Riding back home tonight, a dad,walking on pavemnet with samll child,about 4, dad not paying attention, his other 2 kids,about 12, riding bike down middle of road, one on seat an one on cross bar,as i approach i slow down, and dad says to lads on bike, watch the cyclist(me), at that moment small child decides to run into road.

I slammed on and shouted stop, which thankfully the child did, and no other vehicles coming.

So should i have stopped and advised the dad about parenting skills,

Gave the children a lecture about road safety,

Rode on shaking,

or just post it up on a bike forum and await the answer .

it happens. that’s it.

You took the cowards way out.

Your brakes are the reason natural selection is no longer working! 🙂

Should have ridden right over both child and father shouting “You’ve been GWed!”.

One dad watching 3 kids? Not easy! Can’t really blame his parenting skills. Kids do stupid things with little warning. You can’t keep them on leashes just in case.

Most peeps cant even keep their dogs ona leash let alone their kids.

He probably realises his mistake to be honest – not much point in telling him about it.

You can’t keep them on leashes just in case

Actually you can. If I had to look after 3 kids and one was prone to doing stuff like that he would be on one. However two older kids should have known better, and I’d not have let them ride down the middle of the road two on a bike. They’d have been on the pavement in front of me leaving me free to marshal a 2yo appropriately.

Some children don’t take to being put on a lead, it can create more problems than it solves

Erm…

Different story if the Dad ran out. If we won’t even let kids make mistakes we’re doomed!

Must have been stressful, but I think you did the rational thing. The Dad probably shat ‘imself and gave the nipper a good earful.

“Some children don’t take to being put on a lead, it can create more problems than it solves “

Some dogs are just the same. Do we solve the problem by saying ‘Gooo.. run free’? Or do we teach them how to behave properly in interests of their own safety as well as that of others?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7062545.stm
http://letmykidsdowhat.wordpress.com/tag/risk-averse/

Let them play in traffic – it’s good for them 😉

his other 2 kids,about 12, riding bike down middle of road, one on seat an one on cross bar

Potential Darwin award candidates right there.

his other 2 kids,about 12, riding bike down middle of road, one on seat an one on cross bar

Potential Darwin award candidates right there.

As every good boy should know – girls ride on the crossbar, boys stand on on your rear axle nuts. Their dad has failed them already in this respect. Even if they do survive to procreate, it won’t be with a cute girl witha sense of adventure…

Of course you had a bell/hope hub/playing card in the spokes so you could make your presence known in a non “I’m many times stealthier than a car but just as lethal to kids” manner?

You missed out on 1000 pts there… Loser!

I ran a small child over the other day on a shared cycleway/footpath. Annoyed me as I should have predicted he’d double back towards his ‘minder’ he got shouted at (not by me) for not looking out for me despite being about 2 and not really having any road sense.

It doesn’t feel big or clever putting a 2 year old on their arse with your front wheel.

don simon – Member

Should have ridden right over both child and father shouting “You’ve been GWed!”.

nah, he’d have bubba scrubbed them both.

The OP was relatively lucky. I was called to a sprightly old dear yesterday who had been minding her own business walking down the pavement, when two kids under 5 ran out of a shop, knocking her off her feet.

According to witnesses, the Mum grabbed the kids and marched off, shouting “watch where you’re going”, TO THE OLD LADY who was lying face down in a rapidly expanding pool of blood. She will probably need plastic surgery and had a suspected skull fracture.

Some people truly are scum and the OP would probably have wasted his breath on a lecture.

..and so, to recap…
OP is riding home minding his own business when nothing interesting happened but something nearly did, so he posts on here for advice.
Personally, i’d have told the dad to stay there a while I went home, got the car, returned to the scene of the non-event, drove over the kid, a couple of times just to make sure, called dad a nonce, phoned the cops to have him lifted for neglect, returned home, logged on to STW to post about what an awesonme car I have and what tyres for taking ut the whole family next time.

..or maybe just not have given it another thought

So should i have stopped and advised the dad about parenting skills,

If you did I think you would have deserved a slap in the face. I would have done.

shouting “watch where you’re going”, TO THE OLD LADY who was lying face down in a rapidly expanding pool of blood.

😯

Some people truly are scum

Agreed!

