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School kids rarely ride bicycle anymore, why?



 
 
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  #31  
Old February 27th 20, 03:38 AM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
jOHN b.
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,421
Default School kids rarely ride bicycle anymore, why?

On Wed, 26 Feb 2020 16:08:17 -0800, Joerg
wrote:

On 2020-02-20 14:51, John B. wrote:
On Thu, 20 Feb 2020 13:52:32 +0100, Rolf Mantel
wrote:

Am 19.02.2020 um 23:46 schrieb John B.:
Or to put it another way, did
anyone ever take their girlfriend to the Junior Prom... on a bicycle?

My answer at that age would be

1) what is a girl-friend?
2) What is a junior-prom?


You rather prove my point... that only children ride bicycles and as
soon as possible they graduate to an internal combustion powered
device :-)



Then when they are mid-life and the scales show a profound trend towards
morbid obesity, the bicycle comes back out from the garage rafters.


"Mid-life"?
https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/childhood.html
For children and adolescents aged 2-19 years1:
The prevalence of obesity was 18.5% and affected about 13.7 million
children and adolescents.
--
cheers,

John B.

Ads
  #32  
Old February 28th 20, 12:37 AM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
Joerg[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 6,016
Default School kids rarely ride bicycle anymore, why?

On 2020-02-26 18:38, John B. wrote:
On Wed, 26 Feb 2020 16:08:17 -0800, Joerg
wrote:

On 2020-02-20 14:51, John B. wrote:
On Thu, 20 Feb 2020 13:52:32 +0100, Rolf Mantel
wrote:

Am 19.02.2020 um 23:46 schrieb John B.:
Or to put it another way, did
anyone ever take their girlfriend to the Junior Prom... on a bicycle?

My answer at that age would be

1) what is a girl-friend?
2) What is a junior-prom?

You rather prove my point... that only children ride bicycles and as
soon as possible they graduate to an internal combustion powered
device :-)



Then when they are mid-life and the scales show a profound trend towards
morbid obesity, the bicycle comes back out from the garage rafters.


"Mid-life"?
https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/childhood.html
For children and adolescents aged 2-19 years1:
The prevalence of obesity was 18.5% and affected about 13.7 million
children and adolescents.



That perfectly corroborates the subject line. No more riding to school
by bike, lots of sitting with the smart phone in hand, lots of fast food
- obesity.

I just came back from a 30-miler. Saw lots of school buses and soccer
moms. School kids on bikes? Nope :-(

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/
  #33  
Old February 28th 20, 01:11 AM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
Sir Ridesalot
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 5,270
Default School kids rarely ride bicycle anymore, why?

On Thursday, 27 February 2020 18:36:59 UTC-5, Joerg wrote:
On 2020-02-26 18:38, John B. wrote:
On Wed, 26 Feb 2020 16:08:17 -0800, Joerg
wrote:

On 2020-02-20 14:51, John B. wrote:
On Thu, 20 Feb 2020 13:52:32 +0100, Rolf Mantel
wrote:

Am 19.02.2020 um 23:46 schrieb John B.:
Or to put it another way, did
anyone ever take their girlfriend to the Junior Prom... on a bicycle?

My answer at that age would be

1) what is a girl-friend?
2) What is a junior-prom?

You rather prove my point... that only children ride bicycles and as
soon as possible they graduate to an internal combustion powered
device :-)


Then when they are mid-life and the scales show a profound trend towards
morbid obesity, the bicycle comes back out from the garage rafters.


"Mid-life"?
https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/childhood.html
For children and adolescents aged 2-19 years1:
The prevalence of obesity was 18.5% and affected about 13.7 million
children and adolescents.



That perfectly corroborates the subject line. No more riding to school
by bike, lots of sitting with the smart phone in hand, lots of fast food
- obesity.

I just came back from a 30-miler. Saw lots of school buses and soccer
moms. School kids on bikes? Nope :-(

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/


Maybe it has something to do with it being banned = riding a bicycle to school that is. Fortunately some of those bans have been lifted but... Has the damage be done? Can it be undone?

https://bikeportland.org/2009/08/19/...the-rise-22560

https://www.bicycling.com/news/a2002...in-some-areas/

https://money.cnn.com/2017/07/25/tec...ion/index.html

Cheers

  #34  
Old February 28th 20, 01:12 AM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
Joerg[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 6,016
Default School kids rarely ride bicycle anymore, why?

