I hate it. It feels infinitely more dangerous to me to strap the kids in the car and hurtle along with limited control of other risks (ie drivers) than it does to cycle with them and choose where we go and what sort of traffic we mix with. The only saving grace is it is an automatic driver fault country so in built up areas people drive quite carefully. Or slowly anyway. Car culture is so grim.

By the way, if a bike falls with a baby seat on it the kid will be totally fine. You can get seats that take up to 50kg- very common on dutch bikes- or something like a Tern GSD will take up to 75kg no problem.

Mumsnet is very anti bike. Which is weird because you would have thought a parenting site would be pro things that stop their grandchildren dying in a climate catastrophe.

Tavelo · 31/08/2021 08:04

I don't cycle much and have never cycled with a child but I wish we could live in a country where doing so was safe and common..
The number of cars in this country is horrific. Not only driving but parked up. Imagine how much nicer each street would look and feel without parked cars lining each each side of it. They're not only a huge health and environmental hazard but a bloody eyesore.

Pongo101 · 31/08/2021 08:15

The UK can take note from the Netherlands. Many children on the back of bikes. Cycle paths everywhere.

The UK needs more and safer cycle paths with strict penalties for those who park over them. No need to ban cycling with your child.

Notdoingthis · 31/08/2021 08:15

This is indeed a scary thread.
What are we teaching children if we don't allow them on bikes? A free, healthy, eco form of transport. We should be instilling a love of public transport, healthy lifestyle and can do attitude. Not a fear of life. Risk taking is part of life.
When I see a child on a bike I don't judge the parents for putting them in danger. I admire them, for not being part of the bigger problems of consumerism, child obesity, climate crisis.

Notdoingthis · 31/08/2021 08:17

I do think that eduction for car users about watching out for bikes, and how unsafe children are in cars, would also be wise.

TwigTheWonderKid · 31/08/2021 08:21

@Haffiana do you drive an electric vehicle? Because if you don't, by putting your child inside your car you are exposing them to much higher pollution than they would be breathing in outside the car.
www.rac.co.uk/drive/news/motoring-news/in-car-pollution-equivalent-to-passively-smoking/

Theworldisquiethere · 31/08/2021 09:05

@Enwi

I’m not sure which type of trailers people are talking about then… our bike trailer is the same height as my stroller! The children are also strapped in, with helmets on, and then it is zipped up so none of the ‘flailing around’ ‘arms sticking’ out that posters seem to suggest here.

The posts about emissions are even more ridiculous. Your child walking along the pavement is also at exhaust height.. but I’m guessing that doesn’t cause you much lost sleep at night?

The comparisons on this thread are really ridiculous and have completely lost the sentiment of the original thread. I personally wouldn’t take my children on a dual carriageway in a bike trailer like some of these comments suggest, but then I wouldn’t walk with a pushchair on a dual carriageway either. In the city where I am frequently crossing the road anyway, why an earth would I not use my bike with a trailer in the cycle lane?

The sticking arms out comment was for this trailer specifically, which someone local to me uses. I see him going so fast down the middle of the road on the hill outside my house with a small child on the back and it honestly makes me feel sick.
To think this is so unsafe…
Cbtb · 31/08/2021 09:43

@Theworldisquiethere that’s a wee ride isn’t it. It’s a trailer for older children and is recommended on bike groups for use by those who’s disability stops them riding alone or sitting up - it comes with pedals. A child in a wee ride should be old enough not to stick arms out just like a child on their own bike, your picking on the wheelchair of kids trailers here, think about that.

MrsSkylerWhite · 31/08/2021 09:45

they're At exhaust height. So are buggies, pushchairs and small kids walking. Shall we ban them too?“

Buggies, pushchairs and small kids walking tend not to stand directly behind idling engines at traffic lights.

Hemingwaycat · 31/08/2021 09:46

I couldn’t cycle on a road at all, definitely not with my toddlers in tow. Maybe through a big park but definitely nowhere near a road.

Theworldisquiethere · 31/08/2021 09:48

[quote Cbtb]@Theworldisquiethere that’s a wee ride isn’t it. It’s a trailer for older children and is recommended on bike groups for use by those who’s disability stops them riding alone or sitting up - it comes with pedals. A child in a wee ride should be old enough not to stick arms out just like a child on their own bike, your picking on the wheelchair of kids trailers here, think about that.[/quote]
The child I see on this is age about 2/3ish. I’m sure it’s great for older kids with disabilities but that doesn’t mean that it’s not used by anyone else.

00100001 · 31/08/2021 09:49

@MrsSkylerWhite

they're At exhaust height. So are buggies, pushchairs and small kids walking. Shall we ban them too?“

Buggies, pushchairs and small kids walking tend not to stand directly behind idling engines at traffic lights.

Bit they're often walking alongside roads, and emissions are close to them etc.
TwigTheWonderKid · 31/08/2021 10:40

@MrsSkylerWhite

they're At exhaust height. So are buggies, pushchairs and small kids walking. Shall we ban them too?“

Buggies, pushchairs and small kids walking tend not to stand directly behind idling engines at traffic lights.

Then maybe engines should be switched off in standing traffic?

And don't forget there is mounting evidence for the dangerous to health effects of non-exhaust vehicle pollution (the fine particle pollution) which pedestrians and kids in buggies are very much at risk from.

Honestly, if everyone on this thread is really as concerned about the health and safety of the next generation as they profess to be, the sooner we all stop making excuses and accept the damage we are doing to ourselves and the planet from our over-reliance on cars and start embracing the alternatives the better, surely?

MrsSkylerWhite · 31/08/2021 10:42

Then maybe engines should be switched off in standing traffic?“

Yes, they should. Lots of newer models do this already, automatically.

Until they do though, why would anyone deliberately sit their kids behind all of that crap?

UnfinishedBunting · 31/08/2021 10:48

But MrsSkylerWhite, where do you think the air in your car actually comes from? It's constantly being exchanged with air outside your car, so car occupants are sitting in it too.

Berkeys · 31/08/2021 10:48

The Dutch and Danes do this all the time, it is expected and normal. What isn’t normal is the UK’s shitty cycling provision and appalling driving. Hth.

Berkeys · 31/08/2021 10:49

Also, if you’re driving a polluting ICE car you are also killing children. Just slowly and invisibly.

ichundich · 31/08/2021 10:50

@MrsSkylerWhite

they're At exhaust height. So are buggies, pushchairs and small kids walking. Shall we ban them too?“

Buggies, pushchairs and small kids walking tend not to stand directly behind idling engines at traffic lights.

Erm, they do, especially when walking past stationary traffic or people who sit waiting in their cars with the blooming engine on!
CounsellorTroi · 31/08/2021 10:51

It’s the traffic fumes being inhaled that I would be worried about. Fine if you as a adult want to take that risk but a toddler can’t make that choice.

MrsSkylerWhite · 31/08/2021 10:52

UnfinishedBunting

But MrsSkylerWhite, where do you think the air in your car actually comes from? It's constantly being exchanged with air outside your car, so car occupants are sitting in it too“

Yes, that’s very true about occupants of cars, though most cars do have the ability to block off external ventilation when they’re approaching a particularly nasty, smelly diesel vehicle.
If you walk your children to school or use a pushchair, you’re able to choose routes where pollution levels are safer. It’s been demonstrated beyond doubt that choosing not to use main roads cuts pollutants in the air significantly.