Topic: Minor rant--kids, kids with bicycles, general disregard for safety

[jdigga]

What is it with kids these days? 

On the way home just now, I pull into my neighborhood.  I see a group of kids on their bicycles at an approaching corner.  I see another kid on a bike on the other side of the street approaching the corner.  I slow down--the spidey sense tells me this kid is going to do something stupid.  He decides he wants to join his friends so he crosses to my side of the street, continuing against traffic, then stops at the corner--in the middle of the street, directly in my path.  I honked and yelled but I had my helmet on so it's not like he could hear me anyway.  W-T-F? 

There are a couple of kids, I believe on my street down a ways, who I often see walking around the neighborhood,  Mind you, they can't be older than 5 or 6, and they're unattended by an adult.  Twice now, I've seen them almost get hit by a car reversing out of its driveway, because they fail to yield.  My neighbor was one who nearly hit them.  His rear bumper was at the sidewalk when they passed behind him not even breaking step--they missed getting squashed by inches.

I shan't speculate as to why this lackadaisical attitude seems to be gaining in prevalence; I just consider it to be rather unfortunate--and really irritating!

[DarkRider]

Kids nowadays just dont seem to care...when i was delivering pizza for pizza hut i had turned onto this one street and a basketball came flyin out in front of my car with the kid inches behind it...i damn near had to make the car attempt an endo to stop that collision..

[333]

It's because they've been taught that "pedestrians have the right of way".  This supercedes "look both ways before you go out into the street".  And if these kids are only 5 or 6, there's a parent(or lack thereof) problem.

[jdigga]

The only place I've been where pedestrians have the right-of-way is at designated crosswalks in Los Angeles.  Vehicular traffic must yield, which come to think of it may be a significant contributor to the gnarly traffic there. 

[eldar]

Blame not the kids. Blame the parents who are supposed to be "teaching" them. THAT is where the problem is. But young kids especially 6 and under have an amazing lack of concentration and attention span. They will forget things very quickly in the heat of the moment. Hey adults do it too. How many times hav eyou rushed to get something on your bike only to discover you goofed up.

[Gordon]

It's not kids I have a problem with in my neighborhood, it's full-grown adults leisurely walking across four lanes of traffic on a busy street with absolutely no regard to the vehicles going 40mph all around them.  I can swerve around them easily enough on my bike, but in my car, I've gotten to the point where I just return the favor and act like they're not there.  So far they've all managed to get the hint before I hit them and decide it might be smart to start running.  

[scunny]

I,m with Gordon, adults are guilty as well.
years ago I had just got a GS1000, so on my way to work the throttle was getting a good workout, I was going along in the middle of 3 lanes when a guy on a pedal bike decides to cross from the very side of the road to the other without looking, he had just managed to get out of danger when he must have heard the manly growl of my 4-1 and panicked turning back into my path. he managed to hit my front wheel and we both slid gracefully down the highway. his bike was mangled and my points cover received road rash. PLEASE look before crossing the road

[dusterdude]

did ya`ll give a rats ass when you were kids?i doubt it.

[DammitDan]

We don't have a problem with it in my apartment complex so much as out in the rest of the city.  I was inching out of a parking space at the Burger King, my line of sight blocked by the 2 SUVs parked beside me when all of a sudden these 2 kids (early teens) appear out of nowhere behind me on bicycles.  I slam on my brakes and they give me a dirty look as they leisurely ride past.  Who the hell rides 2 feet behind a line of parked cars, anyway?  It's like riding right next to a bunch of parallel-parked cars...  You're just asking to get a facefull of driver-side door. 

They then decide to cross the 4-lane highway, get halfway across and slowly ride out into the lanes (I guess) hoping the traffic would stop for them, which of course it did.  I would have been honking my ass off if they had done that to me.

Kids are stupid when it comes to bikes.  Period.  There was a time when I didn't have any transportation except my mountain bike around campus.  I would ALWAYS assume the car didn't see me, and I would ALWAYS yield the right-of-way.  Course I was also trained how to ride in traffic on a bicycle by my father (our family rode across Canada on bicycles, after all).  People on bicycles now don't seem to care.

[jdigga]

did ya`ll give a rats ass when you were kids?i doubt it.

Yes--I did.  When I was little I wasn't even allowed on the street--my parents told me to ride my bike on the sidewalk and that's where I stayed.  The fear of their wrath was far greater than that of God's.

