I was thinking about my old green bike, and how much I loved it. It took me
everywhere; to school, to my friend's house,to the market, around the neighborhood, on a paper route -just everywhere.
Who doesn't remember getting a new bike for Christmas or birthday?
We kids didn't have weight problems on my street either, cause we were either roller skating or biking around.
The other day my friend said that she never lets her kids ride anywhere because
it just wasn't safe. I wonder why it isn't safe? We grew up with scraped knees and we survived.
Is the world so unsafe now or is the world gone
paranoid? Has the world really become a more dangerous place, or has globalisation just brought what has always been, to our attention?
Is this a big city thing or are there still small towns where the kids bike around?
I was just wondering - cause I still bike and love it!
Any thoughts out there?
4 comments:
My first bike was blue. I remember being very excited when I came home from school one day and the crate it was delivered in was on the front porch!
Yep, I used to travel far and near on my bike too.
But in some areas of the U.S. it IS unsafe to have a child on a bicycle!! The traffic laws are way too lax here in the states.
In Colorado my kids got the opportunity to go on them only because the city's streets had bike lanes built! And some beautiful bike paths within the foothills for anyone to use. I especially liked one where the bike path followed the river....oh that was beautiful...year 'round.
Then, there's high crime. Abductions, rapes, kidnapping, drive-by shootings...crime everywhere. Except, even tho crimes do exist in the rural parts of our country, it's few and far between...and I do see bikers! But very seldom these days.
Hmmm... my first bike was turquoise. I think I got it for my 7th birthday. At that time I lived in DC and was allowed to ride around the block and cross some of the smaller roads - but was not allowed near Wisconsin Avenue - which was a major thoroughfare with city busses and all. However... by the time I was a teenager we had moved to the country and even though we had bike paths to use, none of us did. We WALKED! I had a group of friends and after school I'd go pick up the first one and we'd walk to the next ones house and then the next until we had all of us - and then we'd head for the mall or the lake or the next subdivision... I bet we walked 10 miles a day - EVERY day!
With my kids, we also live out in the country ... but we have NO sidewalks and NO bike paths. We really NEED some bike paths! My kids were allowed to ride their bikes where they wanted from the time they turned 11. By that age I was pretty positive they knew the rules of the road and would abide by them. It was also an age by which they had developed some "street smarts" ... my boys have done a LOT of pedaling around our county - the girls were a little less adventuresome - but still would ride to get to a friends house occassionally.
I do think the world IS a "somewhat" more dangerous place than it was when we were growing up ... but I think mostly the dangerous parts are just more widely televised! We FEEL less safe because we know more about what's going on around the world. I've never taken that to heart though and I'm pretty sure that if I lived in the big city my kids would bike or walk EVERYWHERE! I don't think we should deny them that. I've always raised my kids with the faith that God has assigned them each an angel and that they're not going anywhere until God decides. And when He decides, there's not a thing I can do about it! Amanda spent months diving out of airplanes and I honestly never worried about her doing it! I just figured God had it under control! :)
Dang! I wrote a book! Sorry!
First of all, that is a SWEET bike! Was it a Schwinn? And secondly, I think you're right! There is a really cool picture book that I just read about industrialization called the Kamishibai Man by Allen Say. It is about tradition being overrun by industry (but it says it in a really sweet way). Anywho, some larger metro areas try to compensate. In Westchester (near NYC), where I am, they close down a small parkway on Sundays in the summer for bike riders and joggers. I guess something is better than nothing!
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