Cycling group for women in St. Pete
MoxxieBike is a new cycling group for women in St. Pete. They have rides for just women, and rides for women with children (and pets).
From Kimberly Cooper:
Wanting to encourage more women to bicycle, we created the MoXXie Bike Club in St. Petersburg, FL. Women live very different and busy lives, and we must be flexible to fit those lives.
Some women don’t have children or pets. Some women have children or pets. Some women need a break from their children and pets. Some women feel the need to spend more time with their children and pets.
So, we provide a ride for Just Women and a ride for Women With Children and/or Pet.
We’re just beginning. So we have just the slowest ride: less than 12 mph and for 90 minutes or less.
Women and their pet or under age 18 children are welcome to join us for the Saturday morning bicycle ride. More info is at www.moxxiebike.org.
Looks like a group that’s just primed for CyclingSavvy! Kimberly has been a one-woman vehicular cycling advocacy program in St. Pete for years.
Great idea! And a wonderful photo.
Something struck me. I’ve seen a few of these child tandem bicycles in the USA, but never in Europe or Asia. There the practice tends to be for children to be carried in a moderfiets or mamachari bicycle until they are old enough to ride on their own bike. For example, see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iaz_T89wJ2o
Also, much older children tend to be carried in the USA-style child tandem bicycles. Children that in Europe or Asia would be on their own bike.
I am wondering if this is a symptom of a lack of safe cycling infrastructure in the USA. In other words, parents are afraid to allow their children to cycle on their own because of a lack of cycling infrastructure to allow them to do so safely.
I suppose one could project such an assumption. But look instead at the opportunity…. IF an adult cycles correctly in mixed traffic, a child on a tag-along can see all that the parent does: scanning over his/her shoulder, communicating with motorists, lane positioning… Sitting in a bakfiets a child gets a poorer opportunity to observe his/her parent’s behavior.
I think you’re right Kevin!
Build kiddie toddler infrastructure and you’ll get kiddie toddlers on their bikes.
But what’s the price you’ll pay for designing your transportation infrastructure for children who cannot handle their bikes and traffic using the rules of the road?
I really liked your videos responding to the Amplifying Dysfuncion topic: the bicyclists were all so slow & delayed. That’s why I responded with my Seattle 2nd Avenue video: 1.2 miles through downtown in just 3 minutes. Now that allows cyclists a wide range of speeds with greater safety and efficient transportation that’s just not possible in a toddler friendly environment.
What’s better, a toddler friendly transportation infrastructure that really limits bicycling, or a more mature rules of the road infrastructure that more mature children and adults are capable of? And with greater mobility and safety, while promoting healthy thinking about personal responsibility?
If a child delays riding their own bike a few years, think of the decades of benefit later using safe and efficient infrastructure fit for the rules of the road.
The mistake in reasoning is that a parallel facility can be built that makes cycling safer for children. Virtually all cycling crashes — involving both adults and children — are due to failures in predictability and conspicuity. Parallel facilities do not make cyclists either more conspicuous or more predictable. They often make cyclists LESS conspicuous by guiding cyclists into blind spots. They can influence those characteristics to some modest extent, but not enough to have a significant positive impact on crashes.
The Dutch have more than just facilities, they have a culture (values, norms, mores, stories) which supports cycling for all. The culture creates the facilities, not the other way around. The facilities don’t work without the supportive culture. Big problem here: we don’t have a culture which supports cyclists as equals, so cyclist needs will always be compromised during the design and engineering process when push comes to shove with motorist desires. (U.S. cycling advocates erroneously believe that new laws can change the culture.)
That’s why “proper Dutch infrastructure” cannot be more than a starry-eyed fantasy here in the U.S. You can keep saying “If we built proper Dutch infrastructure” ad nauseum; but as they say here in the South: “if a frog had wings, it wouldn’t bump its ass when it hops.”
Those tag-a-long type trailers are a nice transitional step for kids. They are reasonably priced, can be detached from the adult’s bike, and they don’t take up much storage space. You can nearly always find used ones for sale, as most kids are ready for their own bikes pretty quickly.