If you didn鈥檛 already know, American kids don鈥檛 ride their bikes to school nearly as frequently as they used to. According to the , in 1969, almost half of kids between the ages of 5-14 rode their bikes to school; by 2009, that was down to 13 percent. The trend isn鈥檛 improving, either, and according to the , as of 2017, only around ten percent of kids from 5-17 rode or walked to school, with over half of them getting there by private motor vehicle.
Parents aren鈥檛 crazy about the idea of their kids riding to school either, and the are traffic and safety concerns, as well as distance to the school. So we appear to be in a vicious cycle. On average, from school than they used to鈥and so their parents drive them, which creates more traffic, as well as the danger that comes with it. Consequently, drop-off and pick-up has become a clusterfuck, as anyone who finds themselves near a school in the morning or afternoon can attest. Here in New York City, where I live, it鈥檚 so bad the schools chancellor a reporter when asked about the issue, and the Department of Education subsequently escorted the reporter from the building.
There are numerous benefits to kids using bikes for transportation. For example, in this country, and . As for us grown-ups, driving kids places sucks, and if your kid can ride a bike instead then that鈥檚 less hassle for you. So getting more kids on bikes is a rare opportunity to put the children first while simultaneously maximizing your own convenience. And that鈥檚 what you call a win-win!
The bikes available for kids today reflects cycling鈥檚 place as a recreational pursuit for them. These days you can get bikes for your kid that not too long ago were exotic even for adults: there are , , , and . Those specialty bikes aside, typical kid bikes from the big bike companies tend to be all-ounders, designed along similar lines as the casual (if boring) 鈥渉ybrid鈥 or 鈥渇itness鈥 bikes that are marketed to adults. Besides these, affordable and durable BMX bikes abound. And of course there鈥檚 always the big box store if you child prefers bikes that pay homage to their favorite movie or comic book characters.
To be clear, the variety of kid bikes today is a good thing. When I was a kid, the apotheosis of the kid bike was still the 鈥compelling to be sure, and a fitting nod to the muscle cars of the era that were muscling American kids off the streets, but largely an exercise in form over function. Still, if kids today are going to use bikes to get places, they need ones designed to help them do that. As cool and fun and bulletproof as that BMX bike is, it鈥檚 not really up for the long haul鈥攐r arguably even the short haul, because you can鈥檛 really even sit down while riding it.
When my older son started riding to school in sixth grade, he did so on his BMX bike. Hills were a bit of an inconvenience; another problem was his backpack. He didn鈥檛 yet have a locker at school, and as any parent knows, backpacks have gotten 鈥攕o heavy that researchers in New Zealand have identified them as . After awhile he switched to his road bike, which allowed him to downshift and sit down, but there was still the issue of the backpack, which was so heavy I was surprised his seatpost didn鈥檛 slip. I thought about a rack, or a basket, or panniers, but the sheer weight of the bag would have overwhelmed any of those (and thrown off the bike鈥檚 handling to boot), and splitting up the load across the bike and then putting it back in the backpack at school would have taken longer than the ride to school itself.
Then, in the spring of that year, the bike brand sent us their to try. There are plenty of cargo bikes available for adults nowadays, and an Internet search for cargo bikes for kids will yield plenty of results about carrying your own kids in a cargo bike. But there鈥檚 very little about cargo bikes made for kids to ride on their own. The , meant for kids aged ten-14, is a front-loading cargo bike with a 26-inch rear wheel and a 20-inch front wheel for stability. It has full fenders and an eight-speed twist-shift drivetrain. It has really good tires, too: Schwalbe Big Apples. (Typically on a kid bike you鈥檇 expect to have to upgrade to a tire like a Schwalbe Big Apple.) Perhaps best of all, it also has a Shutter Precision dynamo hub and front and rear LEDs鈥損roper lights that let you see and be seen, as opposed to your standard-issue blinky.
I though maybe the small-wheel funny-bike look of the Woom NOW might put him off, or that other kids might laugh at it, but he was into it right away, and apparently kids today are more sophisticated than they were when I was his age because nobody gave him any crap. Finally, he was able to move the backpack onto the bike, where it sat securely and didn鈥檛 throw off the bike鈥檚 handling, He could shift and he had fenders for the rain. With a hub dynamo he could leave the lights on all the time, and I didn鈥檛 have to send him off with blinkies if I thought he might be out after dark. The thing was a true pack mule, yet nimble enough that he enjoyed riding it. It was exactly what he needed.
This is not to say the bike鈥檚 perfect. For example, cargo bikes spend a lot of time outside, and a hub gear and chain case would make the bike considerably more weatherproof鈥攖hough these items probably also make it considerably more expensive. Leaving these off means Woom is able to sell a full-blown cargo bike for $849. Disc brakes are similarly fickle鈥攚hen a bike has to sit out in wet weather the rotors get rusty and you鈥檝e got to ride through a little grinding before it wears off. But these are minor quibbles, given how capable and convenient the bike is. Even kids who don鈥檛 ride to school need to be able to carry stuff sometimes, whether it鈥檚 a basketball, or a skateboard, or their cleats and soccer ball and other gear, or the shitload of candy the amassed from trick-or-treating. Sadly, all of us live in places where we can feel comfortable letting our kids ride around like that, but for those of us who do, the Woom is more than up to the task, and as of now is maybe even the only bike of its kind. Maybe, as more kids ride around, more towns and cities will make it easier for them to do so.
Of course, kids do grow out of bikes. They also change: now my son has a locker, and those hills don鈥檛 seem that big to him anymore, so he鈥檚 riding a track bike to school. But as I always say, if you鈥檙e concerned about spending money on a kid bike, you can simply amortize it by having more kids and passing it on down the line. Eventually it鈥檒l pay for itself.