As a society we need to keep the bicycle in the forefront of today’s youth as the preferred method of transportation. We may not be able to change the current generations driving habits but we can certainly influence and shape the future driving habits of today’s youth. They will have been raised with more expensive fuel costs and their minds may be more open to adapting different transportation habits then previous generations.
For today’s youth much of what they do is all local to where they live. Where they go to school, where their friends live, where they play sports and where they work. Their community centers around their school and most of them live close to their schools. Making the bicycle ideal transportation for their daily lives.
The bicycle already is the preferred method of transportation for youth because it is the first type of transportation that they can operate on our own. I am sure everyone reading this can remember their first bicycle and the first time they rode without training wheels.
We start riding by our house. As we start to master the skill of riding our bikes, our parents allow us to venture further from our houses. So we venture to friends houses, the playground or maybe up-to the store for a snack. The bike quickly becomes our favorite mode of transportation offering us a freedom we had never experienced before.
Now they are riding locally and shopping locally.
Leading by example is a great way for adults to reinforce the utility of the bicycle to today’s youth. It can also introduce fellow community members to the beauty of the bicycle. This can be achieved by riding your bikes to school with your children, riding to their practices or riding to the store as a family to do the shopping. Many of these trips are short and ideal for using the bike to get to and from.
Research has shown that:
I would venture to guess that most of the trips that kids today need to make fall within two miles of their homes. How many times have you loaded the family into the car to run to the store or take the kids to practice? Wouldn’t it have been more fun for everyone to jump on your bikes and ride there?
Next our youth reach a time in their lives when they need to find work. Many find their first jobs locally ones that they can ride to so they don’t need to rely on others for transportation.
So now they are riding locally shopping locally and working locally.
We as a society need to foster these habits in today’s youth and help them maintain them as they grow older.
