Your opinions please.

[Whitewithnosugarplease]

how old do you think a child should be to ride a bike near a road? For example child riding on path with adult riding alongside on the road.

3 or 4? depends on what road it is (a cul de sac street or a main road? and capability of child. Personally I wouldn't ride alongside on the road whilst my child was on the pavement though. Either both of us will have to be on the road or I'll be jogging along next to her bike on the pavement. I think adult being on road and child on pavement could be fraught with difficulty for both of you - you'll be trying to look out for two sets of obstacles - you'll have to concentrate on other road users, junctions, crossings, potholes, etc and your child won't be near enough to you for you to help them or point out the obstacles on the pavement.

Sorry maybe I should have said if they are 3 to maybe 5 or 6 you can jog alongside them on the pavement but if they're older and going at a decent speed you'd be better off both of you on the road - just try to plan routes that use quieter roads wherever possible.

ive been doing this with my daughter since she was 3 1/2ish --but she was by that point very capable.

Just a thought but if you're trying to cycle with a child who's riding their own bike and are concerned about lack of parental control over the cycling child, you could use one of these: www.bikecare.co.uk/trail_gator.html
This is not as stable an arrangement as a trailer bike attachment or a kiddie-tandem bike, but if you want the child to be able to ride on their own bike once you reach your destination, it's a good compromise.

Thank you so much for your help I will look into it :-)

We got a trailgator not long after dd turned 3.This means she is on the main road with us in the traffic.She has learnt hand signals and understands how traffic works and how dangerous it is.Shes learning to ride on her own now shes just turned 4 and the trailgator allows you to unhook the childs bike and they can pedal off on their own when its safe.We would be lost without it - best fifty quid we spent!