Never heard of anything like that here. We rode out bikes all over the neighborhood as kids. Congrats to Kamilla!
I think it would be great if cities imposed laws based on population and road usage. Or better yet, if parents would bother to teach their children basic road safety rules. I can't tell you how many times young children in a certain area of my city will just walk out into the road, or ride their bike in front of you down the street while you wait for them to get out of the way! (Not talking crosswalks here). Sure, they might look back at you, but that doesn't mean they will move.
I don't mean to overgeneralize that ALL parents don't teach their children these things. I'm sure most do. It's the few that don't that will lead to tighter laws in the future.
And, BTW, none of the children in this area of the city wear helmets, either.
Edited to clarify.
<font color="#33CCCC" size="1">[ May 24, 2006 07:38 PM: Message edited by: danaspillar ]</font>
Never heard of anything like that here. We rode out bikes all over the neighborhood as kids. Congrats to Kamilla!
Very few kids wear helmets here either. A few parents make thier kids, and I think it's the law for anyone under 10, but it's not enforced.
I know when I was a kid, you couldn't even find helmets that easily if you wanted to. I NEVER wore one. We used to pop wheelies in the street and race and stuff too.
I've looked into somee biking laws online (mostly helmet laws), and never came across any laws reguarding who can use a bike where. As far as I know, we only have restrictions on motor vehicles in this country. (So if you strap a motor to your bike, then there'd be issues.) But then, the amount of bicycle use as a transportation device here is far less than that of most other countries. Here they are mostly recreational. As far as helmet laws, they do vary from state to state and even county to county. Some had them all the way up to 18, some not at all.
I learned as a child that the stupidest thing a parent can do concerning bicycling is to strap a helmet on their child and not on themselves.
Wow how awesome that kids need to take a test. What a GREAT way to teach them the rules of the road! I have slammed my brakes on more than once to avoid hitting a kid flying out of street on their bike.
There is no law in Canada. Kids can ride whenever and where ever they want. Adult supervision is not required by law. Helmets are suggested here - but that is not LAW either. R is ticked about that 'cause the COOL kids don't where helmets.
Wearing helmets when riding a bicycle isn't law in Austria - yet. However, it's strongly recommended and you actually see most kids wear a helmet. When I was little we wouldn't even know there were helmets - only the first ones coming up when skiing.
Times have changed a lot since I was Kamilla's age. We lived in the same house she lives in now, and it was a quiet area with hardly any traffic until we were about 10. There was a vineyard at the end of the garden, and on the other side some empty land - until they started building a tennis club. Our street was a dead-end road too - with more vineyards. Well about 20 years ago the vineyards were sold off and turned into housing areas - a new street built connecting another quite busy road and now many use it as a short-cut and not sticking to the speed limit but drive around those corners at a reckless speed. It's a miracle that nothing has happened yet. When I was in primary school we would ride our bikes in front of the house too - we'd have bike races (pretending to be Niki Lauda) - you couldn't do that nowadays.
One thing we had already was the bicycle licence, but we didn't take it in primary school as they do nowadays, we took it in the first year of secondary school. I remember how proud I was to have that piece of paper and being able to cycle all the way to handball training.
Children here also have traffic education - first time in Kindergarten (what you consider a nursery school) and then in their first year of primary school too.
One thing we also had at our secondary school was a 'Bicycle Day' - I loved that. First you had to sit a test about traffic rules - sort like the test you take for the bicycle test. Those who reached enough points could then participate in 'Bicycle Day'. You first had to drive a little parcoure set up like on normal traffic (e.g. stop at the stop sign - let the pedestrian cross the zebra crossing etc.) and then also an ability parcoure with slalom, driving over a see-saw, etc.
Taking the bicycle test is not mandatory, but almost all the children do take it. You don't have cycle paths everywhere although it's getting better in this respect too and our area is very built-up - Vienna is stretching. I just wish those who took the test would remember into their teenage and adult years the rules/regulations they learned as kids because it seems they lose it completely then and do all the things one isn't supposed to do. There are plenty of adults cycling without lights on in dark that you don't see them, don't follow traffic signs or lights - must be some special kick to cross when the traffic light shows red I believe - etc. One of my work colleagues got run over by a cyclist on the sidewalk one day and spent weeks in hospital with a complicated broken arm - was a hit-and-run of course. Because of more and more reckless cyclists there has been talk that even bicycles should have registration numbers. To be honest, I don't think that's a bad idea.
I don't think there are things such as bicycle license tests here in the US. If there is, I've never heard of it.
My boyfriend comes from a background of avid bikers. As far as I know, he's ridden through Los Angeles streets alone on a bicycle as a child, and he's never had to take a bicycle license exam. I will ask him if he knows about any test like this.
Congratulations to Kamilla, by the way. I bet she is so proud. [img]smile.gif[/img]
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">We did something very similiar in Girl Scouts. We learned hand signals and had an everyday "obstacle" course set up in a stadium parking lot to show we knew the rule of the road.Originally posted by Miki_:
One thing we also had at our secondary school was a 'Bicycle Day' - I loved that. First you had to sit a test about traffic rules - sort like the test you take for the bicycle test. Those who reached enough points could then participate in 'Bicycle Day'. You first had to drive a little parcoure set up like on normal traffic (e.g. stop at the stop sign - let the pedestrian cross the zebra crossing etc.) and then also an ability parcoure with slalom, driving over a see-saw, etc.
Strange about helmets- I never wore one as a kid (until I got into mountain biking as a teenager- but you'd be crazy not to wear one jumping through rocks) but now I won't bike anywhere without one.
Might be that there is more traffic around than when I was a kid, or that I now have a more fearful understanding of what can happen when you don't wear one.
I've never heard of a law,but here in Cincinatti,when I was growing up you could ride your bike whenever you wanted but you couldn't ride to,from,or at school untill you were 8 years old.I do think that there are too many kids who either don't know or care about safety rules.I live on a VERY busy street,it can take me up to 40 mins to get across,unless I walk the block to the crosswalk,and there are lots of kids here.They are always either running or biking right in front of traffic [img]eek.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/grrr.gif[/img]
In the US you don't need a liseance to ride a bicycle but that is obvious by the way people ride. My sister has been hit twice by drivers who "didn't notice" my sister and a coworker of mine was just about killed riding his bike to work one morning. Niether car drivers or bicyclists have any idea what the rules of the road are for either parties. People are pedistriens, bicyclists are not, unless they get off and walk the bike. Bicyclists must signal like a motor vehical but most do not, and like a car they are not to be on the sidewalk.
Now as for riding in the street, I won't do it even at 25. I am too scared of being hit by some crazy driver as I already have enough trouble avoiding crazy drivers on foot and in my car.
Ashley
<font color="#33CCCC" size="1">[ May 25, 2006 03:30 PM: Message edited by: Ds9jullian ]</font>
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