I came VERY close to hitting a kid this morning. Me in a marked cycle lane doing about 16mph (cycle lane has a kerb on both sides of it so not much room for manoeuvre) and a family walking on the pavement to my left. With no warning at all one of the kids (prob about 5-6 yrs old) stepped into the cycle lane without looking or indeed making any indication she was going to step off a perfectly good pavement into my path. It was too close for me to shout, brake or swerve and I missed her by a bare few cm.

I was debating the correct action for the rest of my ride in. Should I have been going that “fast”? Should I have stopped and explained I’d nearly killed/injured her small child? Or should I have pwned the child with bombers to teach it a lesson? It shook me up though, thinking what might have happened if it had been a fraction of a second later.

I missed her by a bare few cm.

Fit bar ends for next time?

For christ sake, some of you need to pull your head out of your arses for a bit. You must have had really boring childhoods if you were sat down at the age of 3 and made to read the highway code. You’re really gonna have a shock when you actually get grilfreinds and maybe have kids yourselves one day.

My 3yr old lad nearly ran in front of car the other day, I caught him just in time. He got a telling off/explanition of why he’d done something wrong. I felt rubbish cos i should have been more in control, nobody was hurt, so we got on with our day.

So forget about the fact that soemthing nearly happend but didn’t and get on with your lives! Kids do silly things, if you see kids in front of you expect the unexpected.

if you see kids in front of you expect the unexpected.

Can I just repeat that because it is true.

if you see kids in front of you expect the unexpected.

There you go.

EDIT: In fact if I am riding or driving I generally move further out to the centre of the road (if it is safe to do so of course) if I see children riding on the pavement or otherwise looking like they might step onto the road.

Fit bar ends for next time?

Some Bayonetz?
http://sheldonbrown.com/lirpa.html#bayonetz

You’re really gonna have a shock when you actually get girlfriends

More unexpected than the quantum movements of a child.

Yup another one for running the kid over and getting it stuck in yer spokes..
Bit like a human spokeydokey..hahaaha

Potential Darwin award candidates right there.

erm no, they are kids being kids. Adults are sometimes deserving of darwin awards coz they should know better, kids generally aren’t.

Careful passing on parenting skills unless it’s some compelling case like woodys pretty awful example.

Hate those double kerbed cycle lanes, no chance of avoiding kids, pets or indeed idiotic adults.

No matter how many times i tell my boy of 6 how to ride safely, explaining things as we ride and pointing out hazards. Sometimes it just all goes out the window and luckily he and nobody else has been hurt.
So expect the unexpected, even as adults we do stupid things, Just look at car drivers for instance..

These things happen. Kids do stuff like that.

I was filtering in stationary traffic on a one way street on a 125cc motorbike a few years ago, maybe doing 10-20mph, so cycling speed.

From the pavement this boy, about 8-9 I’d say, runs out between the cars, I saw him go, and I reacted as fast as humanly possible (I’m pretty quick) and I’d just maneaged to get my fingers onto the brake when I hit him. I had maybe 3-5 yards to react…..

He caught his leg on my front wheel and went down like a sack of spuds between the cars on the street. I stopped about 4 yards away and got off. Kid picked himself up and pulled up his trouser leg. Big old graze but no blood. Dad came over, I though I was in for it somehow, despite not being able to do a thing about it, but no, I aplogised and said he was too close for me to avoid (truth!) and the dad was very apologetic too. Lad seemed more embarrassed than hurt, and we all agreed there was no harm done and that everyone was OK.

It was just one of those things that kids do.

Bit like a human spokeydokey..hahaaha

hmm “which child’s bones to play “i want to ride my bicycle” on crank bros cross country wheel sets?”
what are the harmonics like with tibula on front and femur on rear?

Should I have been going that “fast”?

You weren’t going fast.

Be glad the father had sense and didn’t have a moan at you (even though it wasn’t your fault). Seems like nothing was done wrong on any part to me.

Kid was probably going for a crap in the cycle lane, so really, you should have ridden through it then moaned on tinternet about crap on the trails.

You did good – you missed the child and your lack of words probably made more of a point than an educational discussion with the dad

I was filtering in stationary traffic on a one way street on a 125cc motorbike a few years ago, maybe doing 10-20mph, so cycling speed

Not wishing to preach or chastise.. but as a general comment to the forum – one thing that you have to be aware of when cutting inside or outside lines of cars is people seeing stationary cars and assuming it’s safe… I’ve been caught out making that assumption a fair few times on bike and foot. People don’t think bike. On bike now I only ever crawl past stationary traffic.