![]() ![]() We’ve started to ride with our daughter in the front of our Long Haul (made here in Eugene by Human Powered Machines). It’s my opinion that there are some areas in Portland where your family-car-replacement doesn’t mix well with actual cars. A loaded bakfiets (full of children, no less) is not going to be able to avoid a potential accident as easily as the average cyclist. It makes me very nervous to come across stuff like that, especially when I’m driving my car. I’d wager that the “freeway mindset” had already kicked in for some drivers before they encountered that dad and his kids. There are better, calmer routes just a few blocks away, but parents still ride the bottlenecks, kids in tow.Ī few months back I saw someone hauling two youngsters over the 39th street I-84 overpass– oblivious to the fact that cars in the area are jockeying around in the lanes to reach the freeway. I know accidents can happen anywhere, but I’ve seriously got to question the logic of parents who insist on subjecting their kids to streets that don’t have developed bike accommodations.Ĭertain spots on Alberta feel like serious “door zones”– not to mention the leapfrogging auto traffic that can be aggressive / impatient. See this Henry Workcycles blog post for test results … our Dutch importers have been wise to leave that one alone.ĭoes anyone else shudder every time they see a cargo bike loaded with toddlers lumbering down a busy non-bike-friendly street? Not exactly tested or approved for road use, however.Īnother option to avoid is the baby seat on front/rear rack adapter, as seen in the Netherlands. It’d be fun to collect some accelerometer data, and lord knows I have enough family bikes around to test this out!Īs for infant helmets, well, there’s this: I’ve got some colleagues in the pediatric injury field – I’ll ask about getting a test dummy. In my qualitative experiences, baby-seat-in-trailer made me the most nervous even with the tires at low pressure there was some jostling, which is not surprising given that the baby is over the axle rather than in-between. They raise real, but currently theoretical concerns about this issue. Injury prevention folks are cautious by nature. ![]() I agree about bobble-head concerns from a “how infants develop” perspective, but I don’t see any actual data yet comparing baby-seat-in-bakfiets, baby-seat-in-trailer, baby-sling-in-trailer, custom MADSEN bucket seat, or the Stouts’ baby on bosom in Mobywrap on trike (which gets points for innovation and coziness) to baby-in-car with stiff suspension being driven at high speeds over the same roads, or baby-in-jogging-stroller, etc etc … I’ve been ruminating a lot on this issue in the past year, resulting in this article/confession: Nice, Marion! Thanks for bringing this topic up for conversation. During the first year the infant is developing the myelin sheath, which insulates the neurons and sets the stage for all the development and learning that the brain does next. If you had to pick a time when it is most important to protect the brain from excess vibration or bumps and jostling about it would be during that first year after birth.” An infant’s brain is a bunch of neurons, uninsulated wires, if you will. “Neurodevelopment is critical during the younger years. Think of the movement of a bobble head doll in slow motion - that’s what may be happening to the brain in the skull inside the infant’s head after some big bumps.” What is undocumented is what is happening to the brain during the bumps. “It’s not about crashes at all, it’s about the potential for repeated mild trauma to the brain because of bumps associated with everyday road conditions. “I know biking is safe,” he told me in an email. Alden thinks the real issue is elsewhere, however. Voluntarily acknowledging that the issue is an “alarmist” one, BHSI recommends that parents do not take children under one year of age on a bicycle, primarily because of concerns about crashes.ĭr. ![]() The Bike Helmet Safety Institute (BHSI) (the helmet advocacy arm of the Washington Area Bicyclist Association) provides a comprehensive resource of arguments for universal helmet use, including a page on bicycling with young children. He explained that having infants wear a bicycle helmet when they are reclined in an infant seat pushes the head forward, flexing the neck and tweaking the spine out of alignment, which puts the baby at risk for cervical trauma and even airway blockage in extreme cases. Tord Alden of Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago. ![]()
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