I'm a Foolhardy Middle-Aged Cyclist and I Don't Understand Why Children Don't Just Ride Their Bikes in the Road
A well-reasoned argument from a member of the most underrepresented cycling demographic
As a cyclist of 40 years, I’ve watched on with grave concern as people have asked for cycling infrastructure that I personally don’t want.
I began riding my bike around as a child in the mid-1980s, and I think the children of today should do the same. After all, it’s not like anything has changed on our roads in that time.
I see some people say, “well I’m a parent, and I wouldn’t feel safe riding on the road with my child”, and I say: can’t you just leave the kids at home with the wife? It’s what I did.
Of course, my children are grown adults now, who could ride their own bikes if they wanted to. Which they don’t. Can you imagine riding to work in the CBD all the way from Kelburn? Madness.
Then there’s the issue of disability. I once knew a person who happened to have a disability, and it’s because of them that I am a fierce disability advocate.
Do I advocate for accessible building standards? No.
Do I lobby for the government to increase access to Supported Living Payment? No.
Do I write the city council to ask for existing car parks to be converted to mobility parks? Also no.
But I do make sure to go to council hearings and tell them that they shouldn’t remove any street parking.
Please hold your applause. I don’t do it for me—I do it because I’m completely selfless.
I’m sure you’re thinking, “But wait, aren’t hundreds of people injured and killed by cars every year?”, to which I say: that’s never happened to me.
And if all this isn’t enough to convince you, what about the say of the community? No, not the say they had when they voted for a council who said that they would build cycleways—the say they have every day in Facebook comment sections. Does that not count for anything?
So before you call for more separated cycleways, please consider the most important opinion of all: that of someone who already feels safe cycling.