cycling with kids: infrastructure

8 minute read

There are two sides to this- Good Infrastructure, or, What To Look Out For Then Write To The Highways Department And Say Thank You.

Seriously, take a pic, send it off to the council here: https://myaccount.derby.gov.uk/en/service/feedback_on_our_services and tell them why that bit of infrastructure is good (and how it compares to some bad bits if you know of some).

If you’re not sure what makes good infrastructure, have a read of these: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cycle-infrastructure-design-ltn-120 and https://wheelsforwellbeing.org.uk/campaigning/guide/ – both look at infrastructure and design especially for vulnerable groups – the second document is focused on disabled cyclists- but as a parent cyclist and disabled cyclist, I find most of the issues are the same for both groups.

And the other side- Bad Infrastructure, or, What To Avoid and No It’s Not Just You Making Excuses Or Being A Wuss.

Unfortunately, if you write or phone in about bad infrastructure you’ll often get a reply telling you either that it’s actually good, or that they’re not going to do anything, or both. So complimenting on the good bits is a lot nicer to do as you usually get happy replies back and hopefully it educates people with a say on what residents find useful…

The first few bits of “infrastructure” I think are really important for opening up cycling to kids are really not infrastructure at all. They are basic measures to make it possible for vulnerable people including children to get about the city independently. We need:

1. All residential areas to have 20mph limits and no area of the city to have a speed limit above 30mph.
2. All pavement parking to be banned- and enforced with fines to pay for the ban!
3. Considerate pavement cycling to be permitted for vulnerable people including children, the elderly, people with disabilities and anyone accompanying people in those groups.

Once we’ve got the big, transformational measures sorted, then the infrastructure glitches that create individual barriers across the city can be addressed. Unfortunately these glitches seem to be appearing faster than they disappear!

Aspects of cycling with children that affect the infrastructure needed are:

• You’re slower moving than most adult cyclists around at the moment (because the infrastructure is so poor, mostly cyclists are confident, fit, non-disabled people- so they’re usually quite fast).
• You will either be on a big vehicle, a wobbly vehicle, or more than one vehicle.
• You will have slower reaction times than most adult cyclists.
• For older kids cycling alone, you’ll be smaller than most adult cyclists (so less visible) and less experienced handling road traffic- making them very, very vulnerable road users.

These add up to mean that in the years they’re growing from baby to adult, children need safe space segregated from motorised vehicles along every road (yes, you got it- pavements!) in order to use cycling as a normal mode of transport. But this doesn’t just benefit kids- it benefits everyone- even including the fraction of people currently able to cycle on road (and I say that as a confident road rider). So, when you’re out and about, think about:

“Traffic calming” measures, barriers and chicanes: You’ll know the good ones. Can you cycle through without putting a foot down or getting off? Would you be confident doing that if you were towing a trailer? What about if you were riding a 3 or 4 wheel cycle? Is it smooth or are you riding through bumpy broken-glass-filled gutters? Traffic calming measures need to be designed to let wide cycles through safely – whether that’s full road-width cushions for speed bumps or making sure chicanes are on level ground, never making a cyclist or mobility scooter user traverse across a slope, since that’s really dangerous.

Narrow spaced bollards, impassably tight chicanes, K gates or, in extreme cases, sandpits (seriously!) have all ended some of our rides. We’re often told when we mention this that it’s just something we have to accept- that it’s necessary to stop motorbikes or it’s for the greater good. This just isn’t the case: If it’s passable by cyclists, it’s passable by motorbikes. Stopping families and disabled people from getting out in order to stop people who are already illegally riding motorbikes where they shouldn’t be is not OK!

Bike lanes: on road, off road, shake it all about: Bike lanes need to be bi-directional and segregated from traffic, not a little painted line on the road. On-road lanes are almost always too narrow to ride safely with children and seem to encourage vehicles to overtake fast and close- after all, the paint tells them where they can go, right? Then off-road ones around the city often vanish without warning, throwing you onto the road again. While checking routes before you use them with children is a nice idea (thank goodness for Streetview!), it doesn’t generally show temporary measures and in any case, we really need to get to a situation where anyone can leave their home and cycle to a new place without worrying that they’re going to have to navigate dangerous places.