On 2020-02-21 05:10, wrote:
On Tuesday, February 18, 2020 at 1:16:39 AM UTC+1, Frank Krygowski
wrote:
On Monday, February 17, 2020 at 3:42:34 PM UTC-5,
wrote:
On Sunday, February 16, 2020 at 4:57:07 PM UTC-6, Joerg wrote:

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. -- Regards, Joerg


You and I must have grown up in different times and places.
Approximately 30-40 years ago when I was in elementary school
(K-6), junior high (7-8-9), and high school (10-11-12), I was the
ONLY kid who rode a bicycle to school. My elementary had 150
kids, junior high 400, high school 1200. We had two large
parking lots for cars at my high school. Both completely filled.
Elementary and junior had bike racks outside. High school did
not. Elementary and junior were not exactly in residential
areas. But the high school was surrounded by houses where kids
lived.

This was 30-35-40 years ago. So well before Frank's "danger,
danger, danger" mantra began to frighten bicyclists. So I don't
know why I was the ONLY kid who rode a bicycle to school. I did
know of one other kid who rode bicycles recreationally like me.


My school days were a generation earlier. When we lived within a
mile of the school, we walked there and back, and friend from
school would walk to visit us. We rode bikes around the
neighborhood, but we seldom used them for transportation, except to
a store within a couple blocks.

Later, we moved four or five miles out into a new suburban
development. There, my friends and I rode absolutely every day it
was warm enough. And that included to nearby stores, the library,
etc. And I rode even in dead of winter to deliver a large newspaper
route. But again, never to school. That could have been out of
concerns for traffic, but it could also have been fashion, in the
broadest sense. Nobody did it because, well, nobody did it!

All this was in the era of heavy coaster brake bikes. Bikes were
for kids.

- Frank Krygowski


I got my drivers licence when I was in the army at 23-24 year old and
I could pay for it myself. My parents could not afford to pay for
driving lessons for me and my brothers. So up to 24 years old I did
everything by bike and I was not an exception in my neighborhood.
After I could afford a car I only cycle for fun.


Same with me, except I was 19 or so. Army pay was measly but I scraped
together enough from that and savings to do the driver lessons and test.
Where I was stationed it cost less than half of where my home was, same
country (Germany). Beats me why. My parents would have paid for it but I
didn't want to. It is better to become self-reliant early on.

Then I went to university and while I had a really old car I didn't use
it much other than for visiting my parents. It ran cheaper than a train
ticket. Other than that, 6000mi/year on road bikes. What also pushed me
in that direction was that I lived in the Netherlands and car taxes and
stuff were really high there, plus Germany/Netherlands wanted
double-registration which would have really blown the budget.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/
  #35  
Old February 28th 20, 01:25 AM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
Joerg[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 6,016
Default School kids rarely ride bicycle anymore, why?

On 2020-02-27 16:11, Sir Ridesalot wrote:
On Thursday, 27 February 2020 18:36:59 UTC-5, Joerg wrote:
On 2020-02-26 18:38, John B. wrote:
On Wed, 26 Feb 2020 16:08:17 -0800, Joerg
wrote:

On 2020-02-20 14:51, John B. wrote:
On Thu, 20 Feb 2020 13:52:32 +0100, Rolf Mantel
wrote:

Am 19.02.2020 um 23:46 schrieb John B.:
Or to put it another way, did anyone ever take their
girlfriend to the Junior Prom... on a bicycle?

My answer at that age would be

1) what is a girl-friend? 2) What is a junior-prom?

You rather prove my point... that only children ride bicycles
and as soon as possible they graduate to an internal
combustion powered device :-)


Then when they are mid-life and the scales show a profound
trend towards morbid obesity, the bicycle comes back out from
the garage rafters.

"Mid-life"? https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/childhood.html For
children and adolescents aged 2-19 years1: The prevalence of
obesity was 18.5% and affected about 13.7 million children and
adolescents.



That perfectly corroborates the subject line. No more riding to
school by bike, lots of sitting with the smart phone in hand, lots
of fast food - obesity.

I just came back from a 30-miler. Saw lots of school buses and
soccer moms. School kids on bikes? Nope :-(

-- Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/


Maybe it has something to do with it being banned = riding a bicycle
to school that is. Fortunately some of those bans have been lifted
but... Has the damage be done? Can it be undone?

https://bikeportland.org/2009/08/19/...the-rise-22560


https://www.bicycling.com/news/a2002...in-some-areas/


https://money.cnn.com/2017/07/25/tec...ion/index.html


In my area it's not banned but kids still don't ride. I find that such
bans are unconstitutional and any politician or other elected person
supporting a riding ban would be declared permanently unelectable in our
house.

