Parents' fears about road safety are turning children into a lost generation of cyclists, says a government-backed agency that promotes cycling.

Four out of five children are banned from cycling to school by their parents, a poll of 1,079 parents for Cycling England suggests.

This compares with the 35% of parents who were allowed to bike to school when they were children themselves.

Launching Bike to School Week the group said road accidents are declining.

The survey found 81% of parents ban children from cycling independently.

This was creating a new breed of "cul-de-sac kids" restricted to cycling only in their own road and neighbouring streets, Cycling England warned.

The biggest reason why parents did not let their child cycle on the road was concern about safety - but only 3% knew someone who had been in an accident.

In 2006 there were 10 times more accidents involving cars than there were accidents involving bicycles.

Most parents said cycle training would make them feel more reassured about their child cycling without any adult supervision.

And some two-thirds said they felt their child did not have the confidence and skills to ride on the road.

Although three-quarters of children are allowed to cycle for recreation at the weekend or after school, only one in five is allowed to use his bicycle as a way of getting from one place to another.

More than half of the same parents said they had regularly used cycling as a way of getting around as a child.

[Don't you wish bicyclists had some recourse in Maryland?]

By John Meyer - The Denver Post

Six days after a friend of hers was struck and killed by a mail truck while riding his bike on West 32nd Avenue near Golden, Denver bicyclist Shelby Katz was nearly run off the road by someone driving a lawn-maintenance truck.

Katz believes the driver deliberately tried to frighten her and says motorists are getting "meaner and meaner" when confronted by cyclists.

"They honk at you, they think it's funny if they swerve into you

Bicycle fitting is a subject most people find quite mysterious. Fitting systems with charts and graphs, computer software, measuring devices and "rules of thumb" make for a lot of confusion. But I believe it's really quite simple. Bicycle fit involves compromises. Compromises between comfort and performance, quick acceleration and handling stability, top speed and "taking in the scenery".

Your body's position on the bike affects how you ride. It affects how much power you can efficiently deliver to the pedals. It affects how comfortable you are on the bike. A position that is more comfortable may not allow you to put as much energy into moving the bike forward as a less comfortable position might. How do you decide where to position your body on the bike?

Age 73 Social Security analyst marked retirement by biking cross-country.

By Frederick N. Rasmussen | Sun Reporter

Robert Bruce Moore, a retired Social Security analyst and avid bicyclist who during a three-month odyssey rode his bike from his Roland Park home to the Pacific Ocean, died May 16 of pancreatic cancer at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He was 73.

Mr. Moore was born in Los Angeles and later moved with his family to Summit, N.J., where he graduated from high school in 1952.

After earning a bachelor's degree in political science from Rutgers University in 1958, he served in the Army Intelligence Corps for two years. He later earned a master's degree in business administration from George Washington University.

He worked as a buyer for a department store until moving to Baltimore in 1966, when he took a job at the Social Security Administration's headquarters in Woodlawn. He retired in 1999.

"He had played tennis and been a swimmer before taking up bicycling in the late 1980s," said his wife of 53 years, the former Nancy Hood.

Mr. Moore enthusiastically embraced bicycling and became president of the Baltimore Bicycling Club. A dedicated cycling organizer and activist, he served as a member of the state and city Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Boards.

As a retirement present to himself, Mr. Moore decided to ride his bike from Maryland to California. On April 30, 1999, Mr. Moore hopped aboard his 12-speed Specialized Expedition titanium-frame bike and pedaled away from his Longwood Road home on a journey across the American heartland.

Mr. Moore carried neither a cell phone nor camera. He hung clothes and camping supplies from saddlebags attached to his bike. He recorded his progress, not always daily, in brief ballpoint pen entries in two small breast pocket memo pads. In the first pad on the first page, he scrawled, "Bob Moore. 1999 Adventure Cycling's Trans-Am."

Please join us on Saturday, June 7, starting at 9 AM to celebrate the recently completed construction of the Gwynns Falls Trail to the I-70 Park & Ride facility on the City/County boundary. Come run, bike and walk on this new section of Trail through Historic Franklintown and on to Middle Branch or the Inner Harbor . There will be a professionally timed foot race as well as walking and biking with our guides or on your own. Travel to Middle Branch Park and learn to row with the Baltimore Rowing Club. Go as far as you want on this 15-mile Trail that travels through 2000 acres of stream valley parks that links 30 neighborhoods together.

