The other day while riding to work, I saw a Dad riding in front of me with two youngsters sitting behind him on his long bike, presumably heading off to drop them at school. Increasingly, that is not an uncommon sight around Christchurch for parents to be ferrying their children to pre-school or school via some means of cycle+add-ons. Part of the reason I think lies in the growing number of safer routes for cycling, as well as a wider range of options now available for transporting your kids by bike. It brought to mind this earlier blogpost from Dec 2016 – great to see this being an increasingly everyday part of cycling in Christchurch…
A good sign that cycling is becoming normalised in Christchurch is when it’s not just the clichéd “lycra road warriors” to be seen riding to work or for exercise. So it was nice to receive this photo from a friend-of-a-friend who takes her two kids to Somerfield Playcentre on the green e-bike in the photo. Check out the rest of the bike rack…
Apparently this is a standard day in the bike parking lot there and represents at least 10 people who arrived by bike – fantastic! It’s not going to work for everyone (or for every day) but at least there is some counter to the argument that “I can’t bike because I have to get kids to school/kindergarten”.
The Somerfield Playcentre is also quite close to Roker St, the site of the future Quarrymans Trail, recently approved by City Council, but still garnering ongoing negative press. With an easy connection from the Trail through Somerfield Park to the Playcentre, maybe a few more future kids will also be making the journey there by bike with mum and dad…
Do you take your kids to school or playcentre by bike?