Family biking: Our (sometimes difficult) resolution to keep activities close to home
Family biking columnist Shannon Johnson has had to make some hard decisions to reduce her family’s car dependency.
Family biking columnist Shannon Johnson has had to make some hard decisions to reduce her family’s car dependency.
I never thought biking could actually be the mobility solution to one of our big family’s real mobility problems: too many kids for our minivan.
Even today, I am struggling to root out some of these deeply entrenched car-biased behaviors and ways of thinking, even where I can see their dangers and negative consequences.
Seeing holiday lights while nestled up snugly in the box of a cargo bike is sure to be a lasting memory.
It’s a road we would never have used for biking or walking and always avoided.
Fresh starts may be easier in the spring, but we need to restart biking now – rain and chill and dark included.
Where and how are we most likely to be hit while biking? It’s not a fun question. In fact, as I look at it, I think, “Well, that’s the start of an article about how we’re never going to bike with kids again!” But hear me out: Recently, our family twice avoided being hit by … Read more
I am wrestling with our near-misses that didn’t result in crashes, but that still haunt me.
This month my firstborn turned nine. As I hold his image in my memory, the picture that comes immediately to mind is him, clad in his bright red helmet, patiently smiling for a biking photo. My sweet son has been my most enthusiastic and stalwart biking companion as I began this family biking journey, and … Read more
Family Bike Parking Problem #1: The Bike Pile Does anyone else have a “bike pile” in the garage? My kids’ bikes, scooters, helmets, tricycles, and whatever else – jackets, nerf guns, jump ropes–always seem to end up in a giant heap, with the desired bicycle perpetually at the bottom of the pile. After months of … Read more
It is with a touch of envy that I read Shawne Martinez’s account of an epic carfree multimodal adventure to Seattle with his kid. How exciting! And yet for me – a mother of five – how impossible! As Shawne recounts, part of his trip was dependent on getting a bus with an empty bike … Read more
I was inspired to create our own family bike camp after hearing about my mother-in-law’s stories of home-made summer camps. Too often, summer fun seems to be prohibitively expensive, but with a little creativity and effort, it can also be free. Here’s an idea for creating a Do-It-Yourself Family Bike Camp. All you need is … Read more