Two wheels good?
www.bbc.co.uk 5th May 2008
It's national Bike to School Week but BBC News reports that 81 per cent of parents currently ban their children from cycling independently. A survey by Cycling England finds that parents' fears about road safety are turning children into "a lost generation" of cyclists.
The irony is that on-road accidents are in long-term decline. In 2006 there were 10 times more accidents involving cars than there were accidents involving bicycles. Nevertheless, just one in five children "were allowed to use bicycles as a way of getting from one place to another, [yet] more than half of the same parents said they had regularly used cycling as a way of getting around as a child."
Speaking to the Guardian, Phillip Darnton, chairman of Cycling England which conducted the study, said: "Somewhere along the line our fears for our children's safety have overtaken the reality of on-road accidents."