Even as a kid I would not have accepted a ban and been riding anyhow.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/
  #36  
Old February 28th 20, 01:51 AM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
JBeattie
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 5,870
Default School kids rarely ride bicycle anymore, why?

On Thursday, February 27, 2020 at 3:36:59 PM UTC-8, Joerg wrote:
On 2020-02-26 18:38, John B. wrote:
On Wed, 26 Feb 2020 16:08:17 -0800, Joerg
wrote:

On 2020-02-20 14:51, John B. wrote:
On Thu, 20 Feb 2020 13:52:32 +0100, Rolf Mantel
wrote:

Am 19.02.2020 um 23:46 schrieb John B.:
Or to put it another way, did
anyone ever take their girlfriend to the Junior Prom... on a bicycle?

My answer at that age would be

1) what is a girl-friend?
2) What is a junior-prom?

You rather prove my point... that only children ride bicycles and as
soon as possible they graduate to an internal combustion powered
device :-)


Then when they are mid-life and the scales show a profound trend towards
morbid obesity, the bicycle comes back out from the garage rafters.


"Mid-life"?
https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/childhood.html
For children and adolescents aged 2-19 years1:
The prevalence of obesity was 18.5% and affected about 13.7 million
children and adolescents.



That perfectly corroborates the subject line. No more riding to school
by bike, lots of sitting with the smart phone in hand, lots of fast food
- obesity.

I just came back from a 30-miler. Saw lots of school buses and soccer
moms. School kids on bikes? Nope :-(


Out of curiosity, what are riding conditions like -- bike facilities, weather, location of the school? Around here, the number of cyclists is highly dependent on those things. https://bikeportland.org/2014/01/17/...schools-100062

-- Jay Beattie.
  #37  
Old February 28th 20, 04:30 PM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
SMS
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 9,477
Default School kids rarely ride bicycle anymore, why?

This was 30-35-40 years ago.Â* So well before Frank's "danger,
danger, danger" mantra began to frighten bicyclists.Â* So I don't
know why I was the ONLY kid who rode a bicycle to school.Â* I did
know of one other kid who rode bicycles recreationally like me.


The whole idea that bicycling is exceptionally dangerous frightens
parents into not allowing their children to ride to school. Sadly, we
did have one student killed several years ago while riding to high
school. We are working to address the safety issues as best we can. The
"danger danger" mantra is unhelpful, but fortunately probably almost no
school parent reads r.b.t..
  #38  
Old February 28th 20, 05:39 PM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
Tom Kunich[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,318
Default School kids rarely ride bicycle anymore, why?

On Friday, February 28, 2020 at 7:30:32 AM UTC-8, sms wrote:
This was 30-35-40 years ago.Â* So well before Frank's "danger,
danger, danger" mantra began to frighten bicyclists.Â* So I don't
know why I was the ONLY kid who rode a bicycle to school.Â* I did
know of one other kid who rode bicycles recreationally like me.


The whole idea that bicycling is exceptionally dangerous frightens
parents into not allowing their children to ride to school. Sadly, we
did have one student killed several years ago while riding to high
school. We are working to address the safety issues as best we can. The
"danger danger" mantra is unhelpful, but fortunately probably almost no
school parent reads r.b.t..


There is only ONE manner in which to address bicycle safety and that is to strongly enforce traffic laws for motor vehicles. This is almost unbelievable that people are so entirely used to being able to break traffic laws indiscriminately that when a cop does try to stop them it may end up in an over 100 mph chase through three counties.

How is it that school zones became 25 mph from 15 mph? Is that reflecting the attempt to teach children to be careful by thinning the herd on the grills of passing BMW's?

Enforcing traffic laws enrichens the cities with strict fines and makes the roads safer for everyone. Seems a bit simple so why hasn't the government used that simple procedure?
  #39  
Old February 28th 20, 06:40 PM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
Joerg[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 6,016
Default School kids rarely ride bicycle anymore, why?

