Do you think 9 is too young to let a child ride up a main road on their bike

[tevion]

Hi
I have stopped my 8 year old from going out on his bike with two children in our street as I am aware that they frequently go two streets away onto a relatively busy main road.
These children are aged 9 and 10.
The mom of one of these children who I speak to quite a bit says she sees no problem as her dd is quite sensible, although I have seen these two children riding up the middle of the road on coming home in my car and always feel relieved that my ds isn,t with them.
It has caused me problems with my ds when he has wanted to play with them but they have been on their bikes. I know that if I let him go out on his bike with them he will be enticed to go where they go and I just don,t feel comfortable about it.
What do other mumsnetters think about this do you not think children of this age are to young to go out of the safety of their own street on bikes and especially down a main road am I doing right by my ds or am I restricting him too much.
Oh and these two children never have helmets on half the times.

bump

I think it depends on the road - round here my 65yo dad won't ride on the main road

I used to, but as a parent I don't really want to let my dcs ever out on their own

We do go out biking with the children regularly and always wear their helmets.

Could you not read the riot act re helmets and safe riding? ie if anyone sees them out without helmets and riding dangerously you will take bike away for an amount of time?

I never wore a helmet but did cycle sensibly and safely, it is sometimes a good thing that my parents weren't that keen on me

A teacher I know who runs cycling courses for primary school children told me that there are physical development reasons that children of this age should not ride on the road. It was to do with something like peripheral vision, although I can't remember exactly. Essentially the take-home message was that it's not about cycling skill or common sense (although both of these are very important) but that they have not developed sufficiently to deal with riding on the road.

FWIW, I would not let a child of 10 on a busy road without an adult, but my DS (6.8) sometimes rides up and down our road - although he's supervised he is allowed to go out of our sight for short times. We live on a quiet residential road in the semi-country, so there are some cars but not many.

Both my dc's did their cycling proficiency at primary when they were 10 which involved riding on the main road, however I would not let either of them ride on the road at that age and still don't want my ds 13 riding on the road when he rides to the station everyday to school.
Our main road is very busy and not very wide and I don't think is safe for even adult cyclists.