School kids rarely ride bicycle anymore, why?

On Friday afternoon during a road bike ride I came by two schools right
at the time when they were letting out. The bike lane was full of parked
cars hurumph ... grumble which is probably legal in California
although I'd never do that. All nice cars, bought by dad I guess. Then
there was a large file of cars with soccer moms and dads in there. A few
school buses here and there. Kids on bicycles? Zip, nada, not one. Same
at the next school and that even had two pick-up lanes.

Why?

When I grew up at least half the high school students living more than
walking distance away commuted by bicycle. So did I and my siblings. And
we didn't catch the sniffles the minute winter broke out, we just rode
through the snow.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

On Sun, 16 Feb 2020 14:57:04 -0800, Joerg
wrote:

On Friday afternoon during a road bike ride I came by two schools right
at the time when they were letting out. The bike lane was full of parked
cars hurumph ... grumble which is probably legal in California
although I'd never do that. All nice cars, bought by dad I guess. Then
there was a large file of cars with soccer moms and dads in there. A few
school buses here and there. Kids on bicycles? Zip, nada, not one. Same
at the next school and that even had two pick-up lanes.

Why?

When I grew up at least half the high school students living more than
walking distance away commuted by bicycle. So did I and my siblings. And
we didn't catch the sniffles the minute winter broke out, we just rode
through the snow.

When I went to school all the kids that lived within 1 mile of the
school walked - over 1 mile there was a school bus. No matter the
weather, Walk! I remember during the colder part of the year, and we
did have cold weather in up-state New Hampshire, the girls all wore
trousers under their skirts while walking back and forth to school and
removed them while in school. For some reason that was considered as
quite sexy :-)
--
cheers,

John B.

On 2020-02-16 15:11, John B. wrote:
On Sun, 16 Feb 2020 14:57:04 -0800, Joerg
wrote:

On Friday afternoon during a road bike ride I came by two schools right
at the time when they were letting out. The bike lane was full of parked
cars hurumph ... grumble which is probably legal in California
although I'd never do that. All nice cars, bought by dad I guess. Then
there was a large file of cars with soccer moms and dads in there. A few
school buses here and there. Kids on bicycles? Zip, nada, not one. Same
at the next school and that even had two pick-up lanes.

Why?

When I grew up at least half the high school students living more than
walking distance away commuted by bicycle. So did I and my siblings. And
we didn't catch the sniffles the minute winter broke out, we just rode
through the snow.

When I went to school all the kids that lived within 1 mile of the
school walked - over 1 mile there was a school bus. No matter the
weather, Walk!


1mi is peanuts, they all walked at our school as well. Too much hassle
to unlock and then re-lock a bicycle for that. I had about 5mi. As the
proud owner of a 10-speed (cheap department store version) I felt like
riding a Porsche.

I usually rode in jeans and shirt, regardless of weather. Still ride
that way except now it's jeans shorts and T-shirt. Temperature
regulation via crank torque, when it is cold I get home faster.


... I remember during the colder part of the year, and we
did have cold weather in up-state New Hampshire, the girls all wore
trousers under their skirts while walking back and forth to school and
removed them while in school. For some reason that was considered as
quite sexy :-)


You guys must have had a weird taste :-)

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

On 2/16/2020 4:57 PM, Joerg wrote:
On Friday afternoon during a road bike ride I came by two
schools right at the time when they were letting out. The
bike lane was full of parked cars hurumph ... grumble
which is probably legal in California although I'd never do
that. All nice cars, bought by dad I guess. Then there was a
large file of cars with soccer moms and dads in there. A few
school buses here and there. Kids on bicycles? Zip, nada,
not one. Same at the next school and that even had two
pick-up lanes.

Why?

When I grew up at least half the high school students living
more than walking distance away commuted by bicycle. So did
I and my siblings. And we didn't catch the sniffles the
minute winter broke out, we just rode through the snow.


In my paper last week, noting that Alaska is back to normal
cold after a few warm years (minus 30F straight through
January), the superintendent of schools for Juneau said "We
don't close for weather."

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org/
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

On Sun, 16 Feb 2020 15:27:37 -0800, Joerg
wrote:

On 2020-02-16 15:11, John B. wrote:
On Sun, 16 Feb 2020 14:57:04 -0800, Joerg
wrote:

On Friday afternoon during a road bike ride I came by two schools right
at the time when they were letting out. The bike lane was full of parked
cars hurumph ... grumble which is probably legal in California
although I'd never do that. All nice cars, bought by dad I guess. Then
there was a large file of cars with soccer moms and dads in there. A few
school buses here and there. Kids on bicycles? Zip, nada, not one. Same
at the next school and that even had two pick-up lanes.

