It took awhile but the warm weather is here to stay and just in time for school to be over. This is a great time for families to reacquaint themselves with some summer time fun --- riding their bicycles.
I was reminded of just how much fun bicycling can be for families while assisting with a bike rodeo event that was held at A.I duPont Hospital on a recent Saturday. The New Castle County Emergency Medical Services, the New Castle County Police, and the Trauma Department of A.I. duPont Hospital conducted the rodeo for Children. But, having fun must also be safe. So, because safety is my number one priority, each child who participated in the rodeo had to be individually fitted with a bike helmet.
Most people in my age bracket were just turned loose with their first bicycle to learn to balance their bike and once they could stay upright most of time, off they went to explore the world. Those were the days when there were more stay at home moms, neighborhoods had sidewalks, and life seemed a little less dangerous for children. No one thought about helmets and pads. Today, we need a different approach to teaching children about bicycling and bicycling safety. So, take time to enjoy biking with your family, but first, it is important to spend some time teaching and practicing safe bicycling with your family.
<>Gear: Absolutely start with a well-fitted helmet, knee and elbow pads for first rides. It is the law that all children up to 16 must wear a helmet. Adjust the bicycle so that the pedals, bars and brakes can be reached comfortably. Brightly colored clothes are a must. Reflective material that can be attached to the bicycle pedals, shoes, or clothes is also a great way to be sure that bicyclists are visible to cars.
Brakes: Practice how to stop the bicycle with your child. Every rider should practice a quick stop so they know how to maneuver the bike to stop safely in an emergency.
>Balance: Most children want to ride their bicycle fast but the best way to learn to control a bicycle is to learn to keep the bicycle upright when you have to go very slow. An easy skill to teach this is called the “snail race.” Use a stopwatch to see who can go the slowest without losing their balance. Also, practice making serpentine turns which also forces a bicyclist to go slow and have control of the bicycle.
Riding: Everyone needs to practice bicycling skills before being allowed to venture out among traffic. A third of car-bike crashes with children occur when the child does not yield to crossing traffic. Children need to learn the rules of the road because bicyclists, according the law, must follow the same rules as motor vehicles. This means bicyclists must obey all traffic signs and signals. Children can be taught to cross safely at busy intersections by walking their bicycle across the street. A third of all car-bike crashes occur when a child rides a bicycle down the driveway into the street in front of a car. Children should be taught to imagine a stop sign at the end of a driveway, and then look left, right and left again, so that they don’t ride into the street into the path of an oncoming car. They should be taught to assume that cars do not see them.
Signaling: Children need to learn to signal to cars what their intentions are. So they must signal with their arms to indicate that they are making a right or left turn. It is also important to indicate to cars when a bicyclist is coming to a stop.
Scanning: Nearly a third of car-bike crashes occur when a child turns suddenly into the path of faster moving traffic. Children must learn to scan to the right and left for traffic without losing their balance and without swerving to the left or right. This can be practiced by having children ride in a straight line away from you and then ask them to turn to the side and look back at you to see how many fingers you are holding up. They should be able to do this while keeping the bicycle riding in a straight line. This is the same kind of skill children will need to have when they begin driving a car. There are studies that show that children who learn to ride a bicycle are better drivers of motor vehicles because they learn many of the same skills need to drive a car.
Plan a day of bicycling fun with your family and all of you can brush up on your skills for safely traveling on two wheels. An added benefit is that you are doing something positive for the environment and saving money on all that gasoline!!!
—Cindy Genau, Community Traffic & Safety Educator
Originally published in “Newark Outlook,” The Newark Post
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