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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
When you are biking or scootering on the sidewalk or on a bike path, you MUST slow down extremely, or walk your bike, instead of coming quickly off the sidewalk or bikepath into oncoming traffic.  This is because although drivers may be looking for pedestrians, a bike is moving to fast for them to anticipate and stop in time. Apparently there's some disagreement of fact here, but I saw the child going faster than walking pace.  Also because she's small, she's even less visible.

Secondly, if you're crossing a lot of traffic, you can't just assume that the cars are going to stop - you have to be watching to make sure they are, be able to see all the cars, and be ready to stop if they don't stop.  Most 4 year olds can't do this; thus, they should not cross alone.

https://www.bicycleaccidentprevention.com/
[/quote]

Okay, again. It looks to me like they are going little above walking pace (note, we have runners in our region who cross at crosswalks at running speed - a driver should be looking for movement of up to 6MPH in my opinion, certaily 4MPH.  Their speed is not an issue.

The little girl was quite visible, and in any case the dad and the trailer, just ahead, should have clued the driver that someone might be following, PLUS the presence of a stopped vehicle.  The girl was NOT invisible.

And the girl DID stop.   The problem was not her behavior, which was appropriate, but what the driver did.   [/quote]

I'm sorry, there's no universe where it's prudent to let a 4 year old cross multiple lanes of traffic in an unsignalized, trafficked crosswalk by herself on a bike.  No universe.  [/quote]

She was not alone - her parents were a few feet ahead or behind. And again, its not clear to me that she would have been any safer with a parent a few feet closer.  And all crosswalks are "trafficked".  [/quote]

Serious question - are you a biker, and have you biked in a city, and with kids?  This isn't something you can really understand that well if you haven't spend hours and hours navigating DC and analyzing the ways to stay crash-free.  To begin with -- there is a HUGE difference between that particular crosswalk, and a signalized crosswalk in say a residential neighborhood, or even downtown where car traffic knows to look out for pedestrians and bikes.  And second, there's a HUGE difference between being right next to your kid (walking or on a bike) and being on the sidewalk while they are in the middle of the intersection.

I'm being annoyingly persistent on this thread because I think it's incumbent on every single biker to understand how to perceive hazards on the road and avoid them.  ESPECIALLY WITH KIDS.  [/quote]

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