Monday, 30 July 2012

Cycling to School Clubs

I took my daughter out to her new school this morning for summer clubs. She's no longer on the Trail-a-Bike, her new ride is a lightweight Raleigh Ivy (which I can recommend highly - at just 25lbs, it's very light for a kid's bike). She's had plenty of practice over the summer vacation and she's now very confident on the road and well able to handle the light traffic we encounter on our standard route to school.

So we're riding along and this older gentleman, seeing us riding along the residential street road, calls out "There are some big trucks up ahead". Sure enough, there were some heavy trucks parked on the road. Not sure why I needed to know this info, but okay.

Well, yeah, I know full well why he warned us. He sees my 9 year-old daughter riding confidently in the road and he thinks she's in danger from these trucks, both of which must (in his mind) be driven by slavering maniacs bent on killing children.

He'd probably have a stroke if he knew we were about to turn out of his (and our) quiet residential neighborhood, join a main road, cross a six-lane highway at a busy controlled intersection and then turn left from the main road into another neighborhood, all the while carefully and properly negotiating traffic (not busy traffic by any means, but still traffic).

People are nuts when it comes to cycling. Anyone would think I was taking her skydiving, or bareback bull riding at a rodeo.