this post was submitted on 22 Sep 2023
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My wife, kids, and dog don't fit on my bike.
Depending on the kids ages, they also can ride, or ride in a trailer. The dog can ride in a basket or trailer depending on size
Go for a Dutch style cargo bike and the kids and dog can ride up front in the tub
Surely the real reason is the terrible bike infrastructure where you live
We have some excellent bike trails, but getting around town is problematic. I work from home, so I no longer have to commute, but when I did, it was too far to reasonably bike. It's not safe to take the kids riding on the highways, but we're close enough to the elementary school to bike there when the weather is nice.
I'm an advocate for biking, but it's not a realistic replacement for a car where I live. You can't load up like a pack mule every time you want groceries or to go to a little league game.
That’s very sad, and you have my sympathies. I wish that more places were designed so that kids could have a “free-range childhood.” The benefits to their physical, mental, and emotional development are significant, versus having to be carted around everywhere. Not to mention the burden on parents of being forced to be chauffeurs.
I lived a free range childhood in a neighborhood with sidewalks, where we could bike everywhere and walk to and from elementary school. We still had a family minivan, and my dad commuted to work. My kids can still ride their bikes around our neighborhood, but our world is bigger than our neighborhood. They have friends that live on the other side of mountains and highways. They have hiking trails and music lessons and sports and dance and theater, and hardly any of that would be possible on bikes because you can't fit baseball diamonds next to theaters next to music halls and national parks and art studios unless you live inside a major city. When I was a kid, we would all meet at the dirt piles behind the middle school and then go explore storm drains.
I enjoyed my childhood, but I don't lament that my kids have more options and opportunities than I did. Yes, we need a car to drive them around to play with their friends or attend events, and I enjoy being engaged in their lives and watching them enjoy the things they learn. But they still have summer days where the neighborhood kids meet at the creek and try to catch minnows.
Things change.