Bike Commute

[meg_shannon]

It's a small accomplishment, but I started commuting by bike today. As a temporary SAHP, I'm shuttling my daughter to school and back. It's about 2.5 km one way, so a minimum of 10 km per day. This weekend's goal is getting a trailer of our own as we're currently borrowing our neighbor's.

[nereo]

It's a small accomplishment, but I started commuting by bike today. As a temporary SAHP, I'm shuttling my daughter to school and back. It's about 2.5 km one way, so a minimum of 10 km per day. This weekend's goal is getting a trailer of our own as we're currently borrowing our neighbor's.

Not a small accomplishment at all - congrats!  Is the trailer for your daughter or for hauling stuff (groceries, etc) around?  How old is she?

[meg_shannon]

She'll be 5 in July. As soon as we track down a used bike for her we'll be teaching her to ride a two wheel bike. She used to ride a balance bike, but outgrew that last summer.

The trailer will mostly be for her, but I'll probably use it for groceries too.

We're living in Germany temporarily, it's wonderful being in a bike friendly area. We moved here from central NJ, which is not very bike friendly.

[cerebus]

That's awesome and very hardcore to bring your child. My wife also said she'd love to do that if we had a more cycle safe area for them, but unfortunately the route to school crosses major roads and they're too small for it just now. But hopefully we'll move soon and possibly the bike commute as well. 

[BCBiker]

When we have kids, it is my goal to rarely have him/her in a motor vehicle and plan to shuttle her/him by bike and then start training him/her on a bike as soon as possible.

I think that we could really train a generation to be less dependent on motor vehicles and make a difference for everyone!

[meg_shannon]

I've seen kids a young as 2-3 years old riding a two wheel bike here. Usually parents seem to wait until they are 5-6 before allowing them to bike to school (while the parent rides his/her bike next to them). The area is bike friendly in the sense of bike lanes, paths, and bike signals; but, cars do not look out for cyclists or pedestrians. We're expected to stay out of their way. It's a little strange.

So far I've been staying on the sidewalk bike paths and off the bike path on the road. There are sections where cyclists are supposed to only use the road bike path, but many don't, and there are too many cars who encroach on the bike lane.

When we move back to NJ we're going to move closer to work and hopefully near a school so we don't have to use our car as much. When we originally moved there, we only had 3 days to find housing and didn't know the area, so we didn't pick the best spot.

[Thegoblinchief]

I have 3 kids 5,7,8 and biking is our primary form of transportation. (Only one car, and my wife has a long commute, so 5 days of the week we are carless even if we wanted it.)

The transition has been pretty smooth. In ~2 years my older two have gone from barely able to doing 5 miles to doing 10-15 easily, and we recent did 20. My 8 year old understands more rules of the road than most drivers.

For my littlest, we did a trailer for a while, but as soon as he was big enough we moved to a trail-a-bike as my panniers have more than enough capacity for most trips. When needed, however, we'll even do trail-a-bike and trailer in a long train.

Every kid is different, but I think many parents are way too cautious about pushing their kids into biking. I've consistently been surprised at how capable my kids are, almost always underestimating them.