Too young to cycle to school?

takethehighroad

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/10516806.stm

Interesting, a mother has been reported to Social Services for letting her kids cycle to school. What do you think? I think that although it's good to encourage kids to cycle, 5 and 8 years old is a bit young, even if the roads are safe, which they almost certainly are.

No need to involve CSA or anything though, that's excessive

daviesee

Pavements - fine.
Roads - no.

As it is on the pavement, I don't see the problem.
5 may be a bit young but it depends on the child and the sibling supervising.

Is this really a Country that built an empire?

Stewie Griffin

The CSA? Do you think the Father should pay for the bike or something The Primary school near me has quite a few very small bikes chained to its fence, it renews my faith in our Species.

Well, it makes me smile anyway :P

Tom Butcher

I think 5 is a bit young - 8 I don't have a problem with - at 5 I can sort of see the school's point. There are issues around development and spatial awareness at that age - put it this way - I'd want to be convinced it was OK for a 5 year old.

MrChuck

daviesee wrote:

Pavements - fine.
Roads - no.

As it is on the pavement, I don't see the problem.
5 may be a bit young but it depends on the child and the sibling supervising.

Is this really a Country that built an empire?

Depending on the area the pavements could be worse- especially at school time- with people backing out of their driveways.

daviesee

MrChuck wrote:

daviesee wrote:

Pavements - fine.
Roads - no.

As it is on the pavement, I don't see the problem.
5 may be a bit young but it depends on the child and the sibling supervising.

Is this really a Country that built an empire?

Depending on the area the pavements could be worse- especially at school time- with people backing out of their driveways.

Are these people backing out taking their children to school?
I can see a solution and it doesn't involve cars.

daviesee

I stay in a small village where no house is more than 1/2 mile from the school.
There is only one "major" road at 30mph and it has a good crossing point.

1/2 the children are driven to work.

Why?????

Pollution and congestion in some areas could simply be solved by people not being lazy :evil:

glauciaregina9

Nobody's business but the parents.

Whoever reported the parents should be ashamed, and in future mind their own.

ride_whenever

eeerm, i don't think the issue is the cycling, it's the alone bit.

I certainly wouldn't let my child ride to school on their own, or even walk or drive.

Yet another example of anti-cycling journalism from the bbc.

proto

ride_whenever wrote:

eeerm, i don't think the issue is the cycling, it's the alone bit.

I certainly wouldn't let my child ride to school on their own, or even walk or drive.

Why not?

mcj78

glauciaregina9 wrote:

Nobody's business but the parents.

Whoever reported the parents should be ashamed, and in future mind their own.

It was apparently one of the teachers at the school who threatened to report them to social services, pretty sure at 8 I was taking myself to school, which was around a mile away & required crossing a couple of main roads. I think the issue here is more to do with leaving the 8 year old to supervise the 5 year old on the way to school - agree it's entirely the parents choice if they feel their 8 year old is capable of geting their 5 year old to school safely.

tx14

ride_whenever wrote:

eeerm, i don't think the issue is the cycling, it's the alone bit.

I certainly wouldn't let my child ride to school on their own, or even walk or drive.

Yet another example of anti-cycling journalism from the bbc.

really? i started going to school on my own when i was 7.

finchy

daviesee wrote:

I stay in a small village where no house is more than 1/2 mile from the school.
There is only one "major" road at 30mph and it has a good crossing point.

1/2 the children are driven to work.

Why?????

Pollution and congestion in some areas could simply be solved by people not being lazy :evil:

Because their parents are fat idle f**kers and their children will be too.

sheffsimon

ride_whenever wrote:

eeerm, i don't think the issue is the cycling, it's the alone bit.

I certainly wouldn't let my child ride to school on their own, or even walk or drive.

Yet another example of anti-cycling journalism from the bbc.

Why ever not??

My kids walk to school by themselves - 8 and 10 - and have done for the past year or so, usually together, but not always.

Also head off on bike rides with groups of mates.

Not sure I would let them drive by themselves though.

Bunneh

I was walking to school when I was 8, quite a long way too. If it's child safety people are concerned about, oh my god people, perverts were around in the past too! Are the roads more dangerous now than they were? We have speed bumps around schools, lollypop ladies and other precautions. I think it's safer now than it ever was...

bompington

ride_whenever wrote:

I certainly wouldn't let my child ride to school on their own, or even walk or drive.

