First Time Bike Rider Safety and Road Ethics Checklist

Before children go for a ride on bicycle, please check your bike safety and some road ethics checklists. Wearing a bike helmet itself, doesn’t comply that your kid now is open to ride on a street or to a play park.

Checklist 1: Check your bike gears that include helmet, gloves, and knee and elbow pads to protect the skin especially if this is the first child rides. Parents should also confirm the bicycle condition is in a good condition where brakes, pedals and bars are working great. Later, if your kids need to ride at dusk or at night teach them to check for the bicycle flashlight.

Checklist 2: Teach and demonstrate how to use the brakes to stop the bike. Hold your kid up and gently move him forward so that he could learn to use the brakes correctly to stop. Children could practice doing this over and over until they get expert. Trust me, for the first time rider; it is hard to balance without falling on the ground when you suddenly need to brake to stop the bike.

Checklist 3: It is a different feeling when the kid rides the bicycle with training wheels as compared to riding a bike with now two wheels. This time a sense of balance plays important factor for the kids to ride on bike smoothly. Parents could help run alongside the bike to hold on it as the kid is trying to get his balance point. Find spacious place to practice bike perhaps at your own backyard or parents could bring the kids and their bikes to a neighboring park and school field.

Checklist 4: Once you get yourself a balance on the bike, practicing the road safety rules is always welcomed. Riding according to the rules could avoid a bike crash with another bike rider or even with a person on the pathway.

Checklist 5: Although there are other major road safety rules considered important; this number one rule must be obeyed by any bike riders. Never ride out into a street without stopping first. If the kid needs to cross the street, first stop the bike and look left, look right, then look left again and listen to be sure no cars are coming before entering a street. Parents need to emphasize the reason why the kids need to look left for the second time is because the drivers or a motorist might not see the bike rider as they are mobile.

Checklist 6: In addition the children on bike riding should also know that they need to follow stop signs, stop lights and intersections before crossing and always ride on the right with traffic.  Also, parents would teach children to walk their bikes through busy junctions or where there are no bike trails available. This is practical when you are going to the recreational areas where many people are found to be strolling and jogging during the day.

Teaching your child to ride and practice the road safety rules to avoid some car-bike accidents or in the case where the bike bumps into pedestrians is appreciated. We don’t want to hear people from saying some harsh words about our kids due to a kid’s disrespectful road ethics.