Published on August 18, 2024 by Ben Bartosik, Manager, Marketing and Creative Services, Evergreen
I can still remember the feeling of freedom.
Hopping on my bike and heading over to a friend’s house, the library or taking my weekly allowance to the bulk candy shop (the gummy coke bottles were my favourite). To a kid, this was as good as it got. It wasn’t always about a destination though; I spent a lot of time just riding around the streets, down hills and exploring my town on my own terms.
Looking back, my bike was a crucial part of my childhood experience and it’s something that I’m worried has become far less normal for kids growing up today.
This is something we’ve written about before and is a concern that has been given increased attention over the last few years. Last year, the US Surgeon General issued a report on the risks of social media to adolescent mental health. And earlier this year, the Canadian Pediatric Society urged parents to let kids engage in more risky play outdoors as time spent indoors (and on screens) has increased.
Perhaps most recently, a bestselling book by NYU professor Jonathan Haidt, The Anxious Generation, has highlighted the shift from play-based childhood to phone-based as a generational epidemic. In it, Haidt notes: “As the transition from play-based to phone-based childhood proceeded, many children and adolescents were perfectly happy to stay indoors and play online, but in the process they lost exposure to the kinds of challenging physical and social experiences that all young mammals need to develop basic competencies, overcome innate childhood fears, and prepare to rely less on their parents.”
While it’s certainly easy to blame digital devices or overprotective parents for this crisis, the truth is more complicated than that. Yes, we’ve normalized both of those things; but we have also inadvertently contributed to this problem by not prioritizing making our public spaces safe and welcoming for kids.
Contrary to popular belief, it is not dangers lurking in alleyways that pose the greatest risk to our kids playing outdoors, but rather distracted drivers and the prioritization of cars in public spaces. Over the last several decades, our personal vehicles have become larger, drivers have become more aggressive, and our communities have been designed to put car-centric movement over all others.
All of this has led to our streets being less safe for everyone, but especially for kids who no longer seem to have a right to be there anymore.
As kids are pushed indoors and spend less time playing in or around streets, drivers feel less of a need to pay attention to them. This perpetuates the false idea that our streets belong solely to drivers and that the responsibility for safety lies with everyone else by simply staying out of their way. Consider the common refrain, “they came out of nowhere,” implying that the other party had no real business being there to begin with. But this wasn’t always the case.
As urban historian, Peter Norton, details in his book, Fighting Traffic, when cars first entered the scene people rose up en masse against the private interests of drivers. They fought to keep streets public; banning things like curbside parking and keeping speed limits to 16 km per hour. And when a driver killed a pedestrian, they were met by an angry mob. To combat this, auto companies lobbied to legislate ways of keeping pedestrians in their proper place — off the streets. They did all this in the name of safety and were successful in changing the public’s perception of what (and who) a street is for.
Today we can see where this failure to prioritize keeping the public realm safe for kids has led — and what it’s cost us. As a kid, my bike represented freedom. It allowed me to get to know my community; and, crucially, it let the community know that I was a part of it as well (because I was seen).
Today, our kids are increasingly being robbed of this freedom and sense of belonging as they primarily experience their communities from the backseat of a car. As a result, kids are becoming less capable of navigating the streets safely and confidently on their own. They’re becoming car dependent long before they can even drive.
This all perpetuates the problem of kids spending more time in structured or online play, depriving them of exploring their worlds with a sense of curiosity and adventure. So, what can be done? Is there any way out of this mess?
As my own kids have gotten older, I have become a major advocate for biking and walking places with them. Whether it’s going to school, a friend’s house, the library, or even out for dinner, I try to increase the amount of time that they get to spend out on the street and teach them how to get around safely and confidently. It’s been giving them a frame of reference for their community; they know where they live in relation to other places. It’s also pushing against the entrenched idea that cars are the best and only way to get around.
While I know that biking might not be possible for everyone, I want to provide five reasons here why biking with your kids can make a big difference:
1. It’s an opportunity to model and help them learn safety. It’s already been stated that our streets are less safe than they were even a few decades ago. Bigger vehicles, less attentive drivers and car-centric design has increased the risk for kids. However, rather than giving in and keeping our kids confined to backyards, backseats and screens, getting out onto a bike with our kids is a chance to help them learn how to move around safely. It also gives them the chance to learn how to bike on (and across) different types of roads and how to navigate various situations or obstacles. Bonus, we get to have lots of great conversations about why cities are designed the way they are and who often gets forgotten in the planning.
2. It gives kids their independence back. Much has been written about extended adolescence and how each generation of young adults seem to be less and less prepared for ‘real life.’ Perhaps an under-considered reason for this is the way we keep taking any opportunities for independence from them. Driven from home to school to other structured activities/sports, many kids have little to no freedom or independent choice in their lives. This is tragic — and research is increasingly showing how this lack of independence is related to poor mental health later. Getting kids on bikes and teaching them how to get around safely lets them reclaim that crucial independence and form their own connection to their city.
3. It helps normalize seeing kids using public space. We’ve increasingly entrenched this idea that streets are for drivers and that no one else belongs there. This enables distracted, dangerous or even just less attentive driving. More kids playing in and around the streets increases safety because it shifts the burden back on drivers to be more careful. Jane Jacobs famously described public spaces as being safe because people use them. It makes sense, people feel safer where other people are. It’s a concept she calls “eyes on the street.” We don’t make our streets safer by keeping people away from them. We make them safer by encouraging their multi-use purposes.
4. It challenges our public idea of what a cyclist in Canada is. If you’ve ever spent any time in online conversations about road safety, you might have noticed cyclists get a lot of criticism. Whether it’s complaining that they ignore rules or arguing that cycling infrastructure is making cities worse, they seem to draw a lot of anger. One reason for this might be our cultural stereotype of what a cyclist even is. Usually, these online arguments tend to be directed at a very specific type of rider: the Strava-using, weekend group-riding, spandex-wearing hobbyist type. Let me be clear, I don’t believe that this group deserves the hatred; but what I am suggesting is that here in Canada, we have let a very narrow definition of cyclist dominate in debates around cycling infrastructure and road safety. Perhaps by increasing the visibility of families with kids going about their day-to-day travels on bikes, we can help shatter this limited — and often polarizing — public image and help bring a little more empathy to the conversation.
5. Its healthier for them, for you and for the environment. While the mental health impact of our phone-based and car-centric culture has already been discussed, the other obvious problem is how it perpetuates an already extremely sedentary lifestyle. Riding your bike is a great excuse to get some fresh air and exercise. Building the habit together as a family that shorter distance trips (under 3km) can be done by bike rather than car is a fantastic way to make healthy living a part of your regular routine. Plus, trading those short car trips for bike rides will cut down on emissions and can be one small way your family can help fight the climate crisis together!
The biking program at Evergreen Brick Works is your gateway to Toronto’s picturesque ravines and beyond! More than just a mode of transport, biking is one of the finest ways to experience nature in the city.
Whether you’re just learning to ride, need some practice on a mountain bike or want to pick up some repair skills, we welcome cyclists of all ages and abilities.