I don't let my children drive to school on their own either.

But actually I do let them cycle, like daviesee I live in a small village, and my kids' 1 mile cycle passes the houses of several kids who are driven to school* - although cycling is actually quite popular, certainly more than half of the kids who live in the village walk or cycle in the summer at least; we're probably the only ones whose kids still have to in all weathers :twisted:

The question in the case we're talking about is, of course, what age is suitable for them to start - my kids started (going unsupervised) at 7; 5 looks like it might be a bit young, but that depends on a lot of factors we don't know about - what the roads and pavements are like, how responsible the 2 kids are, have there been any incidents like near misses already.

Like most stories you hear in the news, it's probably more complex in real life than it comes over on the news - so there's no way I can judge who's right here; it does seem a bit of a heavy handed way to deal with it though.

*There are a couple of kids who regularly get a lift to the bus stop for the high school bus. It's about 400 yards.

Tom Butcher

My oldest started walking on her own at about 9, I wouldn't be happy for them to walk on their own here much younger than that partly because they have to cross major road and the way the pedestrian crossing is everyone nips across without using it (because it avoids waiting at three more pedestrian crossings). I wouldn't be happy with any of them cycling there on the roads under about 12 or 13 and with plenty of cycling experience again because they are busy city centre roads, bus routes and quite challenging even for inexperienced adults on bikes.

There is a big difference between 8 or 9 and 5 though - at 5 some kids have only just started in reception.

on the road

Would there be the same argument if they were walking to school instead?

glauciaregina9

Also, i can't believe this non-story has been covered by the BBC...

I could understand it if was only in the Daily Mail, which seems to have made it its sole purpose to generate outrage about every little insignificant event and stir it up into a great furore about nothing

Mister W

I cycled or walked to school on my own (or more often with friends) from the age of 5. That was on quiet, residential roads but at 11 my cycle route to school included the main road into town. I was taught how to cycle sensibly and because there were so many of us doing it the car drivers were expecting cyclists and drove accordingly.

The more cyclists there are the safer each one of us is.

Pross

It really depends on the route - I may let them walk on their own but not cycle. I used to walk to school at that age with my sister who was a few years older but the traffic was nowhere near as bad. We started letting our elder daughter walk on her own at 10 in the last year of junior school. It's a mile on a busy road where the footways are very narrow so wouldn't let my 7 year old do it.

SteppenHerring

Imagine if you could introduce residents-only parking for a 1 km radius around all schools. Yes, I sometimes drop my boy off on the way to work, but if he only had to walk 1km and there was no traffic - what's the problem?

verylonglegs

glauciaregina9 wrote:

Also, i can't believe this non-story has been covered by the BBC...

I could understand it if was only in the Daily Mail, which seems to have made it its sole purpose to generate outrage about every little insignificant event and stir it up into a great furore about nothing

It was originally on the front of the most recent Sunday Times and I guess the BBC have picked up on it.

I too used to walk to school from around 7-8yrs, there were 4 of us who lived in the same close who'd walk together and there was probably no more than 4-5 out of the whole school who were driven. Go past the school now at finishing time and the cars line the road for about 1mile either way making the road virtually unusable.

Frank the tank

When I used to go to school there was a gang of us of various ages and we all looked out for each other. Mind you there were hardly any cars on the road in those days and the nearly all the children walked to school.

shouldbeinbed

<edited>

not a problem with the parents doing it if they feel it is safe. Apparently the nanny will be there to bring them back from school so it would seem to be slightly more an issue of inconvenience and not wanting to put themselves out/pay the nanny overtime in the mornings though than standing up for child rights.

on the road

Does that town have a lot of perverts then?

verylonglegs

I thought the story was from Dulwich in London.

shouldbeinbed

verylonglegs wrote:

I thought the story was from Dulwich in London.

oops sure I read it was in stockport too/
mea culpa :oops:

amended my drivel

mac111051

Strange how people say the roads are to dangerous, cars are dangerous, traffic is dangerous, they never say drivers are dangerous