Four Important Rules To Keep Your Children Safe On A Bicycle

As the weather beings warming up, many children take to the streets on two wheels, whether riding their bikes to school, running errands around town, or just hanging out with their buddies. And this is a good thing because bicycles are a fantastic means of keeping your child in shape, giving their muscles and their lungs all the exercise they need. Still, bicycles introduce a measure of risk as well, and it is important to teach your children proper rider's safety.

Here are four important rules to keep your children safe as they hit the streets on their bikes this spring.

1. Suit Up for Safety

If you want your kids to be safe on a bike, the first obvious thing to do is make sure that both them and their bikes are suited up for safety to begin with. It might seem like there is little risk of serious injury because bikes don't move near as fast as automobiles, but you should never underestimate the fact that this type of transportation leaves riders completely vulnerable with anything they come in contact with—whether that be a tree, a wall, a car, or the ground.

For this reason, protective equipment should never be forgotten. Make sure your children wear a helmet at all times, and you may want to get them pads for knees and elbows as well.

You should also make sure they have reflectors beneath the back seat and on the spokes of their tires. If they will be riding at nighttime, a headlight is crucial. It helps them to avoid obstacles that might hide in the cover of darkness, but it also makes vehicles aware of their presence.

2. Know the Rules of the Road

The next step of safety is to follow the rules of the road to a "t." Bicycle riders are subject to many of the same laws as people driving automobiles—they must drive with traffic rather than against it and adhere to all traffic signs and lights. In addition, they should know the proper hand signals so they can communicate with traffic.

Bicycle riders need to ride on the left shoulder of the road until they need to make a right turn, and if they are riding with other riders, the best formation to adhere to is a single file line of bikes.

Following these rules is crucial not only because it is the law but also because it is so much more difficult for drivers to notice them.

3. Keep Your Eyes Off the Road

Another interesting thing about riding bicycles is that children need to learn to not only keep their eyes on the road but off the road as well. The reason for this is that when you are on a bike, the dangers presented by obstacles off the road can be just as bad and possibly more likely to happen. For instance, a car door flung open by a parked car or a dog stepping in their way because it hears no engine can cause serious injury.

4. Amp Up the Safety

By amping up the safety, I mean there are some dangers out there that are unique to bicycles and they should be recognized as well. For instance, it does not take much rain to turn asphalt so slippery it spills a bicyclist to the ground, glass can easily pop tires, and wearing headphones on a bicycle can be extremely dangerous because hearing becomes so important. A pedestrian may never see you coming and yet it is just as important as ever to yield fro them.

Teach your children that they must never forget they are the smallest and most vulnerable on the road. If they can learn to respect that fact at an early age, they will get the exercise they need with less risk and someday grow up to be just as respectful when driving cars as you taught them to be on two wheels.


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