[Daisy M]

Originally Posted by grindelwald

Thats a bad habit, when i was growing up there was only space for one car, yet we always walked on the proper side of the road and if a car came we would be as kind to step of the road in to the hedge, however i notice not many people do that these days. You see some walking 2 a breast (and wont budge) instead of walking single file.

Perhaps country folk are changing.

No you misunderstood me ,I do walk on the correct side but it doesnt make a difference on my side road as its so narrow and I have to stand in no matter which side I am on. I rarely see anyone walking on the wrong side but when I do its always at night and they are not lit up, some people just refuse to change!

[dahamsta]

Ah, I thought you mean bicycle training. I always walk on the correct side like grindelwald, it wouldn't make sense to me not too; and I'm a city boy originally. TBH I think the only cars that are /that/ quiet are electrics, and they're: a) few and far between; and b) have to have noise added artificially these days. All depends on the roads though, there's roads around here I wouldn't walk or cycle on either.

Cyclists are the same, I saw a woman and a man with two young kids on bikes on a busy mid-sized country road recently, not only were they two abreast the first time I passed them, when I was returning it was dark. That's just crazy like.

I think some of the comments above are a bit OTT btw. Nobody suggested that kids should cycle tens of miles to school every day, just that kids should be ejected out onto the bikes every now and then, particularly if their friends are only a couple of miles up the road.

[newmug]

Originally Posted by grindelwald

He will still need someone in the car with him, who holds a full licence. My guesses that will be you.

Legally, yes. Realistically, out in the middle of the country, nobody does that. NOT condoning it, but that law has always been there, and its hardly ever been enforced.

Originally Posted by Noffles

But this is not the "good old days" I see cycling is more of a keeping fit or commuting method rather than a form of transport to rely on..

I don't think it's feasible to ask a 16 year old to cycle anywhere further than 3 or 4k if it is in the evening or late at night... the roads aren't that safe, no matter who says so.. and no matter how many refective items you wear. If they want to see their mates, they don't want to cycle 12k to get there, covered in sweat and grime simply to hang around for a few hours and then do the same back. No one would...

You sound like a townie who just moved to the country!

[up for anything]

Somehow I think I'd prefer providing the taxi service than lying awake at home waiting to hear their car pull up outside the house.

[deisemum]

It's one thing to cycle in the countryside on a bright summer evening but a lot of the narrow roads particularly those where only 1 vehicle can drive are dangerous especially in winter when it's wet and the roads are covered in cow ****e and mud from tractors that are wider now than years ago that knock the soil from the ditch out onto the road or where they've come out of a field and dragged it out onto the road.

[Noffles]

Originally Posted by newmug

Legally, yes. Realistically, out in the middle of the country, nobody does that. NOT condoning it, but that law has always been there, and its hardly ever been enforced.




You sound like a townie who just moved to the country!

A "townie"...?

Personlly I think I sound like someone who like his son, thinks that a 12k cycle is too much to ask, if you want to stay clean and presentable and not have to do it all again a few hours later... in the dark, on rural roads that have not a single light on them...

[hattoncracker]

Originally Posted by newmug

Legally, yes. Realistically, out in the middle of the country, nobody does that. NOT condoning it, but that law has always been there, and its hardly ever been enforced.

Maybe not, but before you let him behind the wheel of the car by himself, you need to make sure that your insurance policy will cover him if he has an accident while driving unaccompanied. Some of them don't.

nd be willing to pay the €1,000 fine if he's caught, and the other €1,000 fine if he's not using L plates when he's caught.