The Gwynns Falls Trail is now 15 miles long traveling from the Inner Harbor visitor

Saturday 5-24-08

BikeJam

Baltimore's "Everything Bicycle" Bike Festival in Baltimore's Patterson Park.

www.bikejam.org

Come on out for a great day of fun. Start the day with the Rec Ride , rides of 12 or 31 miles around the city. 8:00am

Watch a bike stunt show. 12:45 and 2:45
Watch bike racing all day and a
Pro bike race at 12:30 and 2:30
Kids' fun- Free Helmets, Safety rodeo, Moonbounce, interactive games, and more
Live Music, food, and beer.
Pie Eating contest.
Exhibitors.

www.bikejam.org

Greg Hinchliffe, chair of the MD State Committee of the East Coast Greenway and member of the Mayor of Baltimore's Bicycle Advisory Committee, will dedicate the new and vital East Coast Greenway route through Harford and Cecil counties on Monday, Memorial Day, at Biller's Bikes' grand opening in Havre de Grace.

If you haven't heard the dynamic international airline pilot speak on the subject of the Greenway, this is a very special opportunity.

Following the 1:00 trail dedication, many guests will ride bikes, led by the Mayor of Havre de Grace Wayne Dougherty, to the historic waterfront for a paddlewheel boat cruise. Bands, beers and BBQ follow back at Biller's Bikes until dark.

See www.billersbikes.com/grandopening.html for the day's events schedule.

Over the past few weeks we've gotten a surprising number of phone calls and emails from newspapers and t.v. stations from across Maryland. They always ask the same question - are people really driving less because of the high gas prices?

For me, and many of my friends and family, the answer is yes. Every other day I hear a story of someone I know that is walking, biking or taking mass transit in lieu of driving. Usually it's just a simple matter of changing one or two weekly trips.

The problem is, with the exception of AAA's prediction that Memorial Day car travel will be slightly down, the national statistics are not showing any real drop off in automobile use. Most people seem to think that the vast majority of us are just gritting our teeth and suffering through.

What we need is for the stories of people who are changing their habits to become public. That's where One Less Car comes in. We are starting a new section of our website to collect the stories of people who are refusing to get caught in the car crunch. We want to know if you are biking to work, hopping on the bus to school, or just hoofing it to the grocery store. How does it make you feel to not be strapped inside your car? Are you loosing weight? Saving money? Meeting new people? Spending more time with family and friends? Tell us your story.

We have set up an email address - mystory "at" onelesscar.org - where you can send us your tale of personal rebellion against our car culture. If you have a photo you want to share, send that along too. Our hope is to have these stories online in the coming weeks.

Thanks,

Richard Chambers, Executive Director

There are a lot of bicycles in Holland, in we have one for every man woman and child in the country, that is some 16 million bicycles!.

Bicycle have rights too, that is to say that the bicycle has the right of way every time, unless you are a tram, then the tram is master, but that is the only time that the bicycle has to yield. Think about that for a moment - can you imagine this happening in America, a country that is so pro-car that car owners have been known to successfully sue the pedestrians they have struck for their flesh and blood bodies causing damage to a car. In Holland bikes (fiets) have the right-of-way.

From birth we are brought in close contact with our bikes. They are often part of a cramped city centre apartments furniture, so that baby grows up playing around them. As you will see from the day a Dutch child is born it travels by bike. I can still recall being a tiny tot in the handle bar seat facing my mother and laughing as the wind blew her long hair about her as we sped through the woods of Arnhem. Being older an on the back seat, then graduating to my own bike beside her on the cycle lanes. The bike is simply bred into us.
...
Helmets
This is extremely important; do NOT wear a helmet. Three types of people wear a helmet on a bike in Holland;
The English.North
Americans.
The mentally afflicted.

The English and Americans wear helmets because in their worlds common sense no longer rules and people must be safe from their own actions at all times. Also it is a well known fact that when Americans fall off a bike they fall on their heads, why this should be we do not know. God gave us each an ass, he appears to have given many Americans more than one ass and yet they do not use them, you have to wonder why. On the rare occasion a Dutchman comes off their bike we fall on our well padded behinds (and it’s ALWAYS the fault of a German motorist).

By Jon Hurdle

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - It's U.S. National Bike to Work Day on Friday and Americans are facing record high gasoline prices, but most commuters will stick to their cars.
...
Similarly, the number of people who ride bikes at least six times a year fell to 35.6 million in 2006, the lowest since the survey began in 1984, from 56.3 million in 1995.

Thomas Doyle, vice president of information and research at the association, said the decline was probably due to the aging population, reluctance by parents to allow children to ride bikes and more children using wheeled toys such as scooters and skateboards.