Thursday Morning Commute - Child Protective Services

Good morning

• "As for the overall quality of life, the District is faring remarkably better than when Barry last was mayor. The homicide rate is down, and city services are more reliable. The Circulator bus and red rental bikes make it easier to get around downtown."
• WMATA makes improvements to the College Park Metro station grounds to make it easier to bike to. This includes a micro-trail (See below) to create a more direct connection to the NW Branch Trail. 
• After 90 days in the warehouse, PG County police donate recovered stolen bikes. 
• In one Frederick County community, kids like to ride their bikes in the alleys, but the Villages’ homeowner’s association has cautioned "that parents of unsupervised children playing in the street could be cited by Child Protective Services." This is both a statement on placing the needs of drivers above other road users, and on the failure to create places where kids can safely ride their bikes (if in fact the alleys are dangerous). 
• NYC Mayor Bloomberg comes out against a mandatory bike helmet law. Says that bike lanes are more important.
• When you create bikeable neighborhoods, you make it easier for older people who don't drive to keep the life they had before they gave up the car. "Though he didn't drive, Bradbury could often be spotted out and about Los Angeles. A familiar figure with a wind-blown mane of white hair and heavy black-framed glasses, he'd browse the stacks of libraries and bookstores, his bicycle leaning against a store front or pole just outside."

Comments

[TWK]

I learned how to ride a bike in an alley. That was were the kids road their bikes and played so as to be off the main streets. I don't recall anyone ever getting hit by a car in the alley (which was how people got to their garages). Reading about this Fredrick community makes me look back with fondness growing up cage free. It sucks to be a kid these days in many neighborhoods.

[Chris Slatt]

It's also a statement on the culture we've created where it's understood that children are utterly helpless beings who couldn't possibly be safe unless their is an adult staring at them 24/7.

[Eric_W.]

Just like Chris Slatt, I wanted to point out that children need to learn to play without us parents looking over the shoulder at all times. It used to be called growing up Now it has to be called Free Range and it is almost an act of social defiance to practice it.

[washcycle]

I was just reading The Little Engine That Could - the classic kids book from the '30's. One of the types of toys that the train was bringing over the mountain for the kids on the other side to play with was a pocketknife (or jack-knife). How times change.

[Richard Layman]

FWIW, I wish there were better signage--I mean signage--at the north entrance area of the Brookland Metro, where the "interim" MBT continues on the walkway to the underpass.

There is no signage. So people walk in various directions on both sides of the sidewalk. The sidewalk wasn't widened to have a "bicycle path."

While there is a hump at the corner so that you can ride off the curb, it's not painted specially and there are no signs, so frequently cars are parked there.

There is no signage on the short street off of 7th St. which abuts the Bennett and future Monroe Market project which is currently under construction.

Half of these issues are DDOT, if not 3/4. I don't even know if WMATA or DDOT is responsible for the approach to the station entrance.

(Note that there is bike parking under the underpass, so it is protected, but it is somewhat obscure and I wonder if there are security issues.)

[dayglo]

On the other hand, I have had young children riding completely unsupervised on my low-traffic dead-end street and constantly endangering themselves. It depends on the skill and responsibility and age of the child.

[@rollresistance]

I remember as kids we used to put one foot on the seat and one on the top tube, while holding the handlebars. We thought surfing was cool. We also played tag on our bikes, all around our neighborhood. And of course....no helmets. The bottom line is that kids don't break that easily, and they are in a little more control of things than we think. We've become so overly afraid of everything.

I won't even begin to express my thoughts on the fact that they want to call CPS on parents who let their kids go out and play/exercise alone...

[Christopher Fotos]

Re the microtrail--merely good intentions? the curbs seems to make it impossible or very hazardous for two closing bikes to get out of the way. Curious why this was done instead of just a flat paved path.

[dayglo]

Yes, we were less safe in our childhoods. Doesn't mean it was smart. We might have had more dead kids back then too for all we know.

Like I said, it depends on the age and circumstances. Are these kids 12, or 4? Is the alley relatively busy with vehicle traffic or barely used? Are the kids venturing out in the roadway beyond the alley?

According to the article, people have witnessed speeding cars and near-misses of children. There have been tables and play equipment left in the road. It's never so simple as "people are too overcautious and don't let kids play any more." That makes us older people feel smug, but it's not how you solve problems with children getting recreation safely.

[Greenbelt]

Big speedbumps would seem to be the solution in alleys, not restricting kids' bike use.