The combination of “safe bike routes” on maps with poor and dangerous on-and-off road bike lanes and impassable “safety” barriers or chicanes can make getting around stretches of Derby (and many other cities) entirely impossible for cycling families and people with disabilities.

Kerbs: Dropped, raised, honestly-helpful segregating ones, ones that are blocked by THAT car AGAIN… Riding with children or cargo can mean getting up and down high kerbs is simply not an option. Children or small-wheeled bikes need a really wide swing to get to a safe mounting angle for even small kerbs. Making sure bike paths and pavements have accessible, wide drop-kerbs (including drop kerbs with bollards and build-outs into the road where parking near bike track or pavement exits is an issue) is critical. A great solution in many places is to carry pavements on across side streets, creating a speed bump for cars and making it very clear that active travellers have priority. Of course, kids still need to know to slow down or stop- you can be run over even when it’s your right of way…

For me, a basic rule of thumb is that nobody using a pavement or bike path should EVER be asked to dismount or step up anything higher than a standard dropped kerb. If we could get to this situation, then people unable to lift their cycles for whatever reason would be able to access the whole city with confidence- as would all mobility device users.

Turning circles: Even if you and a child (or two or three) are all on single bikes, the more of you there are, the larger a turning circle you need to get around junctions and other corners all together. If you’re using tandems, trailers, tag-a-longs etc, you need a LOT of space. This affects not only the spacing needed at barriers and chicanes but the amount of space you need on crossings, bike path corners and just to be able to park up on bike racks – we’ve ended up parking in some weird places because, for example, the “official” cycle parking would have meant we’d blocked the disabled access into a GP surgery!

Road crossings: These need space- it’s all about space- but also, they need to change fast and let you across the whole road in one go. Because the chicanes usually installed on central refuges are often very narrow, our tandem alone – never mind when we’re cycling with extra people – tends to block the middle of two-part crossings. This means people, often on mobility scooters, coming the other way can’t get across safely. Just letting everyone the whole way across the road- and, gasp, making the cars wait a little longer- would solve this issue. Plus, waiting for multiple button crossings in the rain is a definite barrier to active travel of any kind in bad weather.

Personally, I think there should be a LOT more zebra crossings- without flashing orange lights on quiet streets, with lights on busier streets. They don’t usually make cars wait for long and avoid the issue where you’ve pressed the button on a toucan crossing then there’s a gap in traffic so you cross… then the lights change and block cars which wouldn’t have had to stop if it had been a zebra crossing… and they give appropriate priority to active travellers who are out in the rain getting cold and soggy!

Temporary measures: Road works and “improvements” can be a real issue: Temporary traffic lights that tell cyclists to dismount (a bugbear of mine as walking is generally painful for me but in any case, slowing down bikes is not OK!) accompanied by temporary pedestrian routes that are too narrow and wiggly for bikes to push through are common. I often find speaking to the road workers helpful- if you ask nicely and explain the issue with things like badly-placed barriers, they’ll often move them and then keep putting barriers considerately in future. But of course some don’t… And even when the barrier sides are appropriately spaced, many barriers have big wide feet that can almost cross in the middle of the path…

There was a lovely example in 2019 of Northern Gas changing their “cyclists dismount” sign on roadworks for a “do not overtake cyclists” sign on temporary lights to indicate that cyclists are entitled and welcome to use the road during roadworks- this kind of thing can transform temporary works from terrifying and impassable to merely a bit tricky! Otherwise, checking out routes and lots of pavement riding can be necessary to keep everyone feeling safe.

There are loads more minor issues out there, but these have been the big ones for us. Since the guidance is pretty good and there are lots of us talking about active travel infrastructure now, hopefully in years to come we’ll see far more good provision and far less bad provision. I’m looking forward to the day we can cycle out of the house and go in any direction without worrying at all.

Kate