"People in Oregon must be poor."

[Veronica]

My class is working on state reports. One student comes up to me, "People in Oregon must be poor. This book says a lot of them ride their bikes to work. I know you ride your bike, but these people are riding far. They must not have cars."

My answer, 'Did you know Mr. D. rides his bike 13 miles each way to work?"

She replies, "REALLY?!! that's far."


V.

[Bike Goddess]

Kinda sad that kids don't ride bikes to school anymore. Nowadays I hear that parents are afraid the bikes will get stolen! (and they do) Whatever happened to honesty in our country?

[Running Mommy]

When we moved to our little piece of nirvana here in AZ it was the ONE thing our son was looking forward to. School is just less than a mile from the house and he only has one major crosswalk to go through. There is a guard there, so I let him ride. He loves it. Though nervous nelly me still gave him an extra cell phone to keep in his back pack in case he has an emergency. He's only 8 and I can't tell you how conflicted I was giving him a phone! But that way he can take his time riding home w/ his friends and I don't worry if he's late. When we lived in Northern CA I would have never felt safe letting him ride- and the school was only two blocks away!! In fact I found out that a little girl was molested walking to school on our old block about a year after we moved away. SAD!

[yellow]

I don't even know that it's "honesty", really. I agree that alot of it is fear (yes, we're big on that these days, though I distincly remember many "offers" for lifts home from stranges when I rode my bike or walked back in the early 70s...), but I think alot of it is laziness wearing the cloak of something else (fear, mostly). It takes too much time to prepare for and ride to school. It's simply a lot easier and "safer" to just hop in the car and get there. I've had friends that are parents admit this to me, so I know it's not just my imagination.

But what's going to happen when we really have to THINK about our use of petroleum products?? OK, I'll stop there.

I have pretty strong opinions about the physical fitness of kids today, but since I'm not a parent I really don't feel like I can spout them freely. I worry that a kid that grew up on XBox instead of building forts, riding bikes everywhere, and catching stickelbacks will be in control of my retirement accounts.

[massbikebabe]

Funny...

We just had this conversation the other night at my dinner table. What ever
happened to riding your bike down to the pond, walking home soon as the street lights went on, kick the can with EVERY kid on the block. When we tried to explain these fun times with the kids they just didn't get it , my kids are 17 and 14.

I figure 2 things happened that forces us to take childhood from our children.

1. Moms went to work...plain and simple, and I'm not trying to cause anger here, I was also a working mom. Soon as moms left the house kids were put in daycare, or tended to by elder relatives, who may not have the engery to chase them.

2. Child abduction/abuse. I believe this has always been a part of our history,
however today the media is doing a marvelous job bringing it to our attention.
Example...Polly Klaus, when that poor child went missing I was working at night and heard about it on CNN less than 5 hours after she was abducted.
Same with the young lady in Utah, and I sat here in Massachusetts and felt the deep dread, deep in my gut, that those poor mothers must have been feeling.

So what's the solution?? I don't know. My DH and I were both very busy career folks, and had only quality, not quantity time to spend with our kids. So when we had weekends or evenings together we took hikes, rode bikes,
played in the yard, went swimming, or sat and played a game. My kids have all the video gadgets but I never allowed them the opportunity to make a career of using them. Niether of them are fat, matter of fact my son is thin as a rail, and my daughter is proportional for her small stature. Both are very athletic, some say my son is "gifted". I can only pray I did right by them...

karen
sca

[nuthatch]

So what's the solution?? I don't know.

I've thought about this issue so much! The main thing I regret that my kids haven't experienced is all the "bored" time we had as kids. That's where we learned to think and consider the world and learn about ourselves - just spending time watching ants on the sidewalk!

We are a two career family, too, but when they were really young, I was at home. I watched what happened whenever the power went out (a frequent occurance at our house) and all the electronics were unavailable. After about five minutes of whining, they started doing all the stuff I had done as a kid!! And because I didn't have enough experience with this sort of playing as a parent, the worry drove me crazy.

All the distractions this modern life provides us with just short-circuits that "play" impulse. And we as parents are quietly relieved that they are safe inside instead of out in the wild. Even with a parent at home, attentive and tuned in to them, if they are out playing like we did, they are at risk, just like we were at risk. So I think you're right about the reasons Massbikebabe. I'm guiltily grateful that they aren't out there risking life and limb and feeling sad that they are missing out on so much fun.

[Trek420]

happy birthday massbikebabe who wrote

"I figure 2 things happened that forces us to take childhood from our children.

1. Moms went to work...plain and simple, and I'm not trying to cause anger here, I was also a working mom. Soon as moms left the house kids were put in daycare, or tended to by elder relatives, who may not have the engery to chase them."

I dunno about that, my (and therefore bikelessinWi's) Mom worked which was unusual in the 60's. We kids were in daycare but it was the first co-op daycare in at least Sonoma county and for one thing being a co-op...both parents were there! This wasn't the kind of thing where parents dropped the kids off and "alrighty now, done with them", parents had to spend some time there.

A common joke in our family is when Mom starts to say "do you remember so and so? She's a Nobel Prize winning chemist or whatever now..." "Did we go to nursery school with her?" the kids turned out allright.

