How to Teach Your Child Bike Safety for Streets

Your school age child has learned the basics of riding a two-wheeled bicycle. She has mastered the concepts of balance while coasting and while pedaling. She has even learned to use that hand or coaster brake properly. Life as you know it ends right here. But once she is out of your sight and on two wheels, she is not your biggest concern. The supposedly mature, responsible and vigilant drivers in your neighborhood are. The only trouble is that they have cell phones, headphones, headaches, coffee, cigarettes, unruly passengers and even chemical dependencies to deal with. Your child could be the least of their concerns.

Instructions

Difficulty: Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• One child-size two wheeler
• One adult-size two wheeler
• Helmets for each head
• A neighborhood street

Streetside is Streetwise!

1. Assuming your child knows right from left, have him ride on the sidewalk so that he goes with traffic flow and the near side houses are on his right. Explain that car drivers tend to look toward the right for pedestrians and bikes, if they look at all. If he is always “Right," he will always be easily visible to any driver who is looking.
2. Explain to your child that cars are bigger, harder faster and stronger than she is. To demonstrate this concept, have her pound a fist on the hood, or kick the tires. Let her pound or kick harder and harder until it causes her discomfort. Then let her try to move the car. Let her work hard at this. Then explain that, when a car is moving faster than she is, the car could hurt her very badly. When you call out “Car!," she should immediately stop and look toward the street to see if she can see an approaching car.
3. Condition your child to the word “Car." As you approach a corner, call out “Car," and make him stop at the corner. Do this every time without exception. Do not engage in long winded explanations which will cause a child to lose interest in what you are saying. You need only say, “When I say, ‘Car’, you stop and look. We will be crossing a street, and you need to be safe and seen.”
   
   Use the “Car” command also when approaching driveways with obstructed views and cars in parking lots, when you can see their running engines or reverse lights.
4. “Look both ways before you cross the street” has come out of the mouth of every responsible parent we know, yet it does not cover the bases well enough. When you approach a corner, call out “Streetside” and make sure your child looks over his left shoulder at the street you are riding along. Cars are pretty quiet these days, and can sneak up on a rider who is not paying attention behind.
   
   At the corner call out “Car” and make sure your child stops well back from the street. We like to have kids stop where two sidewalks meet. Curb jumpers seldom leave the roadway that far. Now that he has stopped, have your child look left, then right and left, then right again before crossing and ONLY if the street is clear.
5. Sound tends to have some pretty defining characteristics. Have your child sit on your front lawn, close her eyes and identify sounds by their distance, direction and destination. Ask her to try to describe the vehicles she hears. Are they big or small, moving quickly or slowly? Are they newer or older? As she begins to develop a sense of the vehicles on the road, you will discover that we as riders tend to hear a car well before we see it. These precious few seconds can mean the difference between a great ride and disaster.
6. For the first six months, depending on your child’s adherence to the rules, and only when riding with you, give your child permission to cross at the corner only after he stops, looks left, right, left, right and then asks your permission to cross. Do not make any exceptions. Add a week of parental oversight for every time he forgets, telling him it’s only to help him remember the safety rule, not to punish him.
7. Over the course of the next six months, depending again on how well your child adapts, allow him to call out “All clear!” before crossing the street. Letting her “off leash” a bit will enable your child to develop solid decision making skills while still under your direct supervision. And remember, if all else fails, you still have “Car!” to fall back on.

Tips & Warnings

• Left, right left, right works well because it gives your child the chance to make sure both directions are clear before entering the street, then again as they cross in case a car has approached unseen.
• Looking left first provides the advantage of looking toward the first lane of traffic to come his way. Panning left to right also conditions him to look across the intersection toward approaching cars that might turn left across your path. Help him avoid being a victim of the last second turn!
• Always wear protective head gear when riding a bicycle.