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Tom Dodds on transport matters »Parents are being urged to halt a generational decline in cycling.
This week is ‘Bike to school week’ and the sun is shining, so what else are you waiting for? It’s time to get the bike out of the shed and get you and the kids back on the saddle.
However a recent study has also revealed that parents are clamping down on the freedoms they took for granted as children, limiting when, where and how their children cycle.
I think that this is a real shame, not just for the environment but for children’s health and sense of adventure.
I wasn’t surprised to read the report; we don’t cycle all the time but still are the only ones to do so at my children’s school when we do.
When we arrive on our bikes, a little group of children always gather round and ask if they can ‘have a go’ and plead with their parents to be allowed to cycle too.
Having two serious accidents on my bike and my daughter splitting her knee open a couple of years ago hasn’t deterred us and we all enjoy it – as I suspect the vast majority of children do.
So even if you only manage it once this week, it would be really great to let them ‘have a go’, especially whilst this glorious sunshine is with us.
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