Experts blame parental fear for kids shunning cycling and swimming for TV and computers

That's a Pashley U+2, sadly I don't think they make it any more. Probably worth asking around on cycling forums if anyone has one, or indeed getting in touch with Pashley - Tel : (+44) 01789 292 263
Email : hello [at] pashley.co.uk

I'm also too scared to go outside....thank God for my rollers and turbo trainer

Does anyone know where you can get a trailer like that? I've turned up a single-seat one at Mission Cycles, but haven't found a twin seat one so far.

Re header picture: plaudits to anyone who feels they have to let most of the air out of their back tyre before dragging two littluns along! Why don't folks ride with their tyres inflated ?

"seeks to introduce kids to the sport of triathelon"! Maybe they just couldn't find any pain loving little chillins?

I have friends who never let their children travel anywhere on their own. Very sad.

No shortage of kids in the park near my house riding their bikes. More boys than girls can be seen on bikes, it is true, but there are still sufficient numbers of both to see cycling has a future. The BMX track in the park and the skatepark not too far away are both very well used, more boys than girls also and the same goes for the historic Herne Hill Velodrome, also a few turns of the cranks away.

The problem seems to be more with the adults if you ask me. There are too many overweight parents who seem reluctant to walk to the end of the street, let alone trust their balance to a bicycle. I do think a study of cyclists would reveal that a high percentage are from mid-high income families, somewhat running against the sort of tirade you expect from morons like Jeremy Clarkson who claim that cyclists simply cannot afford cars.

My experience is that parental rejection of cycling is only *one* impediment. We live in a smallish town in Germany, lots of facilities, we do not own a car, me and my partner cycle everywhere and I train 3 times a week. The kids went to Kindergarten then school in a bike trailer, then on their own bikes with me. They have reasonable bikes and I keep them maintained. So plenty of positive examples !

The kids do cycle to school (except my daughter in winter, then she walks), and after school sports clubs, but they would never cycle for "fun": i.e. round the neighbourhood or tours.

I think they are very influenced by their peers and unless everyone's parents are supporting cycling they will not do it together. It only takes one of the group to have a games console, and they can all join in, even if only passively. But to go cycling *everyone* has to have a bike and want to actively use it !!

if you want to see how it is done take a trip to Lieden, from two year olds to eighty year olds, sharing the city with pedestrians and mopeds with no helmets, no lycra. Backies, beers, half working lights, no drama, no aggression.

But then uk Zeitgeist is one of general rage and anger all brimming just beneath a thin veneer of feigned smiles and tolerance, following the American dream!.

I'd have to agree with bristoltraffic (impressive level of calm you maintained in that video bristol), it's a catch 22 situation for a lot of parents in cities - certainly when it comes to cycling. You want them to go out and ride their bikes, but your own experience is that the roads are much more crowded and aggressive places than they were when you first started riding on them as a kid. Worse still when they do get to an age when they feel confident enough to ride on the roads they don't have the road skills… or at least you worry that they don't. I probably didn't either when I was 12 or so, but then the traffic was both slower and lighter then, and ironically maybe there were still a generation of drivers on the roads who remembered what it was like to cycle places rather than drive - so cut you a bit more slack. It's easy enough to blame the parents, but when it comes to getting kids on bikes I'd say the main problem is our over dependence on the car and an unwillingness to spend money on proper cycle facilities and more rigourous training for drivers and cyclists.

Luckily my daugthers seem to have no interest in video games at all… although they are certainly going to be at a loose end when E4 stops what had seemed like an eternal loop of Friends re-runs.

Funny, isn't it, how the things that modern parents deem "safe" for their kids - video games, satellite TV, boy bands, etc - are so often things that provide an ongoing, high-profit-margin revenue stream for mega-corporations.

It's easy for commentators to say "parental fear" is the problem here, but maybe its "well founded parental experience of cycling in a modern city". The number of motor vehicles has doubled since we were kids, cars drive faster, there are more parked cars to narrow the streets, and everyone is more aggressive.

Case in point: Cotham Hill, Bristol
http://bristolcars.blogspot.com/search/label/cotham-hill

This is how I tow my son to school. Once the mini-roundabout at the top of the road is negotiated (it's easier when deadlocked), and no idiot has tried to undertake us, we then may get down the contraflow provided there isn't some idiot in a lorry in the way. Then its into the lower part of the hill, where you have to worry about
-cars and vans pulling out of side roads without looking (watch the video, yes this is from a school run)
-oncoming cars overtaking bicycles and pulling into your lane in the process (again, a school run)

Experts can witter on about whatever they want, but without fundamental changes to our cities, it is too dangerous for the kids to cycle on the road. Anyone who says otherwise is cordially invited to join me on my school run.

no shortage of boys on BMXs, scooters and jump bikes in our neighbourhood - perhaps helped by the scene at the local skatepark and jump spot in the woods - but you practically never see girls in their teens and pre-teens on bikes.