Is riding a bike an important life skill?

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DD7 has a bike she rides with stabilisers. We don't get it out very often because it's locked in the shed at the bottom of the garden which is more hassle compared to the scooter which is in the hallway. And you have to walk quite far from our house before the ground is suitable to ride on and its cumbersome to carry or push if she decides she doesn't want to ride anymore.

She's getting too big for the bike so she'll need a new one soon. But I'm wondering whether there's any point? She's not that enthusiastic about riding her bike and me and DH don't have bikes so we'll never be going on family bike rides. If she had a new bike it would be so that we can teach her to ride without stabilisers. The school says it's a life skill and they like all children to learn to ride without stabilisers by year 5. I'm wondering whether it's actually important? Me and DH don't ride bikes and that's never been a problem. In the last few years my cousin and my MIL have both nearly died in bike accidents, both had a bleed on the brain despite wearing a helmet. I think cyclists are very vulnerable on roads. So tbh I wouldn't encourage DD to do her commute by bike in future anyway. Is there something I'm missing here which makes it a vital life skill?

Just adding here that you can rent bikes longterm. We use the Bike Club as its too expensive to keep upgrading everytime they grow

I've got to 72 without ever wanting to know.

Two of my kids are at uni, one in a city. Both have cars. Students that don’t have cars walk or use public transport, Ubers. Cycling is fine for those who want to do it, but those saying it’s essential are incorrect.

If a date suggested cycling, I’d know they were not the one for me. If my friends suggested cycling on a girls holiday, I’d know they were pissed and it was time to go home. 😂

I'm an adult so don't need to imagine not being able to ride a bike. It's never caused me an issue.

I can’t ride a bike, well I can but not well and zero confidence. Wish I had. Yes definitely a life skill. Unfortunately at my age 60+ I’m too old to learn.

Well no, it's a couple of factors. It's also that if we're out and she can't be bothered with the bike anymore then I can't get the bike home while also pushing the toddler's pram. So the scooter is more convenient in a couple of ways. But if we were trying to teach her to ride without stabilisers then I would make more effort to get the bike out. And now at the age of 7, expect her to walk it home herself if she didn't want to ride it.

Maybe, but I'm 60 and never learnt to ride a bike (my parents did offer me a bike, but I said no cause I preferred to spend my time reading 🤣). I can't say it's ever held me back in life, and I have never been embarrassed about it - I'm an individual, I can make choices about what I do or don't do.
I'd encourage a child to do it, but not force them.

No. I learned on my friend's sister's bike 60 years ago, and apart from that summer I've never ridden or needed to ride since

I live in the countryside where there are no bus lanes so I wouldn't ride around here even if I could.

I grew up in a place where cycling was a useful and important skill. DH is one of 4 siblings, they had bikes as kids but it was a very hilly place and only one sibling was still cycling in his teens. We live in a city in the fens where cyclists rule. I'm the only family member who cycles now. The DC now at uni in London, glad they don't want to cycle there. None of us drive, DH and I gave up because we neither like driving nor cars in general. I live in hope that the era of everyone outside cities needing to drive will soon be over.

As for swimming, I think that's a great skill and I hope we can keep our rivers and seas cleaner going forward. It feels less optional than cycling or driving on safety grounds.

My DD is 8 and dyspraxic and can’t ride yet. I am getting her proper lessons. I think it is a life skill, but even if she never masters it I think she needs help practicing her balance.

I’ve got to 70 without ever learning to ride a bike or feeling like I missed out. My children also didn’t ever learn and I don’t think they feel deprived either. No one has ever gone on holiday and not been able to participate in activities. Their residentials at schools didn’t include bike rides. Honestly the traffic is so bad in all the cities I’ve lived I would never want anyone I loved on a bike ! Maybe in the countryside it would be nice.

Its an important* life skill, you never know if she'll be reliant on cycling to commute when she's older, and of course it gives so much freedom to teenagers who are too young to drive but don't want to be reliant on parents for lifts.
Is there any chance you can borrow a bike from someone to teach her on? Then if, once she gets the hang of it, decides she enjoys it you can get her her own bike, and if she doesn't like it then its no money wasted and she'll have learnt an important skill

*where I live its absolutely vital for children as once they get to upper school (12+) they have to be able to cycle because they need to cycle between school sites during the school day (they only have 15 minutes to travel 3km which would be quite a struggle on foot but doable by bike) and for some PE lessons they have to bike to the athletics track in the next town to do their PE lesson - they definitely could not get there in time by walking.

I taught my two to ride a few years ago. I think eldest was around 8/9 and the youngest around 6/7. The main reason was because they do cycling proficiency in year 5 at school and I wanted them to be able to take part with all their friends, I do think it’s a good skill to have anyway and you never know when it might serve them well. I felt guilty that we’d left it so late with the eldest especially and it took her a little longer to get the hang of it compared to the younger one, but we got there in the end. We had a balance bike for the youngest when she was a toddler which I think helped them massively and wish we’d done the same with the eldest but I didn’t know they were a thing at the time.

They don’t ride often now, but it’s nice to know they can if they want or need to.

It's not essential like swimming is because that can save your life but I do think it's important and I think you should buy her a cheap bike from somewhere and perservere until she can ride without stabilizers. If she's going to participate in Bikeability in year 5 she'll need to be able to do that.
I never saw either of my parents on a bike but they still managed to teach me to ride one. I can remember falling off a few times and crying. I then hardly rode a bike for years, just the occasional trip out with friends around our village with hired bikes from the bike hire shop, but later I moved abroad and having a bike was really useful for getting around the local villages and to the supermarket etc.
It gives you options if you can ride a bike. She doesn't have to ride a bike at all of course, but if she can ride a bike she might decide later in life to use it on a commute or she might actually just enjoy bike rides. If she never rides one again, so be it.
I think transport is changing a lot and could be very different by the time she is an adult. There is a push for greener cities and less traffic and part of that will be safer cycling routes. Or she might live rurally and want to ride to the train station etc.

It seems you’re just looking for excuses as to why not to teach her.

Yes

The bike has been with stabilisers so far. So there was no avoiding teaching her because there was nothing to teach her. Getting the bike out so far has been for the fun of riding the bike rather than walking. In that context whether we use the bike or the scooter doesn't make any difference.

Of course there is something to teach her. Stabilisers turn a bike into a slow, noisy trike. 7 is far too old to still be relying on them.

I think it’s a good skill to have and it’s worth persevering with it. You just never know when she might want to use it in the future.

Yes there IS something still to teach her but if we're talking about trips to the park last summer where she spontaneously asked to bring either her bike or her scooter, no there was nothing to teach her. That would involve an allen key and a commitment to learning on that one trip. In those circumstances whether she brought the bike or scooter made no difference so I don't think taking the scooter instead made me a problematically lazy parent.

Is 67 too old to still need stabilisers on a bike?

No I don’t think so. I’m 48 and never learned how. I am autistic nd I suspect I have dyspraxia so coordination is not my strong point. I can drive a car and for short distances I can walk. I have never felt I was missing out by not being able to ride a bike

I think that it depends where you live. We have a little cycle area at the kids park but apart from that there aren't any routes near us that are good for cycling. As much as I love the idea of wholesome family bike rides it's not going to happen for us.

I haven’t ridden a bike since I was about 12, don’t own one. DH hasn’t ridden a bike for at least 10 years but did cycle commute for a bit in his 30s.
DC can ride a bike but probably hasn’t sat on one since Bikeability over 12 months ago. It’s not essential in our lives in the slightest!