[kach_me]

Two words "Natural Selection"  <--- nature's way of weeding out the weak, stupid, and infirm.  We've lost the fear of the "predator" (cars, trucks, vans, and motorcycles) because we know they will stop.  I've seen too many people get flattened by drivers and I point it out to my kids whenever possible.    My kids are starting (STARTING) to get the point. 

Can you imagine a bushman in Africa having a "ho-hum" attitude with a lion around? 

[dusterdude]

smart or stupid,kids have no fear of death,why do you think the 18 year olds go into combat instead of 40 year olds.

[eldar]

jdigga, no matter how much you might have feared you parents, EVERY kids does stupid stuff. It doesnt have to be with just bikes. Just ask them, I bet they can think of something.

[jdigga]

Granted, I did my share of stupid stuff, but I valued my life enough to stay out of the way of moving vehicles.

[eldar]

Maybe so but how about climbing trees or swinging on ropes. Maybe ridding down that big hill on your bike and trying not to use your brakes. Hey how about jumping with your bike. That is just as much a disregard for safety. Kids these days are no different than we were they just do different things. It still comes down to parents.

[jdigga]

I totally agree it's up to parents to teach their kids.  But climbing a tree and falling out of it doesn't involve anybody else except the kid and the tree.  My problem is when kids show complete disregard for other people.  What if I can't stop in time and hit the kid because he was in a place he shouldn't have been?  What if I (were I on my motorcycle and not in the car) can't stop in time, hit the kid, and crash causing serious injury to not only him but me as well?

[eldar]

And that right there shows it is the parents fault. That is what it always comes down to but even then, kids will do things without thinking. Hell even adults do it and we are supposed to know better right?  Now this is a kid I am talking about, not some teen who should at least know enough to look both ways, ect. That has no excuse really and is even worse if they give a dirty look for their own stupidity.

[jdigga]

That's what gets me riled up--that kid yesterday sat there looking at me as if to ask what the hell my problem was.  Sheesh.

[ieism]

That sounds like me when I was a kid..

We used to ride our bikes blindfolded, to see who would crash the worst. It wasn't untill a neighbour complained about the damaged paintwork on his car that my dad slapped some sense into me.
That would probably last a day, and then we'd think of something even more dangerous.

Before my 10th birthday, i'd already broke my nose twice, a rib, both wrists, and a bone in my hand. I got run over by a car too, but only suffered a concusion.
Some kids can't be tought, I know because I was one of them. So it's not always fair to blame the parents.

[SOHC4ever]

YOU DAMNED KIDS GET OFF MY LAWN!

Seriously, jdigga, they're just babies. Little kids are off in outer space more than they're on earth, and that's just the way it is.
I agree with the denizens here that the grown adults with no regard for traffic laws are more worth your ire. Unlike the kids, they should know better.

[Ingrid]

Since adults seem oblivious to traffic nowadays, either in a car, on a (bi)cycle, moped or as a pedestrian, whom can blame the kids. They're just monkeys anyway... Monkey see is monkey do

[gregimotis]

That sounds like me when I was a kid..
We used to ride our bikes blindfolded, to see who would crash the worst.

That's a good one.  We had a knee high, very stout juniper bush in our front yard (the kind with low horizontal branches) and would pedal as fast as we could into it and then measure who could get the most 'flight time' when the bike beneath us stopped moving.

[Gordon]

That sounds like me when I was a kid..
We used to ride our bikes blindfolded, to see who would crash the worst.

That's a good one.  We had a knee high, very stout juniper bush in our front yard (the kind with low horizontal branches) and would pedal as fast as we could into it and then measure who could get the most 'flight time' when the bike beneath us stopped moving.

My brother and I and the neighborhood kids used to have competitions to see who could ride their bike off the tallest object, straight onto the ground, without crashing.  The last one I participated in ended up with me doing a faceplant onto the pavement, and I had to start my first day of 4th grade with a huge, scabby fat lip!

Ahh, those were good times!

[pyro139]

when i was a kid, every year we had take a day at school of bicycle safety training, taught by toronto police bicycle unit, any one whom failed or refused take the cource where not allowd to have there bike at school that school year.

[Jonesy]

Unfortunately it seems that the kids around where I live have more sense around traffic that the adults do. What really ticks me off is the people who wait at the corner while I have the red light. They have the "walk" signal, but they just stand there. When the light turns green and they have the "do not walk" signal, then they decide, "Oh- we can cross now!" and step right out into traffic, taking their time crossing the street and holding up everyone. This happens with alarming regularity.

The other ones I hate are those that are watching the oncoming traffic to cross and start to step into the street about 10 feet in front of you, just inches from the side of your car...