We grew up in the country and the whole "it takes a village" thing as kids with some hindsight I think my parents had almost a network of great families that we hung out with each others kids.

"2. Child abduction/abuse. I believe this has always been a part of our history however today the media is doing a marvelous job bringing it to our attention."

True, it's probably always been there just now more aware of it. Wasn't talked about then.

"So what's the solution?? I don't know."

Me neither. This will make me seem like an old fogey but I was just comparing all the electronic games with what we used to do as kids like take a carboard box, flatten it and slide down a hill with dry grass (try it sometime, it's a hoot.) I'd take the box over any game.

But the orriginal question was why don't more people ride or why do kids think those who do are poor, right? These are complex class issues.

I think we're always asking here; why don't they ride?

I have noticed where I live (the flats of Hayward) what I mostly see are bikes as cheap transportation and they have a look about them which says "I'd rather be in a car but here I am on a bike". Kids here may see bikes as the transport of the working poor. They don't want to be seen as that, even many kids bikes these days are designed to look more like a motorcycle.

On the other hand they may see folks who bike as rich. Where is the jersey that says "I'm just a poor gal on a really really nice bike"?

I've shared here how I stopped using my road bike to commute and take my GT hardtail. On the road bike I get a range of stares and sometimes outright hostility (elevator doors slammed instead of held that sort of thing), I'm seen as "other", "what are you doing here?" I think. On the GT because it's a MTB I'm less visible, look like one of them.

I'm rambling a bit but I'm fascinated by the "class issues" around this. Is there a sociologist in the house?

[RoadRaven]

I have pretty strong opinions about the physical fitness of kids today, but since I'm not a parent I really don't feel like I can spout them freely. I worry that a kid that grew up on XBox instead of building forts, riding bikes everywhere, and catching stickelbacks will be in control of my retirement accounts.

Hey there Yellow, spout away.
Being a parent doesnt qualify you to talk sense about kids
Not being a parent doesnt mean you cant have valid thoughts on kids

Did you know that here in NZ, thought of as an outdoorsy country, we have a higher incidence of kids with broken bones than ever before?

And it is not because the kids are doing risky things... it has been attributed to two changes in ifestyle...

One is diet... many children are eating adult "diet" diets and so have less fat, less iron and less calcium needed for strong bones and muscles

The other is lifestyle... children spend more time playing PC games or chatting online and watching TV than ever before in conjunction with parents driving them to school and not letting them play at the park/outside unless a parent is there...

Broken bones...

[TryToKeepUp]

Kinda sad that kids don't ride bikes to school anymore. Nowadays I hear that parents are afraid the bikes will get stolen! (and they do) Whatever happened to honesty in our country?

My professor was telling me about a recent trip to China. she told us how she noticed none of the many bikes she saw were locked up at all. When she asked a native why there were no locks weren't people worried their bikes would be stolen. the native replied,"Chinese people do not steal."

[shootingstar]

For many of my relatives from China (primarily rural areas), they want to buy a car within a few years after they immigrate here.

A bike is so passe to them. Then later...maybe 2 decades, they realize they are getting abit chubby...their health not as good.

Since my family in Canada couldn't afford to buy a car until I was 15 yrs. old (I am the eldest), I did genuinely associate carlessness, with poverty for a long time.

As a child, I just thought it was abit of a hassle to walk /take bus, particularily in not-so-great weather. The best thing in such situations, is that the parents don't make a super big deal about not having a car. Then children grow up not too self-conscious /whiny about being carless.

I do remember up to gr. 8, the bike racks at school were full of parked bikes.
High school....forget it. Of course, everyone is hell-bent on getting a driver's license, which did include me at the time.

[madscot13]

my parents tried to raise me as a prissy girl- can we say backfire? I think my older brothers had too much say in my upbinging.

ps I am a wonderful daughter.

[Trek420]

Since my family in Canada couldn't afford to buy a car until I was 15 yrs. old (I am the eldest), I did genuinely associate carlessness, with poverty for a long time.

How can that be? Have you seen the price of wool? You have to be rich to do this sport.

That's the odd thing about cycling. Some equate it with poverty but others .... in my poor to lower-workingclass-semi-affordable Bay Area neighborhood I had to stop riding my road bike to work. There seemed such a reaction when I moved here of "what are you doing here". With my commutermobile they don't bat an eye, just another carless person on a mountainbike nobody notices the custom paint and Mavic wheels.

Before when I lived 2 miles away but in the hills even non-cyclists knew "nice bike, nice day for a ride".

Hard question to phrase but it seems part of the issue with getting people to ride is class issues. I've often felt we must show our so called invisible cyclists, working class that "there is a cycling community, you are part of it, this is how we ride. Ride with us"

[mimitabby]

Hard question to phrase but it seems part of the issue with getting people to ride is class issues. I've often felt we must show our so called invisible cyclists, working class that "there is a cycling community, you are part of it, this is how we ride. Ride with us"

This is an issue that we were confronted with on our ride Saturday.
we were in a rough neighborhood and a guy about our age, but who had definitely had a tougher life than us;was walking across the street with his dog, and his beater bike. He deliberately slowed down so that we would have to pause for him and told us to wait, smiling. I smiled back and said hi how ya doing, my husband was disgruntled but let me take the lead that time, because we both know that we need to be allies with guys like him, not adversaries.