Reply to Bike commuting with kids

Forum Index » DC Public and Public Charter Schools

Reply to "Bike commuting with kids - any tips?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]NP here. My husband and I do a drop off/pickup exchange like you are talking about with a 1.5 year old and 3.5 year old in a Burley Encore double trailer. He drops the kids off, leaves the trailer at day care, then I pick them up with it.

It is easy to attach and detach the trailer from the bike, but altogether it does take a couple of minutes to lock up the bike, attach the trailer, put on the kids' helmets, and buckle them in. However, you don't have to find parking (one of my pickup locations has only street parking) and the buckling takes about the same as getting them in the car.

I will say that the kids don't have much elbow room in the trailer b/c it's not super wide. And they aren't separated by car seats so they can fight more than in the car. When they fight or the little one cries, people on the street stare, which is again not an issue with the car.

We bought a cover for the trailer but haven't tried actually biking when it's raining yet, we still drive on those days.

Altogether I like it b/c I can get some exercise and don't have to worry about parking. I feel it is safe b/c I take side streets and sidewalks when I have the kids, and it's only about 1.5 miles total each way with them (my own commute is then 2 more miles in more traffic).

We have used the trailer as a stroller for short trips and it works fine.

If you are interested in cargo bikes, you can try them out at The Green Commuter in Takoma Park: http://www.thegreencommuter.net/

Last year Kidical Mass DC had an event called the ABC's of Family Biking where you could try out cargo bikes and trailers, I don't know if they're doing it this year though. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics