29 April 2014

School run - what a joy!

A couple of weeks ago I posted a video of 5 minutes cycling with my daughter.  It got quite a lot of views and comments. Even the nicest commenters admitted that they'd found it terrifying, and I'm sure more than a few privately concluded we were mad.

As I said at the time, that ride was not typical of our family cycling. And I've been hoping to get a more representative video.  And this morning, we had 5 minutes of joyful cycling.  


Only 3 moving cars visible in the entire video. And yes, one of them does make a rather close pass (at 2.48), but that was it. 

I've left the sound on. Please excuse my inane chatter, but you will catch me reminding her rather a lot about gears, and when to 'go'.  I'd like to think that that wouldn't be necessary in Holland, and it really shouldn't be necessary on a quite route to school (although we were running late). 

A couple of other things to note -- from 4.42 onwards you can see why the pavements are inadequate for pedestrians, much less kids on scooters or bikes. And at the end, at 5.20 you can see our pathetic school bike shed -- a sorry comparison to the next nearest kids school, with shiny new racks all arrayed in front of the main door, and 10 times as many bikes on them. 

not our school

I think it does show that a cycle to school is not impossible for a sensible 7 year old. But it also shows how easy it would be to make this route - and other kids routes - easier, safer and more attractive. 

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Well done your daughter - what a competent cyclist! Is she really only 7? Seems so grown up. There may be hope for my 7yo after all. You do have much quieter streets than us mind you and plenty of 20mph zones...