Commuting with Children

ibanderson210

Hello all!

We are a 1 car family with a 3yr old and a new one on the way. Currently my wife drives the kiddo to daycare out by her office (about 15 mi away out in the suburbs) and I ride to my office (much closer, a few miles in the city we live in). Long story short, it makes much more sense financially for us to put the baby in a daycare that is right down the road from my office. The wife can still bring him in the mornings but will not be able to be back to pick him up by the time they close. I will need to pick up the baby with my bike. This obviously brings up some concerns. We have a trailer that our toddler rides in for fun just in our neighborhood and on a bikeway. I don't take him across the city like that. I considered putting a car seat in the trailer for the baby, that still concerns me as the safest route home from the daycare still puts me in low to moderate traffic.

Does anyone have any experience commuting on their bicycle with a baby in tow? Are there safer products on the market for an infant than a trailer? Any insight from those more experienced than I would be much appreciated!

Thanks!
Ian

slowbike

Not commuting - but we did out the car seat in the trailer - strapped down - and towed him around - even a relatively heavy trailer with suspension jumps around a lot - so we didn't go too far or for too long - I think the furthest we rode in one hit was 6 miles on country lanes - wife rode behind us but we had no issue with traffic.
We only started at about 10 weeks old - he seemed fine in it and would go to sleep too, but I'm not sure I'd want to do it everyday - especially in traffic.

bigmonka

I used to drop my daughter off at the childminder on my bike - that was 8miles each way with a mix of country lanes and city outskirts/suburbs. Started off with a bike trailer, then moved on to a seat on the back of my bike. When my son was born he went in the trailer with the older one in the bike seat.

I never found traffic to really be an issue, people would give me a nice wide berth, but generally I was too wide to use the on-road cycle lanes when there was stationary traffic, so I had to sit and wait like the cars in some places.

I don't think I started until they were at least 6months old though, so didn't have the issue of needing to support them properly in the trailer as they could sit up by themselves.

mountainpenguin

We have a cougar chariot.
Not used for commuting but have used it quite a bit from 4 months ish.
Its great and he is very happy in it. I would happily (and may well) use it to take him to / from school in a few years. The suspension works really well and big wheels are a bonus.

Not sure I would be happy on the roads without an outrider. We have rear lights on ours and a flag but the flag is on the wrong side