Family Cycling

Since having children my view of cycling has changed a bit.

With one child my husband and I fitted child seats to our bikes and that was great. But two years later we had a second and family cycling got tricky. At home with two children I struggled to find the time to cycle and I wondered if I would ever feel fit again. Then I discovered cargo bikes and this discovery changed my life massively. Suddenly I was cycling up to seventy miles a week, all in transporting my children to where we needed to be.

As my children got older, they got heavier, my knees struggled with the weight of our beloved bakfiets and we bought an electric-assist cargo bike. Again this was life changing, although not without its challenges.

Now older still, my eldest is riding his own bike more with my youngest with me on our tandem. This has brought new challenges in dealing with traffic as I am no longer completely in control.

In the school playground I have become used to being known as ‘the woman with the bike’. The school run has become a massive part of my life and I am keen to support other families to cycle to school. Encouraging other mums to cycle through Breeze and setting up a monthly bike bus has been a big part of this.

 

A Cycle Of Gender Inequality?

Last week I wrote about how fear of traffic is preventing some people from choosing to cycle for transport, and forcing them into their cars. It has proved to be one of my most...

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Spreading The Love For Cycling The School Run

When you start to cycle the school run, you might just find you love it. You will also probably be noticed as someone who cycles to school, especially if you have an unusual bike....

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Cycling The School Run In Winter

Cycling the school run in the winter can be just a bit more of a faff than in the summer. It’s cold and it’s dark and it’s often wet – not the most inspiring...

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Cycling The School Run DESPITE The Traffic

It would be wonderful if every school had fully segregated cycle paths to enable pupils and their parents to cycle the school run away from other road users (if they want to). Sadly in...

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Reasons NOT To Cycle The School Run

There’s a fine line between ‘reason’ and ‘excuse’. There are plenty of perfectly valid reasons why people might not be able to (or want to) to cycle the school run. It’s not for everyone....

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Bikes For Cycling The School Run

The kind of bike or bikes (beware – it’s a slippery slope to a garage or shed full of bikes!) you may need or want to cycle the school run will depend on factors...

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Why Cycle The School Run?

In this article, as part of my Cycling the School Run series, I look at the reasons why you might consider cycling the school run. It’s not all about saving the planet you know!...

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Cycling The School Run

I have been cycling the school run for so long that I don’t really question it – to me it is the obvious choice. To my children, using bikes to get places appears to...

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Top Tips for Cycling The School Run

So, you have your reasons and your bike(s). You have dismissed all those excuses and you know how to share the roads safely. You are good to go and cycle that school run! But...

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The Reluctant Bike Bus Organiser

This post is the follow up to a British Cycling webinar Start A Bike Bus To School which I helped to present on 17th June 2020. You can access the recording of the webinar here. ...

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