safety question

[Iris616]

Hi,
I've done a google search for this topic, but didnt come up with great answers.
My 7 year old and I have been cycling together fairly often in our neighborhood. There are no sidewalks, so every one is on the street. The problem is that this includes people walking their dogs.

I dont think she has the skills to handle passing dogs the way that a more experienced rider would. So, I've been having her stop her bike and get off, until the dogs pass.

Does any one have other suggestions? I don't want to teach her to be afraid of dogs, but I also dont want her to get hurt.

[nolemom]

Your neighborhood sounds like mine. I think that it is a good idea for her to stop to let the dogs pass until you become familiar with which dog handlers do a good job of controlling their animal. Explain to her it isn't about the dog, but whether the person walking them is watching for bikes, etc. and making sure that their dog is staying close to them. As her biking skills and judgement improve with age and experience, she will be able to manuever around more distractions, but I still stop (or at least slow down considerably) if I am unsure about the dog handler.

[sfa]

I'm having roughly the same problem with my 11 y.o. DD, only it's with driveways/parking lots. She wants to ride her bike to school but I KNOW she doesn't have the skills to handle the traffic on the main road (two way, quite busy, starts right by a beltway interchange--I'll make a left turn from our road onto the street, but I've been handling traffic for 25 years. You have to look for traffic coming from five possible places.) so I have her ride on the sidewalk, but I've told her to stop at each business driveway--the McDonald's, the 7-11, the bank, the restaurant. The drivers there are just not looking for anyone on the sidewalk and she doesn't yet have the skills/judgement to cycle along, look at what *might* be coming out of/turning into these driveways, catch their eye and give the "you'd better stop because I have the right of way" look or, alternately, stop when she sees a potential danger. So I just told her to always stop no matter what, just to be sure.

I think that's the best approach with dogs, too--it's not that she's afraid of dogs, she just needs to have a healthy appreciation of what the danger could be and until she has the skills and judgement to know how to make a split second decision about each situation, it's better to have a uniform approach of stopping and letting the dog go ahead.

Sarah

[malkin]

Hopping off a bike is a very handy and underused skill!

When my chain bound up in an intersection last week, I was happy to become an instant pedestrian!