Why?

When I grew up at least half the high school students living more than
walking distance away commuted by bicycle. So did I and my siblings. And
we didn't catch the sniffles the minute winter broke out, we just rode
through the snow.

When I went to school all the kids that lived within 1 mile of the
school walked - over 1 mile there was a school bus. No matter the
weather, Walk!


1mi is peanuts, they all walked at our school as well. Too much hassle
to unlock and then re-lock a bicycle for that. I had about 5mi. As the
proud owner of a 10-speed (cheap department store version) I felt like
riding a Porsche.

When you are 6 years old a mile is quite a long way :-0

I usually rode in jeans and shirt, regardless of weather. Still ride
that way except now it's jeans shorts and T-shirt. Temperature
regulation via crank torque, when it is cold I get home faster.


... I remember during the colder part of the year, and we
did have cold weather in up-state New Hampshire, the girls all wore
trousers under their skirts while walking back and forth to school and
removed them while in school. For some reason that was considered as
quite sexy :-)


You guys must have had a weird taste :-)

Remember that was in the "long ago times", when even the glimpse of a
bra strap was quite exciting :-)
--
cheers,

John B.

On 2/16/2020 2:57 PM, Joerg wrote:
On Friday afternoon during a road bike ride I came by two schools right
at the time when they were letting out. The bike lane was full of parked
cars hurumph ... grumble which is probably legal in California
although I'd never do that. All nice cars, bought by dad I guess. Then
there was a large file of cars with soccer moms and dads in there. A few
school buses here and there. Kids on bicycles? Zip, nada, not one. Same
at the next school and that even had two pick-up lanes.

Why?

When I grew up at least half the high school students living more than
walking distance away commuted by bicycle. So did I and my siblings. And
we didn't catch the sniffles the minute winter broke out, we just rode
through the snow.

In my area a lot of middle school and high school students use bicycles
to go to school. Very few elementary school kids though. We are busy
doing bicycle boulevards and protected bicycle lanes and multi-use
trails which hopefully will encourage a few more parents to allow their
kids to ride to school.

I think I rode my bicycle to school starting in second grade. Plus it
was uphill both ways, in the snow. And it was in Florida so it was also
hot and humid.

On 2/16/2020 6:37 PM, John B. wrote:
On Sun, 16 Feb 2020 15:27:37 -0800, Joerg
wrote:

On 2020-02-16 15:11, John B. wrote:
On Sun, 16 Feb 2020 14:57:04 -0800, Joerg
wrote:

On Friday afternoon during a road bike ride I came by two schools right
at the time when they were letting out. The bike lane was full of parked
cars hurumph ... grumble which is probably legal in California
although I'd never do that. All nice cars, bought by dad I guess. Then
there was a large file of cars with soccer moms and dads in there. A few
school buses here and there. Kids on bicycles? Zip, nada, not one. Same
at the next school and that even had two pick-up lanes.

Why?

When I grew up at least half the high school students living more than
walking distance away commuted by bicycle. So did I and my siblings. And
we didn't catch the sniffles the minute winter broke out, we just rode
through the snow.

When I went to school all the kids that lived within 1 mile of the
school walked - over 1 mile there was a school bus. No matter the
weather, Walk!


1mi is peanuts, they all walked at our school as well. Too much hassle
to unlock and then re-lock a bicycle for that. I had about 5mi. As the
proud owner of a 10-speed (cheap department store version) I felt like
riding a Porsche.

When you are 6 years old a mile is quite a long way :-0

I usually rode in jeans and shirt, regardless of weather. Still ride
that way except now it's jeans shorts and T-shirt. Temperature
regulation via crank torque, when it is cold I get home faster.


... I remember during the colder part of the year, and we
did have cold weather in up-state New Hampshire, the girls all wore
trousers under their skirts while walking back and forth to school and
removed them while in school. For some reason that was considered as
quite sexy :-)


You guys must have had a weird taste :-)

Remember that was in the "long ago times", when even the glimpse of a
bra strap was quite exciting :-)
--
cheers,

John B.


Oh those golden days of garter belts and real nylons...