On 2020-02-27 16:51, jbeattie wrote:
On Thursday, February 27, 2020 at 3:36:59 PM UTC-8, Joerg wrote:
On 2020-02-26 18:38, John B. wrote:
On Wed, 26 Feb 2020 16:08:17 -0800, Joerg
wrote:

On 2020-02-20 14:51, John B. wrote:
On Thu, 20 Feb 2020 13:52:32 +0100, Rolf Mantel
wrote:

Am 19.02.2020 um 23:46 schrieb John B.:
Or to put it another way, did anyone ever take their
girlfriend to the Junior Prom... on a bicycle?

My answer at that age would be

1) what is a girl-friend? 2) What is a junior-prom?

You rather prove my point... that only children ride bicycles
and as soon as possible they graduate to an internal
combustion powered device :-)


Then when they are mid-life and the scales show a profound
trend towards morbid obesity, the bicycle comes back out from
the garage rafters.

"Mid-life"? https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/childhood.html For
children and adolescents aged 2-19 years1: The prevalence of
obesity was 18.5% and affected about 13.7 million children and
adolescents.



That perfectly corroborates the subject line. No more riding to
school by bike, lots of sitting with the smart phone in hand, lots
of fast food - obesity.

I just came back from a 30-miler. Saw lots of school buses and
soccer moms. School kids on bikes? Nope :-(


Out of curiosity, what are riding conditions like -- bike facilities,
weather, location of the school? Around here, the number of cyclists
is highly dependent on those things.
https://bikeportland.org/2014/01/17/...schools-100062


Mostly they have bike paths or at least roads with bike lanes. Bike
lanes aren't so good because lots of students and probably teachers park
their car on them. That seems to be legal in California, at least the
police doesn't write tickets. When the bike lanes are plastered with
parked cars you are in the lane. Uncomfortable but not a problem for me,
though it may be for students. Zoom in here and you'll see:



However, in this example a lot of kids live north and there is a nice
separated bike path. That takes away any excuse yet it's completely void
of kids when I come through there during times when one of the schools
lets out.

Sorry for the long link. It seems Google bungled the share function or
hid it in a new place.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/
  #40  
Old March 22nd 20, 05:54 PM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
Tom Kunich[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,318
Default School kids rarely ride bicycle anymore, why?

On Friday, February 28, 2020 at 9:39:54 AM UTC-8, Joerg wrote:
On 2020-02-27 16:51, jbeattie wrote:
On Thursday, February 27, 2020 at 3:36:59 PM UTC-8, Joerg wrote:
On 2020-02-26 18:38, John B. wrote:
On Wed, 26 Feb 2020 16:08:17 -0800, Joerg
wrote:

On 2020-02-20 14:51, John B. wrote:
On Thu, 20 Feb 2020 13:52:32 +0100, Rolf Mantel
wrote:

Am 19.02.2020 um 23:46 schrieb John B.:
Or to put it another way, did anyone ever take their
girlfriend to the Junior Prom... on a bicycle?

My answer at that age would be

1) what is a girl-friend? 2) What is a junior-prom?

You rather prove my point... that only children ride bicycles
and as soon as possible they graduate to an internal
combustion powered device :-)


Then when they are mid-life and the scales show a profound
trend towards morbid obesity, the bicycle comes back out from
the garage rafters.

"Mid-life"? https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/childhood.html For
children and adolescents aged 2-19 years1: The prevalence of
obesity was 18.5% and affected about 13.7 million children and
adolescents.


That perfectly corroborates the subject line. No more riding to
school by bike, lots of sitting with the smart phone in hand, lots
of fast food - obesity.

I just came back from a 30-miler. Saw lots of school buses and
soccer moms. School kids on bikes? Nope :-(


Out of curiosity, what are riding conditions like -- bike facilities,
weather, location of the school? Around here, the number of cyclists
is highly dependent on those things.
https://bikeportland.org/2014/01/17/...schools-100062


Mostly they have bike paths or at least roads with bike lanes. Bike
lanes aren't so good because lots of students and probably teachers park
their car on them. That seems to be legal in California, at least the
police doesn't write tickets. When the bike lanes are plastered with
parked cars you are in the lane. Uncomfortable but not a problem for me,
though it may be for students. Zoom in here and you'll see:



However, in this example a lot of kids live north and there is a nice
separated bike path. That takes away any excuse yet it's completely void
of kids when I come through there during times when one of the schools
lets out.

Sorry for the long link. It seems Google bungled the share function or
hid it in a new place.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/


It isn't legal in California. But it isn't prosecuted or even ticketed. In California the car is king and no one else matters. The only reason that they are providing bike lanes and trails is because the Federal government gives rather large subsidies for them.
 




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