More than half of parents agree cycle training should be added to National Curriculum

KendalRed wrote:

"The findings have been reported on by media outlets including Mail Online and the Daily Express (link is external), with Edmund King, president of the AA, telling the latter that giving children cycle training should make them better motorists later in life."

No, you cockwomble, it's to make them more confident and able cyclists in later life. The implication here, that 'adults drive - kids cycle', is pretty feckin frustrating if you ask me.

or quite possibly that is  the perspective that the President of an organisation funded by motorists should have? I would be pretty upset if the President of an organisation I paid money into for representing a particular interest I had decided to make a statement for promoting another interest that could stop funding for the primary interest that the organisation is there for!

The guy is paid to promote the needs of motorists, why on earth do you think that he should or would promote cycling as a way to reduce motorists and therefor his organisations income?

BehindTheBikesheds wrote:

Yes, let's indoctrinate kids to think that they have to wear helmets and hi-vis whilst riding, that's bqsically what bikeability does.

Why are we holding our most vulnerable in society to shoulder part of the responsibility/blame for the piss poor actions of those in killing machines?

If I see a child cycling on/near or playing/walking by side of a road I can predict almost with certainty what they might do, simply because they are children. I don't need for them to have had training to make things easier for me because I know as the adult, the one with the responsibility and by definition because of the weapon I'm conveying myself about in, it's my actions, my thinking, my anticipation and using experience to make sure they do not come to harm,

How is this much different to green cross code bullshit, 'gory story' giovernment victim blaming  campaigns that basically say, if you don't take responsibility for protecting yourself/making sure you're seen etc, you'll get hurt and it's your fault!

How about we make it compulsary for all motors to only be able to do 20mph in urban areas, how about we ban motors from school areas at going in/out time, how about we hold those in the killing machines accountable and have a compulsary training and retest programme rolled out with a massively higher standard than we currently do and actually exceeds what is taught in advanced motoring because much of the thinking there is still motorcentric based and still doesn't put enough responsibility onto the driver when around the vulnerable. How bout we make compulsary for every driver to have to bike in urban conditions for two weeks in a busy town or city without hi-vis/helmet and they cannot go on the footway.

Nope, solution is to bend children to the adults way of thinking which is fucked anyway.

I'd be quite happy for all of those suggestions to be made law, but I suspect that we'd need to get Chris Boardman made Prime Minister (or Emperor) before that's got a chance of happening. Maybe some of those items are achievable though - 20mph limits are being introduced but not enforced.

BehindTheBikesheds wrote:

Yes, let's indoctrinate kids to think that they have to wear helmets and hi-vis whilst riding, that's bqsically what bikeability does.

Why are we holding our most vulnerable in society to shoulder part of the responsibility/blame for the piss poor actions of those in killing machines?

If I see a child cycling on/near or playing/walking by side of a road I can predict almost with certainty what they might do, simply because they are children. I don't need for them to have had training to make things easier for me because I know as the adult, the one with the responsibility and by definition because of the weapon I'm conveying myself about in, it's my actions, my thinking, my anticipation and using experience to make sure they do not come to harm,

How is this much different to green cross code bullshit, 'gory story' giovernment victim blaming  campaigns that basically say, if you don't take responsibility for protecting yourself/making sure you're seen etc, you'll get hurt and it's your fault!

How about we make it compulsary for all motors to only be able to do 20mph in urban areas, how about we ban motors from school areas at going in/out time, how about we hold those in the killing machines accountable and have a compulsary training and retest programme rolled out with a massively higher standard than we currently do and actually exceeds what is taught in advanced motoring because much of the thinking there is still motorcentric based and still doesn't put enough responsibility onto the driver when around the vulnerable. How bout we make compulsary for every driver to have to bike in urban conditions for two weeks in a busy town or city without hi-vis/helmet and they cannot go on the footway.

Nope, solution is to bend children to the adults way of thinking which is fucked anyway.

See, this post annoys me. 

I was all, 'yeah, make cycle proficiency compulsory for kids, teach them how to do, make them confident, make cycling accessible' and then the above comment brings  a hard case of reality in to piss on my idealistic vision.

Personally speaking, I'd love my kids to get some formal training... from my attempts, it is clear that I am a useless teacher, and I know they respond brilliantly to good tuition.

However, as mentioned, the responsbility should not sit with kids. Adutls are a) adults and able to make responsbile considered decisions, and b) have passed a test that demonstrates that they have gained sufficient knowledge / skills to drive safely. The responsbility should sit with them... I am resigned to teh fact that any compulsory training would primarily be used to get drivers off the hook when involved in cyclist / car collisions.

I also agree that in truth, the bulk of any compulsory training would be about safety... or more accurately, focus on emphasising the danger of cycling, whilst advocating inconvenience and comical dress code for anyone poor, under-achieving enough to be restricted to a bike as a transport choice. 

sad times. 

Wigan wrote:

I’d make all adults take a cycling proficiency test every time they renew their licence, though annual test in shit weather would be better.  And it’d have to be during the school run/rush hour traffic. 

I tend to arrive at the office, opposite a school, during the school run. I sometimes think I’d be safer walking between a grizzly and her cub.