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org/
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

On Sun, 16 Feb 2020 19:11:14 -0600, AMuzi wrote:

On 2/16/2020 6:37 PM, John B. wrote:
On Sun, 16 Feb 2020 15:27:37 -0800, Joerg
wrote:

On 2020-02-16 15:11, John B. wrote:
On Sun, 16 Feb 2020 14:57:04 -0800, Joerg
wrote:

On Friday afternoon during a road bike ride I came by two schools right
at the time when they were letting out. The bike lane was full of parked
cars hurumph ... grumble which is probably legal in California
although I'd never do that. All nice cars, bought by dad I guess. Then
there was a large file of cars with soccer moms and dads in there. A few
school buses here and there. Kids on bicycles? Zip, nada, not one. Same
at the next school and that even had two pick-up lanes.

Why?

When I grew up at least half the high school students living more than
walking distance away commuted by bicycle. So did I and my siblings. And
we didn't catch the sniffles the minute winter broke out, we just rode
through the snow.

When I went to school all the kids that lived within 1 mile of the
school walked - over 1 mile there was a school bus. No matter the
weather, Walk!


1mi is peanuts, they all walked at our school as well. Too much hassle
to unlock and then re-lock a bicycle for that. I had about 5mi. As the
proud owner of a 10-speed (cheap department store version) I felt like
riding a Porsche.

When you are 6 years old a mile is quite a long way :-0

I usually rode in jeans and shirt, regardless of weather. Still ride
that way except now it's jeans shorts and T-shirt. Temperature
regulation via crank torque, when it is cold I get home faster.


... I remember during the colder part of the year, and we
did have cold weather in up-state New Hampshire, the girls all wore
trousers under their skirts while walking back and forth to school and
removed them while in school. For some reason that was considered as
quite sexy :-)


You guys must have had a weird taste :-)

Remember that was in the "long ago times", when even the glimpse of a
bra strap was quite exciting :-)
--
cheers,

John B.


Oh those golden days of garter belts and real nylons...

Or bare legs and penny loafers :-)
--
cheers,

John B.

On 2/16/2020 5:57 PM, Joerg wrote:
On Friday afternoon during a road bike ride I came by two schools right
at the time when they were letting out. The bike lane was full of parked
cars hurumph ... grumble which is probably legal in California
although I'd never do that. All nice cars, bought by dad I guess. Then
there was a large file of cars with soccer moms and dads in there. A few
school buses here and there. Kids on bicycles? Zip, nada, not one. Same
at the next school and that even had two pick-up lanes.

Why?

When I grew up at least half the high school students living more than
walking distance away commuted by bicycle. So did I and my siblings. And
we didn't catch the sniffles the minute winter broke out, we just rode
through the snow.

IIRC, you grew up in Europe. The bicycling culture has always been
stronger there.

But kids' riding is way down in the U.S. from decades ago. There are
probably many reasons, but it's hard for me to believe the "danger!"
warnings are not a huge part of it, and probably the biggest part.

Until about 1990, few parents thought that simply riding a bike was a
huge risk of permanent brain injury. Since then, they've been "educated"
to believe that's true, despite readily available data. And many states
emphasize that phantom danger with helmet laws.

Until about 20 years ago, few parents thought that riding on a street
without a bike lane stripe was terribly dangerous. Since then, they've
been told it is.

Until about 10 years ago, few parents thought that an ordinary bike lane
was too dangerous. Since then, they've been told only barrier protected
bike lanes are safe enough.

Those promoting barrier segregated bike lanes assure us lots of people
will ride as soon as those are built on all four million miles of
roadway in America. In other words, they're being taught that bicycling
will be dangerous forever.


--
- Frank Krygowski

On Monday, February 17, 2020 at 12:27:04 AM UTC, AMuzi wrote:
On 2/16/2020 4:57 PM, Joerg wrote:
On Friday afternoon during a road bike ride I came by two
schools right at the time when they were letting out. The
bike lane was full of parked cars hurumph ... grumble
which is probably legal in California although I'd never do
that. All nice cars, bought by dad I guess. Then there was a
large file of cars with soccer moms and dads in there. A few
school buses here and there. Kids on bicycles? Zip, nada,
not one. Same at the next school and that even had two
pick-up lanes.

Why?

When I grew up at least half the high school students living
more than walking distance away commuted by bicycle. So did
I and my siblings. And we didn't catch the sniffles the
minute winter broke out, we just rode through the snow.


In my paper last week, noting that Alaska is back to normal
cold after a few warm years (minus 30F straight through
January), the superintendent of schools for Juneau said "We
don't close for weather."

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org/
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

Unlike British Rail which closes for "an unexpected kind of leaves on the rail" as well as "a different sort of snow on the rail".

Andre Jute
And then there was the Irish plumber who promised to turn up on Thursday, and did, only it was a Thursday a year later...