San Francisco is a bike-friendly city, despite its famous hills. There are designated bike lanes on streets throughout town, and the number of riders increases annually. In fact, there’s been a nearly 100% increase in cycling between 2006 – the first year numbers were tracked – and 2013. That means right now, well over 8,000 men, women, and children are pedaling around town.
Bicycling, like any mode of transport, requires some basic training. Most everyone who rides a two-wheeler can recall when they left their training wheels behind.
But that’s not always how kids are learning today, according to the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, a non-profit membership organization working “to make San Francisco a safer city for biking and living.”
They endorse learning on “balance bikes.” These little bikes not only lack training wheels – they also lack pedals.
“Bikes with training wheels really teach kids how to peddle, but they don’t teach them how to balance,” which the Bicycle Coalition's Margaret McCarthy says is the most important element.
With a balance bike, she explains: “You’re learning how to balance before you learn how to pedal, so you never need to actually have training wheels at all. You graduate from balancing straight to riding a bike.”
Beth Sauder of Albany, who brought her six-year-old son and his pedal bike to a Sunday Streets event in San Francisco says he almost never used training wheels. The balance bikes “just looked to me to be more fun for the kid, and more natural in that they got to learn the balancing,” says Sauder.
The Coalition notes that “balance vs. training wheels” causes friction in some families, but that wasn’t apparent with those stopping by the Coalition booth at Sunday Streets. As East Bay resident Beverly Sanchez saus about her four-year-old daughter, who also brought her own bike, along with a pink My Pretty Pony helmet, “If she could learn it, the faster the better.”
The balance bike method can be learned by anyone, including adults, says the Coalition’s McCarthy.
The San Francisco Bike Coalition offers lessons to riders of all ages. Find more information here.
